DEBATE 

ON  THE 

EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY; 

CONTAINING  , 

AN  EXAMINATION 


OF  THE 


AND  OF 


ALL  THE  SYSTEMS  OF  SCEPTICISM  OF  ANCIENT  AND 

MODERN  TIMES. 

a  *  * 

HELD  IN  {THE  CITY  OF) CINCINNATI,  OHIO,  FROM  THE  10th 
TO  THE  21st  OF  APRIL,  1829;  BETWEEN 

ROBERT  OWEN, 

(  OF  NEW  LANARK,  SCOTLAND,  AND 

ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL,  f 

OF  BETHANY,  VIRGINIA. 

Reported  by  CHARLES  II.  SIMS,  Stenographer.  .  r  7 

WITH 

AM  AlPlPffiSriMKb 

WRITTEN  BY  THE  PARTIES. 


What  then  is  unbelief? — ’Tis  an  exploit, 

A  strenuous  enterprize.  To  gain  it  man 
Must  burst  through  every  bar  of  common  sense, 

Of  common  shame — magnanimously  wrong! 

- Who  most  examine,  most  believe; 

Parts,  like  half  sentences,  confound. 

Kead  his  whole  volume,  Sceptic,  then  reply! 

YOUNG. 

O  Lord  of  Hosts!  blessed  is  the  man  that  tiusteth  in  thee! 

DAVIT), 


BETHANY,  VA. 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL. 

1829a 

BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


Western  District  or  Virginia,  to  wit:— 

BE  IT  REMEMBERED,  That  on  this  eighteenth  day  of  June, 
Anno  Domini  1829,  and  in  the  fifty-third  year  of  the  Independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  Alexander  Campbell ,  of  the  said 
District,  hath  deposited  in  my  office  the  title  of  a  book,  the  right 
whereof  he  claims  as  proprietor,  in  the  words  and  figures  follow¬ 
ing,  to  wit: — 


“ Debate  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity ;  containing  an  Examina¬ 
tion  of  the  “ Social  System ,”  and  of  all  the  systems  of  Scepticism  of 
ancient  and  modern  times:  held  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati ,  Ohio,  from  the 
13  tk  to  the  21st  of  April,  1829,  between  Robert  O.wen,  of  Nero  Lanark, 
Scotland,  and  Alexander  Campbell,  of  Bethany,  Virginia.  Reported 
by  Charles  H.  Sims,  Stenographer.  With  an  Appendix ,  written  by  the 
parties .” 

“What  then  is  unbelief? — ’Tis  an  exploit, 

A  strenuous  enterprise.  To  gain  it  man 
Must  burst  through  every  bar  of  common  sense. 

Of  common  shame — magnanimously  wrong! 

- - Who  most  examine,  most  believe; 

Parts,  like  half  sentences,  confound. 

Head  his  whole  volume.  Sceptic,  then  reply!” - yocho. 

ifO  Lord  of  Hosts!  blessed  is  the  man  who  trusteth  in  the**!” — payie. 


“Bethany,  Va.  Printed  and  published  by  Alexander  Campbell.  1829,,> 


In  conformity  to  an  Act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  entitled  “An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by 
securing  the  copies  of  n?aps,  charts,  and  books,  to  the  authors  and 
proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  mentioned:” 
And  also,  to  an  Act,  entitled,  “An  act  supplementary  to  an  Act, 
entitled,  “An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing 
the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors 
of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  mentioned ;  and  extending 
the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving,  and  etching 
historical  and  other  prints.” 

JASPER  YEATES  DODDRIDGE, 

Clerk  of  the  Western  District  of  Virginia 

y  O 


/tiOjCjq 


THERE  is  a  charm  in  the  number  three,  to  which  authors,  phi¬ 
losophers,  poets,  and  divines ,  are  not  insensible.  Every  sentence 
of  a  rhetorical  cast  must  have  three  members,  and  every  noun  sub¬ 
stantive  requires  three  adjectives  to  make  it  expressive,  elegant,  and 
sonorous.  Hence  the  good  old  style  of  having  a  preface ,  introduce 
tion,  and  dedication  prefixed  to  every  volume.  With  the  first  and 
second  of  these  wc  may  dispense,  as  the  first  speech  of  each  dispu¬ 
tant  is  a  sort  of  preface  and  introduction  for  himself.  And  were  I 
to  think  of  a  dedication  of  this  volume,  I  would  be  constrained  to 
dedicate  it  to  the  whole  human  family,  if  I  were  to  be  guided  by  the 
grand  principles  of  that  diffusive  benevolence  which  the  side  of  the 
question  on  which  I  stand  suggests.  But  were  I  to  imitate  the  in¬ 
ventors  of  dedications,  and  select  some  person  to  whose  auspices  I 
could  consign  this  book,  I  should  be  unable  to  find  any  one  indi¬ 
vidual  to  whose  pre-eminent  virtues  I  could  exclusively  inscribe  it. 
But  if  either  the  urbanity,  hospitality,  and  public  spirit  of  a  particular 
city ;  or  if  the  orderly  behavior,  and  Christian  deportment  of  any  one 
congregation,  made  it  necessary  for  a  publisher,  such  as  I  am,  to 
inscribe  a  volume  in  commendation  of  one,  or  other,  or  both,  the  city 
of  Cincinnati,  and  that  congregation  which  for  eight  days  patiently 
attended  upon  the  discussion,  would  present  claims  which  neither 
logic  with  all  rCs  rules  of  reason,  nor  rhetoric  with  all  its  arts  of  per¬ 
suasion,  cou^d  set  aside.  But  again  something  whispers  in  my  ear 
if  any  seven  reasons  would  justify  the  inscription  of  this  work  to  any 
seven  gentlemen,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  persons,  for  any 
special  attentions  paid  to  the  cause,  the  parties,  and  the  public, 
the  Honorable  Judge  Burnet ,  Major  Daniel  Gano,  Col.  Francis  Carr , 
Rev.  Timothy  Flint ,  Rev.  Oliver  Spencer,  Henry  Starr,  Esq.  and  Col 
Samuel  W.  Davis ,  are  entitled  to  it  for  the  attentive  and  dignified 
manner  in  which  they  presided  over  this  discussion.  But  as  there 
are  so  many  considerations  presenting  rival  calls  upon  my  pen  for  a 
special  dedication,  I  must  either  depart  from  old  usage  or  take  some 
comprehensive,  all-embracing  sweep,  and  dedicate  it  to  every  saint 
and  sinner  into  whose  hands  it  may  fall. 

But  I  cannot  so  easily  dispense  with  apo!ogies*as  with  dedications : 
for  the  loose  and  diffuse  style  of  my  speeches  requires  an  apology 
from  myself,  as  well  as  a  liberal  share  of  indulgence  from  the  learned 
reader.  Being  always  an  extemporaneous  speaker,  and,  on  this 
occasion,  every  speech  of  mine,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  one, 
being  unpremeditated,  many  redundancies,  expletives,  and  other 
inaccuracies  in  arrangement  may  be  expected,  and,  I  hope,  pardoned, 
Extemporaneous  speakers  are  generally  diffuse  in  their  style,  and 
defective  in  their  arrangement.  This  is,  for  the  most  part,  unavoid-* 
able;  and  more  especially  when  a  very  promiscuous  assembly  is 


4 


PREFACE, 


addressed,  and  cn  a  subject  which  ought  io  be  levelled  to  the  appre¬ 
hension  of  all.  We  aimed  at  being  understood;  and  this  required 
great  plainness  of  speech.  It  is  better  to  have  to  claim  indulgence 
from  the  learned,  than  to  have  to  incur  the  censures  of  the  illiterate. 

In  point  of  arrangement  and  style,  Mr.  Owen  had  a  very  great 
advantage  in  having  the  whole  of  his  argument  written  down.  It 
is  true  he  frequently  spoke  extemporaneously,  but  generally  his 
written  argument  was  the  text.  His  written  argument  was  his  bible , 
and  his  speeches  were  sermons  upon  the  essential  doctrines  ol  his 
twelve  apostles. 

Considering  the  rapidity  Of  my  pronunciation,  which  is  said  to  be 
Surpassed  by  very  few,  Mr.  Sims ,  the  stenographer,  has  certainly 
done  himself  great  honor  in  the  accuracy  with  which  he  has  taken 
down  my  speeches.  I  have  not,  it  is  true,  yet  read  them  all ;  but  those 
I  have  read  have  far  surpassed  my  anticipations.  I  did  not  think 
that  any  stenographer  could  take  down  my  speeches  verbatim ,  and 
especially  one  who  was  out  of  the  practice  for  any  length  of  time. 

Mr.  Sims  having  been  for  some  time  a  citizen  of  New  Harmon^, 
was  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Owen’s  style ;  and  Mr.  Owen  being 
rather  a  slow  speaker  it  was  comparatively  easy  for  Mr.  Sims  to 
report  his  speeches  to  a  word.  Mr.  Sims  did  not  promise  to  do  this 
for  me;  but  he  promised  to  give  every  idea,  if  not  in  ipsissimis  verbis , 
in  terms  fully  expressive  of  them. 

His  fidelity  I  cannot  but  admire ;  for  although  somewhat  sceptical 
himfcelf,  and  once  almost  persuaded  to  be  an  Owenite,  and,  upon  the 
whole,  on  Mr.  Owen’s  side  of  the  question,  I  cannot  complain  of  the 
least  partiality  in  any  one  instance.  When  he  failed  to  report  any 
sentence,  he  was  careful  to  note  it,  and  thus  has  given  jpe  full  satis¬ 
faction. 

It  will  afford  the  reader  some  satisfaction  to  know  that  Mr.  Owen 
has  had  the  opportunity  of  revising  all  his  speeches.  This  liber¬ 
ty  I  cheerfully  conceded  to  him,  and  he  has  availed  himself  of  it.  He 
continued  in  Cincinnati  till  Mr.  Sims  got  through  with  his  speeches, 
and  he  had  my  assent  to  improve  the  style  as  much  as  he  pleased. 

The  original  copy  of  Mr.  Sims’  report,  by  a  stipulation  of  the 
parties,  is  to  be  deposited  with  the  public  records  of  the  county  in 
which  it  is  published;  and  in  case  of  any  cayil  by  either  of  the  parties 
or  their  friends,  it  is  to  be  forthcoming. 

Every  thing  on  my  part  has  been  done  to  give  to  the  public 
the  most  faithful  and  credible  report  of  this  discussion.  That  it 
might  appear  in  the  most  impartial  form,  I  offered,  with  Mr.  Owen’s 
concurrence,  the  right  of  publishing  to  the  Reporter.  I  first  agreed 
with  Mr.  Gould  of  Philadelphia ;  had  written,  signed,  and  forward¬ 
ed  for  his  signature,  articles  of  agreement,  authorizing  him  to  pub¬ 
lish  20  or  30,000  copies,  if  he  pleased,  as  a  remuneration  for  his 
reporting  faithfully  and  fully  the  discussion.  Learning  from  the  news¬ 
papers,  that  Mr.  Owen  had  been  in  Jamaica  or  Vera  Cruz  some  time  in 
.March,  he  despaired  of  his  arrival  at  the  time  appointed,  and  declined 
coming  on.  I  made  a  similar  proposition  to  Mr.  Sims  of  Cincinnati. 


PREFACE. 


$ 

He  declined,  and  preferred  a  remuneration  in  money,  Mr.  Owen 
and  myself  then  were  compelled  to  publish  the  work,  and  agreed  to 
pay  Mr.  Sims  500  dollars  for  his  report. 

After  the  debate  terminated,  Mr.  Owen,  about  to  return  to  Europe, 
and  not  able  to  attend  to  the  work,  proposed  to  sell  his  interest  in  the 
work.  He  did  so.  I  became  the  sole  proprietor,  and  thus  the  publi¬ 
cation  ultimately  devolved  upon  me. 

After  my  return  home,  and  my  having  made  some  contracts  relative 
to  the  materials,  type,  press,  &c.  Mr.  Owen  wrote  me  that  by  some 
means  he  understood  that  the  city  of  Cincinnati  would  have  liked  that 
the  work  had  been  offered  to  them  for  benevolent  purposes.  He  pro¬ 
posed  my  relinquishment  of  it  to  the  city  corporation.  To  this  I  ac¬ 
ceded  on  condition  that  the  materials  I  had  purchased  for  the  work 
should  be  taken  along  with  the  copy  right ;  or  if  not,  1  would  hand  over 
to  them  the  first  edition,  when  out  of  press ;  they  remunerating  me 
for  the  composition,  press  work,  and  paper,  on  the  same  terms  for 
which  the  printers  in  Cincinnati  would  have  done  it.  I  waited  for 
three  weeks  for  an  answer  from  Mr.  Owen,  through  whom  I  wished  the 
proposition  to  be  made,  I  am  now  informed  by  Mr.  Owen  that  the 
proposition  w’as  declined  by  the  city  council,  and  therefore  I  proceed 
with  the  publication. 

All  these  arrangements  and  propositions  were  made  that  the  work 
might  be  more  useful,  or  less  liable  to  objection.  For,  from  my  first 
determination  to  meet  Mr.  Owen  in  argument,  I  had  purposed  to  pre¬ 
sent  the  result  of  our  interview  to  the  public,  for  whose  benefit  it 
wa^  undertaken,  in  the  most  unexceptionable  form.  And  now,  when 
the  publication  has  devolved  upon  me,  I  proposed  the  depositing  of 
the  original  copy  for  comparison  with  the  publication  as  aforesaid. 
For  experience  has  taught  me  how  usual  it  is  for  the  vanquished  to 
exclaim  against  the  report. 

As  arrangements  are  now  made,  I  trust  that  all  objections  will  be 
removed,  for  I  am  cOtiscious  that  there  is  no  ground  for  them.  The 
arguments  on  both  sides  will  appear  as  fair  and  as  forcible  to  the 
reader,  as  they  did  to  the  hearer  of  this  discussion. 

The  discussion  sufficiently  explains  itself  as  it  proceeds.  We  will 
neither  anticipate  nor  prejudge  for  the  reader.  Let  him  reason,  ex¬ 
amine,  and  judge,  like  a  rational  being,  for  himself. 

To  the  vast  and  incomparable  importance  of  the  question  at  issue, 
we  can  add  nothing.  It  speaks  for  itself:  and  the  man  who  has  any 
doubt  or  hesitancy  in  his  mind  upon  the  subjects  discussed  in  the 
following  pages,  and  who  will  not  deign  them  a  patient  and  faithful 
examination,  is  unworthy  of  the  rank  and  dignity  of  a  man.  So  I 
decree,  and  let  him  that  is  of  a  contrary  opinion  seek  to  justify  him¬ 
self  to  his  own  conscience. 


A.  CAMPBELL. 


THE  LAWS  OF  THE  DISCUSSION* 

Preliminary  Arrangements  respecting  the  management  and  publication 

of  a  Debate  upon  the  Evidences  of  Christianity ,  between  Robert 

Owen  and  Alexander  Campbell ,  to  be  held  at  Cincinnati ,  Okio} 

commencing  on  Monday ,  the  13 th  April ,  1829: — 

1.  That  the  parties  upon  the  day  aforesaid,  and  during  the  con¬ 
tinuance  of  the  said  investigation,  commence  each  day  at  9  o’clock, 
A.  M.  intermit  at  12,  recommence  at  3  P.  M.  and  continue  until  the 
parties  agree  to  adjourn. 

2.  That  the  propositions  proposed  to  be  defended  by  the  former, 
and  refuted  by  the  latter,  be  fairly  and  fully  discussed,  as  stated  in 
Mr.  Owen’s  challenge  to  the  clergy  in  New  Orleans,  as  already 
before  the  public,  till  each  of  the  parties  be  satisfied  that  he  has 
nothing  new  to  offer. 

3.  That  R.  Owen  opens  the  discussion  and  A.  Campbell  closes  it 

4.  That  each  of  the  parties  shall  speak  alternately  half  an  hour, 
without  interruption,  if  he  choose  to  occupy  so  much  time;  but  it 
shall  be  quite  optional  with  him  whether  he  occupy  so  much  time  in 
each  address,  and  that  neither  party  be  at  libertydo  transcend  this 
space  without  permission  of  the  Moderators. 

5.  That  the  aforesaid  debate  be  conducted  throughout  with  the 
usual  decorum  and  fairness  of  investigation  necessary  to  the  discovery 
of  truth,  under  the  superintendance  of  a  board  of  Moderators,  seven 
in  number,  of  which  each  of  the  parties  shall  choose  three,  and  these 
jointly  shall  choose  a  seventh.  Any  three  of  these,  one  on  each 
tide,  being  present,  shall  constitute  a  quorum. 

6.  That  Charles  II.  Sims  be  appointed  to  engross  and  report  said 
debate,  and  to  furnish  the  parties  with  one  fair  copy  in  the  space 
or  three  months  after  the  close  of  said  debate.  For  which  the  pai  ties 
agree  to  remunerate  him  on  the  delivery  of  said  copy  for  publica¬ 
tion. 

7.  With  regard  to  the  publication  of  this  discussion,  it  is  agreed 
bet  ween  the  parties  that  the  report  made  by  Mr.  Sims,  stenographer, 
shall  be  published  jointly  by  the  parties,  they  being  at  equal  ex¬ 
pense  in  obtaining  said  report,  and  for  all  the  materials,  workman¬ 
ship,  and  labor  necessary  to  the  publication,  distribution,  and  sale 
of  said  debate;  and  that,  as  Robert  Owen  cannot  superintend  the 
publication  of 'the  work,  the  correcting  of  the  press,  binding,  and 
delivery  of  the  work,  owing  to  his  public  arrangements  for  the  en¬ 
suing  year,  it  is  agreed  that  A.  Campbell  shall  superintend  the 
•publication  of  the  work,  the  correcting  of  the  press,  binding,  and 


LAWS  OF  THE  DISCUSSION. 


7 


delivering  of  the  work,  being  held  responsible  to  Robert  Owen  and 
the  public  for  the  correctness  and  exactitude  with  which  he  shall 
conform  to  the  report  furnished  by  the  aforesaid  Charles  H.  Sims. 
Which  report,  when  submitted  to  the  revision  of  the  parties,  shall 
be  lodged  for  safe-keeping  and  for  comparison,  with  the  publication 
in  the  hands  of  the  clerk  of  the  county  wherein  the  publication  from 
the  press  shall  be  issued.  It  is  also  agreed  that  the  profits  and  losses 
accruing  from  the  publication  and  sale  of  the  first  edition  shall  be 
equally  divided  between  the  parties. 

It  is  agreed  between  the  parties,  that  after  the  sale  of  the  (first 
edition,  if  it  should  appeal*  eligible  to  the  parties  to  publish  a  second 
edition,  or  a  third  edition,  it  shall  be  proposed  by  Robert  Owen  or  his 
agent  to  A.  Campbell,  or  by  A.  Campbell  to  Robert  Owen,  or  his 
agent,  for  his  concurrence ;  and  that  if  there  should  be  a  concurrence 
in  their  views  relative  to  the  expediency  of  such  editions,  then  they 
shall  be  undertaken  upon  the  same  terms  and  conditions  proposed 
for  the  first ;  but  if  there  should  not  be  a  concurrence  in  the  expedi¬ 
ency  of  such  republications,  then  either  of  the  parties,  as  the  case  may 
be,  shall  be  at  liberty,  at  his  own  risk,  and  upon  his  own  responsibili¬ 
ty,  to  publish  any  edition  or  editions  of.  the  work  he  may  deem 
expedient ;  the  copy  right  for  the  work  being  so  secured  as  to  secure 
to  the  parties  such  an  arrangement. 

The  parties  to  this  engagement,  in  the  true  intent  and  meaning 
thereof,  and  for  the  true  and  full  performance  of  its  obligations, 
have,  this  eleventh  day  of  April,  1829,  hereunto  set  their  hands  and 
affixed  their  seals. 

ROB.  OWEN,  }T.b3 

•o  •<»• 

A.  CAMPBELL. 

xar  FBE3XKCE  ov 

John  Smith, 

Thomas  Campbell. 

fcj^T'hc  last  article  has  been  annulled  by  a  subsequent  stipulation 
between  the  parties. 


ON  THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  &c. 


Cincinnati,  Monday ,  April  13 th,  1829, 

MR.  OWEN  rose  and  said— 

Gentlertien  Moderators , 

IT  is  necessary  on  my  part  to  explain  the  cause  of  the 
present  meeting. 

After  much  reading  and  calm  reflection,  early  in  life,  and  after 
extensive  personal,  and,  in  many  instances,  confidential  communi¬ 
cations  with  the  leading  characters  of  the  present  times,  I  was 
deeply  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  all  societies  of  men  have 
been  formed  on  a  misapprehension  of  the  primary  laws  of  human 
nature,  and  that  this  error  has  produced  disappointment  and  almost 
every  kind  of  misery. 

I  was  also  equally  convinced  that  the  real  nature  of  man  is 
adapted,  when  rightly  directed,  to  attain  high  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  excellence,  and  to  derive  from  each  of  these  faculties,  a 
large  share  of  happiness,  or  of  varied  enjoyment. 

I  was,  in  consequence,  impressed  with  the  belief,  that  I  could  not 
perform  a  greater  service  to  mankind,  than  to  endeavor  to  relieve 
them  from  this  grievous  error  and  evil.  I  made  arrangements  to  ap¬ 
ply  all  my  faculties  to  discover  the  means  by  which  it  could  be 
effected.  For  this  purpose  I  instituted  experiments  in  England  and 
Scotland,  to  try  the  effects  of  some  of  these  new  principles  in 
practice.  I  published  preliminary  remarks  on  the  subject,  and  sub¬ 
mitted  them  to  the  civilized  governments  of  Europe  and  America. 
I  visited  various  foreign  countries,  that  I  might  communicate,  per¬ 
sonally,  with  the  leading  minds  in  each;  and  I  presented  an  explana¬ 
tory  memorial  to  the  congress  of  sovereigns  and  their  ministers  at 
Aix  la  Chapel,  in  1818. 

I  held  public  meetings  in  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  United 
States ;  and  I  widely  circulated  these  proceedings  in  every  part  of 
the  world  where  the  English  language  is  known. 

Finding  that  these  practical  experiments  exceeded  my  most 
sanguine  expectations,  and  that  the  most  experienced,  enlightened, 
and  comprehensive  minds,  when  confidentially  applied  to,  admitted 
the  truth  of  the  principles  which  I  placed  before  them;  and  doubted, 
only,  if  the  period  had  arrived  when  ignorance  could  be  so  far  re¬ 
moved  as  to  admit  of  their  immediate  introduction  into  practice;  I 


10 


DEBATE. 


applied  myself  to  discover  the  best  means  by  which  these  all-impor¬ 
tant  truths  might  be  taught,  and  all  prejudices  removed  without  pro¬ 
ducing  the  evils  arising  from  sudden  and  extensive  revolutions. 

To  effect  these  objects,  I  felt  it  was  necessary  to  be  governed 
through  my  whole  course,  as  far  as  times  and  circumstances  would 
admit,  by  the  laws  of  nature,  which  appeared  to  me  correctly  true 
in  principle,  and  beautiful  and  beneficial  for  practice. 

I,  therefore,  placed  these  truths  gradually  before  the  public,  some¬ 
times  in  one  form,  and  sometimes  in  another;  but  always  in  the 
least  offensive  manner  I  could  devise. 

When  parties,  whose  prejudices  were  by  these  means  aroused, 
became  angry,  and  reviled,  as  it  was  natural  for  them  to  do,  not  un¬ 
derstanding  my  object;  I  could  not  be  angry  and  displeased  with 
them,  and,  therefore,  reviled  not  again;  but  I  calmly  put  forth  more 
and  more  of  these  truths,  that  ultimately  all  of  them  might  be  under¬ 
stood.  '  '  . 

When  the  partisans  of  political  parties  fully  expected  I  would  unite 
with  them  in  opposition  to  some  part  of  the  existing  order  of  things, 
I  could  not  join  in  their  measures,  knowing  that  they  saw  but  a  small 
part  of  the  evil,  which  they  fruitlessly,  yet  often  honestly,  endeavor¬ 
ed  to  remove,  and  consequently  erred  in  the  means  of  attaining  their 
object.  , 

With  my  views  I  could  belong  to  no  party,  because,  in  many 
things,  I  was  opposed  to  all.  Yet  I  freely  conversed  and  associated 
with  all  classes,  sects,  and  characters;  and  it  was  interesting  and 
instructive  to  discover  the  various  impressions  which  were  made  on 
individuals  belonging  to  all  parties  by  the  principles  which  I  advo¬ 
cated.  To  many,  according  to  their  prejudices,  I  appeared  a  demop 
of  darkness,  or,  as  some  of  them  said,  I  “was  worse  than  the  Devil 
while  to  others  I  seemed  an  angel  of  light,  or  “the  best  man  the 
world  ever  sawv and,  of  course,  of  every  gradation  between  these 
extremes. 

Amidst  these  conflicting  feelings,  I  pursued  the  “even  tenor  of  myj 
way,”  and  turned  not  from  the  great  object  I  had  in  view,  either  to 
the  right  hand  or  to  the  left. 

I  thus  proceeded,  step  by  step,  until  the  most  important  laws  of 
our  nature  were  unfolded ;  for  X  early  perceived  that  a  knowledge  of 
th  ese  laws  would  soon  unveil  the  three  most  formidable  prejudices, 
that  ignorance  of  these  laws  had  made  almost  universal, 
r  These  prejudices,  arising  from  early  education,  are  district  reli- 
(  gions  in  opposition  to  these  divine  laws,  indissoluble  marriages,  and, 
\  unnecessary  private  property. 

Yet  the  prejudices  produced  by  education,  on  each  of  these  subjects, 
are  very  different  in  various  countries.  Among  most  people,  however, 
these  prejudices,  whatever  form  they  may  have  taken,  have  been 
deeply  rooted,  through  a  long  succession  of  ages,  and  have  uniformly 
produced  the  greatest  crimes,  suffering  and  misery;  indeed  almost 
all  to  which  human  nature  is  liable :  for  the  natural  evils  of  life  are. 

few,  they  scarcely  deserve  consideration. 


1 


DEBATE. 


n 


it ,  therefore,  appeared  to  me  to  be  the  time  when  these  artificial 
evils  might  be  removed,  and  when  an  entire  new  order  of  things 
might  be  established. 

Many  well  intentioned  and  partly  enlightened  individuals,  who 
have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  reflect  deeply  on  these  subjects, 
imagine  that  it  will  be  more  easy  to  remove  one  of  these  evils  at  a 
time,  not  perceiving  that  they  are  three  links,  forming  one  chain ; 
each  link  being  absolutely  necessary  to  support  the  other  two,  and, 
therefore,  that  they  must  be  all  retained  or  go  together. 

Instead  of  these  links  becoming  a  band  to  keep  society  in  good 
order,  and  unite  men  in  a  bond  of  charity,  justice,  and  affection,  they 
form  a  chain  of  triple  strength  to  retain  the  human  mind  in  ignorance 
and  vice,  and  to  inflict  every  species  of  misery,  from  artificial  causes, 
on  the  human  race. 

Seeing  this,  I  was  induced  to  develope  other  arrangements,  all 
in  accordance  with  the  divine  laws  of  our  nature,  and  thus  attempt 
to  break  each  link  of  this  magic  chain,  and  thereby  remove  the  only 
obstacles  which  prevent  men  from  becoming  rational  and  truly 
virtuous  beings. 

In  these  new  arrangements,  the  countless  evils  which  have  been 
engendered  by  conflicting  religions,  by  various  forms  of  marriages, 
and  by  unnecessary  private  property,  will  not  exist:  but,  instead 
thereof,  real  charity,  pure  chastity,  sincere  affections,  and  upright 
dealing  between  man  and  man,  producing  abundance  for  all,  will 
every  where  prevail. 

By  pursuing  this  course  I  was,  from  the  beginning,  conscious  that 
the  worst  feelings  of  those  who  have  been  trained  in  old  prejudice© 
must  be  more  or  less  excited,  and  I  would  willingly  have  avoided 
creating  even  this  temporary  evil,  if  it  had  been  practicable,  but  it 
was  not. — I  endeavored,  however,  by  calmness  and  kindness  to  turn 
aside  these  irrational  feelings,  well  knowing  that  the  parties  were  net 
the  authors  of  the  impressions  made  upon  their  respective  organiza¬ 
tions,  and  I  strove  to  prevent  any  unnecessary  pain  in  performing  a. 
duty  which,  to  me,  appears  the  highest  that  man  can  perform,  and 
which  I  execute  solely  under  the  expectation  of  relieving  future 
generations  from  the  misery  which  the  past  and  present  have  experi¬ 
enced. 

In  pursuance  of  these  measures  I  last  year  delivered  a  course  of 
lectures  in  New  Orleans,  explanatory  of  the  principles  and  many 
details  of  the  practice  of  the  proposed  system. 

During  the  progress  of  these  lectures  many  paragraphs  appeared 
m  the  New  Orleans  newspapers  giving  a  very  mistaken  view  of  the 
principles  and  plans  which  I  advocated.  Discovering  that  these 
paragraphs  proceeded  from  some  of  the  city  clergymen,  I  put  an  ad¬ 
vertisement  in  the  newspapers,  offering  to  meet  all  the  ministers  of 
religion  in  the  city,  either  in  public  or  private,  to  discuss  the  subjects 
of  difference  between  us,  in  order  that  the  population  of  New  Orleans 
might  know'  the  real  foundation  on  which  the  old  systems  of  the 
world  were  erected,  and  the  principles  on  which  the  new  system  was 


HI  DEBATE. 

advocated,  These  gentlemen,  however,  were  unwilling  to  enter  upon 
the  discussion. 

About  the  same  period  Mr.  Alexander  Campbell,  of  Bethany  in 
Virginia,  was  solicited  by  a  brother  minister,  in  the  state  of  Ohio, 
to  meet  Dr.  Underhill,  who  was  publicly  teaching,  with  success,  the 
principles  of  the  new  system  in  the  upper  part  of  that  state. 

Mr.  Campbell  declined  the  call  thus  made  upon  him;  but  he 
offered  as  a  shorter  mode,  in  his  opinion,  of  terminating  the  differ¬ 
ence,  to  meet  me  and  discuss  the  merits  of  the  old  and  new  systems 
in  public,  at  any  time  and  place  convenient  to  both. 

He  afterwards,  on  seeing  my  proposals  in  the  newspapers  to  meet 
the  clergy  of  New  Orleans  on  specific  grounds,  publicly  offered  to 
discuss  those  subjects  with  me  at  Cincinnati  any  time  within  twelve 
months  from  the  date  of  his  proposal. 

Having  occasion,  about  that  period,  to  pass,  on  my  way  to  Europe, 
within  twenty  miles  of  Mr.  Campbell’s  residence,  I  went  to  see 
him  to  ascertain  whether  his  proposal  to  meet  me  in  public  emanated 
from  a  conscientious  desire  to  discover  valuable  truths  for  the  benefit 
of  the  human  race,  or  from  a  wish  to  attain  a  useless  notoriety  by  a 
vain  and  futile  contest  of  words  without  any  definite  meaning. 

By  my  intercourse  with  Mr.  Campbell  I  concluded  he  was  con- 
scienciously  desirous  of  ascertaining  truth  from  error  on  these  momen¬ 
tous  subjects,  that  he  was  much  experienced  in  public  discussions, 
and  well  educated  for  the  ministry.  His  superior  talents  were  general¬ 
ly  admitted.  Under  these  circumstances,  I  did  not  feel  myself  at  liberty 
to  decline  the  call  he  had  publicly  made  upon  me — I,  therefore,  agreed 
to  meet  him  in  this  city,  at  this  time,  that  we  might,  by  a  fair  and  open 
discussion  of  principles  never  yet  publicly  advocated,  discover,  if 
possible,  the  foundation  of  human  errors  respecting  vice  and  virtue, 
and  the  real  cause  of  the  continuance,  at  this  day  over  the  world, 
of  ignorance,  poverty,  disunion,  crime,  and  misery:  and,  if  practi¬ 
cable,  lay  a  broad  and  solid  foundation  for  a  union  of  all  tribes  and 
people,  that  peace,  good  will,  and  intelligence,  may  every  where 
prevail,  and  contention  and  strife  cease  from  the  earth. 

Such  is  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  events  and  circumstances 
which  have  produced  the  present  assemblage  at  this  place,  and  my 
sole  wish  is  that  it  may  terminate  beneficially  for  mankind. 

I  wait  Mr.  Campbell’s  confirmation  of  this  statement  as  far  as  he  is 
personally  concerned  in  it. 

MR.  CAMPBELL  rose  and  said — 

My  Christian  friends  and  fellow-citizens! — In  rising  to  address 
you  on  this  occasion,  I  feel  that  I  ewe  you  an  apology.  Do  you 
inquire,  For  what?  I  answer,  For  bringing  into  public  discussion 
the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion.  Not,  indeed,  as  if  either  the 
religion  itself,  or  the  evidences  of  its  truth  and  divine  authority,  had 
any  thing  to  fear  from  an  examination,  however  public  or  how  ever 
severe.  Why,  then,  do  you  say,  apologize  for  bringing  this  subject 
into  public  debate?  Because,  in  so  doing,  we  may  appear  to  com 


DEBATE. 


t  lb 

cede  that  it  is  yet  an  undecided  question  subjudiee ;  or,  at  least,  that 
its  opponents  have  some  good  reason  for  withholding  their  assent  to  its 
truth,  and  their  consent  to  its  requirements.  Neither  of  which  we 
are,  at  this  time,  prepared  to  admit. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  we  Christians  are  oommanded  bv  an  au¬ 
thority  which  we  deem  paramount  to  every  other,  to  be  prepared, 
at  all  times,  to  give  a  reason  of  the  hope  which  we  entertain ;  and  not. 
only  so,  but  in  meekness,  and  with  firmness,  to  contend  for  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  If,  then,  it  be  our  duty,  either  as 
teachers  of  the  Christian  religion,  or  as  private  disciples,  to  be  govern¬ 
ed  by  these  precepts,  not  only  we  can  fmd  an  excuse  for  ourselves, 
but  we  hope  that  you  also  will  find  an  excuse  for  us  in  the  present 
undertaking.  Excuse ,  did  I  say?  Not  excuse  only,  but  more  than 
excuse,  both  authority  and  encouragement. 

Some  Christians,  we  know,  think  it  enough  simply  to  inveigh 
against  sceptics  and  scepticism  in  their  weekly  harangues:  while 
they  are  protected  by  custom  and  law  from  the  retorts  and  replies  of 
such  as  do  not  believe.  This  is  not  enough.  If,  indeed,  all  the 
.sceptics  in  the  vicinities  of  Christian  congregations  made  it  a  point 
to  attend  these  weekly  discourses,  and  if  their  objections  and  doubts 
were  fairly  met,  canvassed,  and  refuted,  then  this  course  might 
suffice.  But  neither  of  these  is  precisely  the  case.  The  sceptics 
do  not  generally  attend  the  places  of  worship;  and  few  of  the  teachers 
of  religion  pay  adequate  attention  to  this  description  of  character, 
in  some  Christian  countries,  also,  too  much  reliance  is  placed  upon 
the  strong  arm  of  the  law  ;  and  in  this  country,  perhaps-,  too  much 
confidence  is  reposed  in  the  moral  force  of  public  opinion. 

Scepticism  and  infidelity  are  certainly  on  the  increase  in  this  and 
other  countries.  Not,  indeed,  because  of  the  mildness  of  our  laws, 
but  because  of  the  lives  of  our  professors,  and  a  very  general  inat¬ 
tention  to  the  evidences  of  our  religion.  The  sectarian  spirit,  the 
rage  of  rivalry  in  the  various  denominations,  together  with  many 
absurd  tenets  and  opinions  propagated,  afford  more  relevant  reasons 
for  the  prevalence  of  scepticism  than  most  of  our  professors  are  able 
to  offer  for  their  faith. 

Kingcraft  and  priestcraft,  always  german-cousins  at  least,  have 
so  disfigured,  or  as  they  suppose,  ornamented  Christianity,  so  com¬ 
pletely  disguised  it,  that  many  having  no  taste  nor  inclination  for 
examining  the  inspired  books,  have  hastily  and  peremptorily  decided 
that  all  religion  is  the  offspring  of  fraud  or  fiction.  The  ignorance 
of  the  multitude,  and  the  knavery  of  the  few,  are  the  most  puissant 
auxiliaries  of  those  daring  and  rash  spirits  who  undertake  to  make 
it  appear  that  the  religious  institutions  of  this  country  are  founded 
on  kingcraft  or  priestcraft. 

I  have  sometimes  been  ready  to  conclude  with  Bishop  Newton  in 
his  illustrations  of  the  prophecies,  that  the  unhallowed  alliance  be¬ 
tween  kings  and  priests,  of  church  and  state,  is  destined  to  be  finally 
destroyed  by  a  momentary  triumph  of  infidelity :  or,  to  corne  nearer 
to  bis  own  language,  that  before  the  millennial  order  of  society  can 

2 


DEBATE.. 


14 

be  introduced,  there  will  be  a  very  general  spread  of*  infidelity. 
However  this  may  be,  for  here  we  would  not  be  dogmatical,  we  are 
assured  that  the  progress  of  scepticism  is  neither  ow  ing  to  the  weak¬ 
ness  nor  the  paucity  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity ;  but  to  a  pro¬ 
fession  of  it  unauthorized  by,  and  incompatible  with,  the  Christian 
scriptures.  These  concessions  we  are  compelled  to  make  from  a  sense 
of  justice  to  our  cause;  but  in  conceding  so  much,  we  give  nothing 
away  but  what  every  Christian  would  wish  to  see  done  away,  viz.  the 
abuses  of  the  Christian  religion.  Nor  will  we  allow  that  there  is 
even  in  the  abuses  of  Christianity  any  argument  against  its  excel¬ 
lency,  nor  any  just  reason  for  the  infidelity  of  any  one  who  has 
access  to  the  oracles  of  God. 

When  we  agreed  to  meet  Mr.  Owen  in  public  debate  upon  the 
questions  to  be  discussed  on  this  occasion,  it  w  as  not  with  any  ex¬ 
pectation  that  he  wTas  to  be  convinced  of  the  errors  of  his  system 
on  the  subject  of  religion ;  nor  w  ith  any  expectation  that  I  was  in  the 
least  to  be  shaken  in  my  faith  in  the  sacred  writings.  It  is  to  be  pre¬ 
sumed  that  Mr.  Chven  feels  himself  bevond  the  reach  of  conviction : 

7 

and  I  most  sincerely  declare  that  I  have  every  assurance  of 
the  truth  and  authority  of  the  Christian  religion.  I  know,  indeed, 
that  there  is  no  circumstance  in  which  any  person  can  he  placed 
more  unfavorable  to  his  conviction,  than  that  which  puts  him  in  a 
public  assembly  upon  the  proof  of  his  principles.  The  mind  is  then 
on  the  alert  to  find  proofs  for  the  system  which  has  been  already 
adopted,  and  is  not  disposed  to  such  an  investigation  as  might  issue 
i n  conviction.  Arguments  and  proofs  afe  rather  parried  than  weighed 
and  triumph  rather  than  conviction  is  anxiously  sought  for.  At  the 
same  time  I  own  I  am,  on  all  subjects,  open  to  conviction,  and  even 
desirous  to  receive  larger  measures  of  light;  and  more  than  once, 
even  when  in  debate,  I  have  been  convicted  of  the  truth  and  force 
of  the  argument  of  an  opponent.  Nor  would  I  say  that  it  is  impossi¬ 
ble  that  even  my  opponent  might  yet  preach  the  faith  which  he  has 
all  his  life  labored  to  destroy.  But  the  public,  the  wavering,  doubt¬ 
ing,  and  unsettled  public,  who  are  endangered  to  be  carried  off,  as 
an  apostle  says,  by  the  flood  which  the  dragon  has  poured  out  of 
his  mouth,  are  those  for  whose  benefit  this  discussion  has,  on  my 
part,  been  undertaken.  They  are  not  beyond  the  reach  of  convic¬ 
tion,  correction,  and  reformation.  For  the  present  generation  and 
the  succeeding  I  have  been  made  willing  to  undertake  to  show  that 
there  is  no  good  reason  for  rejecting  the  testimony  of  the  apostles 
and  prophets;  but  all  the  reason  which  rational  beings  can  demand 
for  the  sincere  belief  and  cordial  reception  of  the  Christian  religion. 

You  must  not  think,  my  friends,  that  Christianity  has  come  down 
to  our  times  without  a  struggle;  nay,  indeed,  it  took  the  nations  at 
first  by  the  irresistible  force  of  its  evidence.  It  was  opposed  b>! 
consolidated  ranks  of  well  disciplined  foes.  Learned,  cunning,  bold, 
and  powerful  were  its  enemies.  But  experience  taught  them  it  was 
not  only  foolish,  but  hurtful  to  kick  against  the  goads. 


DEBATE. 


15 


Never  was  there  such  a  moral  phenomenon  exhibited  upon  this 
earth  as  the  first  establishment  and  progress  of  Christianity.  The 
instruments  by  which  it  was  established,  the  opposition  with  which 
it  was  met,  and  the  success  which  attended  its  career,  were  all  of 
the  most  extraordinary  character.  The  era  of  Christianity  itself 
^  presents  a  very  sublime  spectacle:  the  whole  world  reposing  in 
security  under  the  protecting  wings  of  the  most  august  of  all 
the  Cesars;  peace,  universal  peace,  with,  her  healthful  arms  en¬ 
circling  all  the  nations  composing  the  greed  empire,  which  was 
itself  the  consummation  of  all  the  empires  of  the  ancient  world. 
— Polytheism,  with  her  myriads  of  temples  and  her  myriads  of 
myriads  of  priests,  triumphantly  seated  in  the  affections  of  a  super¬ 
stitious  people,  and  swaying  a  magic  sceptre  from  the  Tyber  to  the 
"ends  of  the  earth.  Legislators,  magistrates,  philosophers,  orators,  and 
poets,  all  combined  to  plead  her  cause,  and  to  protect  her  from  insult 
and  injury.  Rivers  of  sacrificial  blood  crimsoned  all  the  rites  of 
pagan  worship;  and  clouds  of  incense  arose  from  every  city,  town, 
and  hamlet,  in  honor  of  the  gods  of  Roman  superstition.  Just  in 
this  singular  and  unrivalled  crisis,  when  the  Jews’  religion,  though  cor¬ 
rupted  by  tradition  and  distracted  with  faction,  was  venerated  for  its 
antiquity,  and  admired  for  its  divinity;  when  idolatry  was  at  its 
zenith  in  the  Pagan  world,  the  Star  of  Bethlehem  appears.  The 
marvellous  scene  opens  in  a  stable.  What  a  fearful  odds!  What  a 
strange  contrast!  Idolatry  on  the  throne,  and  the  founder  of  a  new’ 
religion  and  a  new  empire  lying  in  a  manger ! 

Unattended  in  his  birth,  and  unsecond.ed  in  his  outset,  he  begins  his 
career.  Prodigies  of  extraordinary  sublimity  announce  that  the 
desire  of  all  nations  is  bom.  But  the  love  of  empire  and  the  jealousy 
of  a  rival  stimulate  the  bloody  Herod  to  unsheath  his  sword.  Many 
innocents  were  slaughtered,  but  Heaven  shielded  the  new  born  king  of 
the  world.  For  the  present  we  pass  over  his  wonderful  history.  After 
thirty  years  of  obscurity -we  find  him  surrounded  with  what  the  wise, 
the  wealthy,  and  the  proud,  would  call  a  contemptible  group ;  telling 
them  that  one  of  them,  an  uncouth  and  untutored  fisherman  too,  had 
discovered  a  truth  which  would  new-modify  the  whole  world.  In  the 
midst  of  them  he  uttered  the  most  incredible  oracle  ever  heard.  I  am 
about,  says  he,  to  found  a  new  empire  on  the  acknowledgment  of  a 
single  truth,  a  truth  too,  which  one  of  you  has  discovered,  and  all  the 
powers  and  malice  of  worlds  seen  and  unseen  shall  never  prevail 
against  it.  This  is  our  helmet,  breast  plate,  and  shield,  in  this* con¬ 
troversy.  What  a  scene  presents  itself  here!  A  pusillanimous, 
wavering,  ignorant,  and  timid,  dozen  of  individuals,  without  a  penny 
apiece,  assured  that  to  them  it  pleased  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe  to 
give  the  empire  of  the  world :  that  to  each  of  them  would  be  given  a 
throne  from  which  would  be  promulged  laws  never  to  be  repealed  while 
sun  and  moon  endure. 

Such  were  the  army  of  the  faith.  They  begin  their  career.  Und£r 
the  jealous  and  invidious  eyes  of  a  haughty  sanhedrim  at  home,  and 
under  the  strict  cognizance  of  a  Roman  emperor  abroad,  with  a  watch* 


DEBATE. 


ilil  procurator  stationed  over  them.  They  commenced  their  opera¬ 
tions.  One  while  charged  with  idolatry;  at  another  with  treason , 
Reviled  and  persecuted  until  their  chief  is  rewarded  with  a  cross*  and 
themselves  with  threats  and  imprisonment.  A  throne  in  a  future  world 
animated  him,  and  a  crown  of  glory  after  martyrdom  stimulated  them. 
On  they  march  from  conquest  to  Conquest,  till  not  only  a  multitude  of 
die  Jewish  priests  and  people,  but  Cesar’s  household  in  imperial  Rome 
became  obedient  to  the  faith.  Such  was  the  commencement. 

The  land  of  Judea  is  smitten  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.  Jerusa¬ 
lem  falls,  and  Samaria  is  taken.  The  coasts  of  Asia,  maritime  cities, 
islands,  and  provinces,  vow  allegiance  to  a  crucified  King.  Mighty 
Rome  is  roused,  and  shaken,  and  affrighted.  Sacrifices  are  un- 
bought,  altars  moulder,  and  temples  decay.  Her  pontiffs,  her  sen¬ 
ate,  and  her  emperor  stand  aghast.  Persecution,  the  adjunct  of  a 
weak  and  wicked  cause,  unsheaths  her  sword  and  kindles  her  fires. 
A  Nero  and  a  Caligula  prepare  the  faggots  and  illuminate  Rome  with 
burning  Christians.  But  the  scheme  soon  defeats  itself.*  for  anon  ’tis 
found  that  the  blood  and  the  ashes  of  martyrs  are  the  seed  of  the  church. 
So  the  battle  is  fought  till  every  town  of  note  from  the  Tyber  to  the 
Thames,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Ganges,  bows  to  the  cross.  On  the 
one  side  superstition  and  the  sword,  the  mitred  head  and  the  sceptred 
arm  combine:  on  the  other,  almighty  truth  alone  pushes  on  the  com¬ 
bat.  Under  these  fearful  odds  the  truth  triumphs,  and  shall  the  ad¬ 
vocates  of  such  a  cause  fear  the  contest  now ! 

Yes,  my  fellow  citizens,  not  a  king  nor  priest  smiled  upon  our 
faith,  until  it  won  the  day.  It  offered  no  lure  to  the  ambitious;  no 
reward  to  the  avaricious.  It  formed  no  alliance  with  the  lusts  of  the 
flesh,  the  lusts  of  the  eye,  nor  the  pride  of  life.  It  disdained  such 
auxiliaries.  It  aimed  not  so  low.  It  called  for  self-denial,  humility, 
patience,  and  courage,  on  the  part  of  all  its  advocates;  and  pro¬ 
mised  spiritual  joys  as  an  earnest  of  eternal  bliss.  By  the  exeellency 
of  its  doctrine,  the  purity  of  its  morals,  the  rationality  of  its  argu¬ 
ments,  the  demonstrations  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  good  example 
of  its  subjects,  it  triumphed  on  the  ruins  of  Judaism  and  Idolatry, 
'i  he  Christian  volunteers  found  the  yoke  of  Christ  was  easy  and  his 
burthen  light.  Peace  of  mind,  a  heaven-born  equanimity,  a  good 
conscience,  a  pure  heart,  universal  love,  a  triumphant  joy,  and  a 
glorious  hope  of  immortal  bliss,  were  its  reward  in  hand.  An  incor¬ 
ruptible,  undefiled,  and  unfading  inheritance  in  the  presence  of  God, 
with  the  society  of  angels,  principalities,  and  powers,  of  the  loftiest 
intelligence  and  most  comprehensive  knowledge,  brighter  than  the 
sun,  in  the  glories  of  light  and  love  eternal,  arc  its  reward  in  future, 

But  now  let  us  ask,  What  boon,  what  honor,  what  reward,  have  our 
opponents  to  offer  for  its  renunciation?  Yes,  this  is  the  question 
which  the  sequel  must  develope.  To  what  would  they  convert  us ! 
What  heaven  have  they  to  propose!  What  immortality  to  reveal! 
What  sublime  views  of  a  creation  and  a  creator !  What  authentic  re¬ 
cord  of  the  past!  What  prophetic  hope  of  the  future!  Wha 
account  of  our  origin!  What  high  ultimatum  of  our  destiny!  What 


DEBATE. 


17 


terrors  have  they  to  offer  to  stem  the  torrent  of  corruption !  What 
balm  and  consolation  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  anguish!  To 
these  and  a  thousand  kindred  questions  they  must, and  they  will  answer, 
None;  none  at  all.  They  promise  to  him  that  disbelieved*  the  Founder 
of  the  Christian  religion;  to  him  that  neglects  and  disdains  the  salva¬ 
tion  of  the  gospel ;  to  him  who  tramples  under  foot  the  blood  of,  the 
New  Institution,  and  insults  the  Spirit  of  favor ;  to  him  who  traduces 
Moses,  Daniel,  and  Job ;  to  him  who  vilifies  Jesus,  Paul,  Peter,  James, 
and  John;  to  him  who  devotes  his  soul  to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh;  who 
disdains  heaven ;  who  deifies  his  appetites ;  who  degrades  himself  to 
a  mere  animal,  and  eulogizes  philosophy;  to  this  man  they  promise 
eternal  sleep,  an  everlasting  death.  This  is  the  faith,  the  hope,  anu 
joy,  for  which  they  labor  with  so  much  zeal,  and  care,  and  pain. 

Divesting  man  of  all  that  renders  life  a  blessing  and  death  support¬ 
able,  denuding  him  of  all  the  dignity  and  honor  which  have  ever  been 
the  admiration  of  the  wise  and  good,  and  reducing  him  wholly  to  the 
earth,  is  by  our  opponents  the  true  philosophy,  the  just  science,  the 
valuable  knowledge.  In  their  estimation  a  colony  of  bees  co-opera¬ 
ting  in  the  building  of  store-houses  and  cells,  and  afterwards  stowing 
them  full  of  the  necessaries  of  animal  life,  humming  from  flower  to 
flower,  while  the  sun  shines;  and  in  its  absence,  sucking  the  juices 
which  they  have  collected,  is  the  grand  model  of  what  man  would 
be,  and  what  he  would  do,  were  he  under  the  benign  influence  of  just 
knowledge  and  sound  philosophy. 

To  accomplish  this  high  and  glorious  end  of  our  being  is  the  suv 
preme  wish  of  my  benevolent  opponent.  In  the  prosecution  of  which 
he  labors,  to  show  us  that  matter— solid,  liquid,  gaseous  matter — is 
the  height  and  depth,  the  length  and  breadth  of  all  that  deserves  the 
name  of  just  knowledge.  As  for  souls ,  and  their  appurtenances,  they 
are  mere  nonentities,  creatures  of  mere  fancy,  having  neither  figure, 
extension,  nor  gravity ;  old  wives’  fables,  and  ought  to  be  all  embarked 
in  company  with  ghosts  and  witches,  and  colonized  on  the  point  of  a 
needle  on  some  lofty  peak  in  the  regions  of  imagination. 

When  by  a  philosophic  exorcism  he  has  cast  out  these  indescribable 
spirits  which  haunt  the  cells  of  our  crania ,  and  emptied  our  heads  of 
all  their  intellectual  contents,  we  are  then  to  make  the  body,  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  abdominal  viscera ,  the  all-engrcssing  topic  of  life  and  death, 
and  the  capital  item  in  our  last  will  and  testament. 

Now  let  us  glance  at  the  method  of  argument  by  which  this  point 
is  to  be  proved. 

1.  Man  is  to  be  detached  from  any  relation  to  a  Supreme  or  su¬ 
perior  being.  All  debts  of  gratitude  or  obligation  of  any  sort  to  an 
unseen  or  intangible  agent  are  to  be  cancelled  by  a  single  act  of  oblivi¬ 
on  ;  and  when  he  is  taught  to  annihilate  the  Creator,  he  is  next  to  be 
taught  that  he  is  himself  neither  Creator  nor  creature ,  but  a  sort  of 
self-existent  particle  of  a  self-existent  whole. 

2.  Lest  he  should  be  too  uplifted  in  his  own  imagination,  he  is  to  be 
taught  that  he  is  no  more  than  a  two-legged  animal ,  as  circumscri¬ 
bed  by  sense  as  a  mole  or  a  lobster. 

2* 


DEBAT]?. 


i8 

3.  That  having  bu tfive  senses,  it  is  necessary  that  these  should  be 
analysed  in  order  that  he  may  be  convinced  that  nothing  can  be  known 
of  which  they  are  not  the  informers.  Thus  man,  when  perfectly  redu¬ 
ced  to  a  mere  sentient  being,  is  prepared  to  become  a  sensualist . 

4.  To  complete  the  process  of  degradation,  man  is  to  be  taught  that 
he  has  no  faculty,  or  power  of  learning  or  knowing  any  thing  but  by 
his  senses ,  or  that  he  can  receive  no  certain  information  from  the  tes¬ 
timony  of  his  a  ncestors. 

5.  That  all  the  information  which  is  traditional  or  handed  down,  is 
false  and  incredible. 

6.  As  to  morality,  it  is  just  a  due  regard  to  utility.  Bees  are  moral 
as  well  as  men ;  and  he  is  the  most  moral  bee  which  creates  the  most 
honey  and  consumes  the  least  of  it. 

We  do  not  say  that  these  are  vei'batim ,  or  in  propria  forma ,  the  iden¬ 
tical  positions  of  my  opponent— They  belong,  perhaps,  more  justly  ta 
some  of  the  fraternity,  for  you  will  remember  that  he  confines  himself 
to  the  following  four  grand  points: 

1 .  That  all  the  religions  in  the  world  have  been  founded  on  the  ig¬ 
norance  of  mankind. 

2.  That  they  are  directly  opposed  to  the  never-changing  laws  of  our 

nature. 

3.  That  they  have  been  and  are  the  real  source  of  vice,  disunion, 
and  misery  of  every  description. 

4.  That  they  are  now  the  only  real  bar  to  the  formation  of  a  society 
m’ virtue,  of  intelligence,  of  charity  in  its  most  extended  sense,  and  of 

incerity  and  kindness  among  the  whole  human  family. — 'We  shall  be 
somewhat  disappointed,  however,  if  in  the  developement  they  do  not 
engross  the  preceding  positions. 

Were  I  at  liberty  to  choose  a  method  eo-extensive  with  the  whole 
range  of  scepticism,  it  would  be  such  as  the  following: 

1.  I  would  propose  to  present  some  philosophic  arguments  demon- 
strati  ve  of  the  truth  of  revealed  religion. 

2.  I  would  attempt  to  illustrate  and  press  upon  my  opponent  the 
mature  and  weight  of  the  historic  evidence* 

3.  I  would  then  endeavor  to  show,  from  the  Christian  religion  itself 
i  -  s  c  erta in  d  i v ine  origi  n . 

4 .  And  in  the  last  place,  I  wTould  undertake  to  prove,  from  the  acti> 
t*]  condition  of  the  world,  and  the  prophetic  annunciations,  the  absolute 
■certainty  that  this  religion  came  from  the  Creator  of  the  world. 

Under  these  very  general  heads  or  chapters,  I  would  not  fear  to  in? 
traduce  such  a  number  and  variety  of  distinct  arguments  and  eviden¬ 
ces,  as  I  should  think  ought  to  silence  the  captious,  convert  the  honest 
inquirer,  and  confirm  the  weak  and  wavering  disciple.  But  in  a  dis¬ 
cussion  such  as  the  present,  it  would  be  almost,  if  not  altogether,  inv 
possible  to  pursue  such  a  method;  and  as  it  devolves  upon  my  oppo¬ 
nent  to  lead  the  way,  and  upon  me  to  follow,  I  can  only  promise  that 
\  will  endeavor  in  the  most  methodical  way,  to  bring  forward  the 
arguments  which  are  couched  in  this  arrangement;  of  which  indeed 
a  very  inadequate  idea  can  be  communicated  in  any  schedule. 


DEBATE. 


10 


The  preceding  synopsis  is  more  general  than  necessary;  hut  it  is> 
adapted  to  the  vague  and  diversified  attacks  upon  the  Christian  fortress 
by  the  sceptics  of  the  present  school.  In  the  natural  order  of  things 
we  would  confine  ourselves  to  the  following  method. 

1.  State  as  a  postulatum  the  following  unquestionable  fact  : 

That  there  is  now  in  the  world  a  book  called  the  Old  and  New  Tes-> 
laments,  purporting  to  contain  a  Revelation  from  the  Creator  of  the 
universe.  Then  inquire — 

2.  By  what  agency  or  means  this  work  came  into  existence.  In 
the  analysis  of  this  question  we  would 

1.  Demonstrate  that  the  religion  contained  in  this  book  is  predica¬ 
ted  upon  certain  matters  of  fact. 

2.  That  our  senses,  and  testimony  or  history  are  the  only  means 
by  which  we  can  arrive  at  certain  information  in  any  question  of 
fact. 


3.  That  there  are  certain  infallible  criteria  by  which  some  historic 
matters  of  fact  may  be  proved  true  or  false. 

4.  We  would  then  specify  these  criteria,  and 

5th.  Show  that  we  have  all  these  criteria  in  deciding  this  question. 
This  proved,  and  all  that  Christians  contend  for  must  be  conceded. 
IVe  say  that  were  we  to  be  governed  by  the  natural  order,  we  would  con¬ 
fine  all  our  debate  to  this  one  question  as  detailed  in  these  five  items. 
All  this  indeed  will  come  in  course  under  the  2d  and  4th  items  in 
the  synopsis  proposed.  But  we  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  our 
opinion,  that  all  the  rest  is  superfluous  labor  bestowed  upon  us,  by  the 
obliquity  of  the  sceptical  scheme.  And  moreover  we  must  add  our 
conviction  that,  supposing  we  should  fail  in  affording  satisfactory  data 
on  the  other  topics,  it  is  impossible  to  fail  in  the  point  upon  which  the 
strength  and  stress  of  the  argument  must  rest. 

In  this  candid  and  unreserved  way,  my  fellow-citizens,  we  have 
laid  before  you  our  views  and  prospects  in  the  opening  of  this  discus¬ 
sion,  which  may  give  you  some  idea  cf  what  may  be  expected  from 
this  meeting.  Your  patience  and  indulgence  may  have  to  be  solicited 
and  displayed,  and  should  v/e  be  compelled  to  roam  at  large  over  vast 
and  trackless  fields  of  speculation,  and  oftentimes  to  return  by  the  same 
.  track,  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  grant  us  all  that  indulgence  which 
the  nature  of  the  case  demands. 

But  we  cannot  sit  down  without  admonishing  you  to  bear  constant- 
Jy  in  mind  the  inconceivable  and  ineffable  importance  attached  to 
the  investigation.  It  is  not  the  ordinary  affairs  of  this  life,  the  fleeting 
and  transitory  concerns  of  to-day  or  to-morrow;  it  is  not  whether  we 
shall  live  all  freemen,  or  die  all  slaves:  it  is  not.  the  momentary  affairs 
or  empire,  or  the  evanescent  charms  of  dominion — Nay,  indeed,  all 
these  are  but  the  toys  of  childhood,  the  sportive  excursions  of  youthful 
fancy,  contrasted  with  the  questions,  What  is  man ?  Whence  came  he? 


Whither  does  he  go  ?  Is  he  a  mortal  or  an  i mmortal  being  ?  Is  he  doom¬ 
ed  to  spring  up  like  the  grass,  bloom  like  a  flower,  drop  his  seed  into 
the  earth,  and  die  forever  ?  Is  there  no  object  of  future  hope?  No 
God — i\q  heaven — no  exalted  society  to  he  known  or  enjoyed?  Axe 


20 


DEBATE. 


all  the  great  and  illustrious  men  and  women  who  have  lived  before 
we  were  born  wasted  and  gone  forever?  After  a  few  short  days  are 
fled,  when  the  enjoyments  and  toils  of  life  are  over,  when  our  relish 
for  social  enjoyment,  and  our  desires  for  returning  to  the  fountain  of 
life  are  most  acute,  must  we  hang  our  heads  and  close  our  eyes  in  the 
desolating  and  appalling  prospect  of  never  opening  them  again,  of  nev¬ 
er  tasting  the  sweets  for  which  a  state  of  discipline  and  trial  has  so 
well  fitted  us. — These  are  the  awful  and  sublime  merits  of  the  question 
at  issue.  It  is  not  what  we  shall  eat,  nor  what  we  shall  drink,  unless 
we  shall  be  proved  to  be  mere  animals;  but  it  is,  shall  we  live  or  die 
forever?  It  is  as  beautifully  expressed  by  a  Christian  poet — 

Shall  spring  ever  visit  the  mouldering  urn? 

Shall  day  ever  dawn  on  the  night  of  the  grave? 

Here  Mb.  Owen  rose  and  said — 

Before  I  commence  the  opening  of  this  discussion  I  will  state  two 
axioms,  and  then  proceed. 

First  Axiom. — Truth  is  always  consistent  with  itself,  consequently, 
each  separate  truth  is  in  strict  accordance  with  every  other  truth  in 
the  universe.  Or  in  other  words — 

No  two  truths,  upon  subjects,  differing  the  most  widely  from  each 
ether,  can  ever  be  in  opposition  or  contradiction  to  each  other. 

Second  Axiom. — No  name  or  authority,  whatever  may  be  its  nature, 
can  change  truth  into  falsehood  or  falsehood  into  truth,  or  can,  in  any 
way,  make  that  which  is  true  to  be  false,  or  that  which  is  false  to  be 
true.  •  x 

For  truth  is  a  law  of  nature,  existing  independent  of  all  authority. 
Thus  it  is  a  law  of  nature,  that  one  and  one  make  two,  and  equally 
so  that  as  one  and  one  make  two,  two  and  two  make  four,  and  so  on 
©fall  the  combinations  of  numbers. 

Now  the  united  authorities  of  the  universe  could  not,  by  their  flat* 
change  these  laws  of  nature  and  determine  that  one  and  one  shall 
not  make  two,  but  three  or  any  other  number. 

Here  Mr.  Omen  begins  to  read  the  first  part  of  his  address. 

My  friends,  for  I  trust  we  are  all  friends,  we  meet  here  to¬ 
day  for  no  personal  consideration;  our  sole  object  is  to  ascertain 
facts,  from  which  true  principles  may  be  obtained  and  introduced 
into  practice  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race. 

The  discussion  which  I  am  about  to  open  between  Mr.  Campbell 
and  myself,  is  one  more  important  in  its  consequences  to  all  descrip¬ 
tions  of  men,  than  any,  perhaps,  which  has  hitherto  occurred  in  the 
annals  of  history. 

It  is  a  discussion  entered  upon  solely  writh  a  view,  as  I  believe,  to 
edicit  truth,  if  it  be  now  practicable,  on  subjects  the  most  interesting 
to  the  whole  family  of  mankind;  on  subjects  which  involve  the  hap¬ 
piness  or  misery  of  the  present  and  all  future  generations. 

And  our  intention  is  to  begin,  to  continue,  and  to  terminate  these 
proceedings  with  the  good  feelings,  which  ought  always  to  govern 
the  conduct  of  those  vdio  seek  truth  in  singleness  of  beast,  and  with 
a  sincere  desire  to  find  it. 


DEBATE.  21 

Hitherto  assuredly  all  mankind  have  been  trained  to  be  children 
of  some  national  or  local  district,  and,  in  consequence  they  have* 
been  made  to  acquire  errors  which  create,  over  the  world,  confusion 
of  Intellect  and  a  necessary  fatal  division  in  practice. 

We  now,  however,  propose  to  develope  facts,  and  truths  deduced 
from  them,  through  the  knowledge  of  which  these  local  prejudices 
shall  gradually  disappear,  and  be  finally  removed. 

We  propose  further  that,  through  a  knowledge  of  these  facts  and 
truths,  a  practice  shall  he  introduced  which  shall  enable  all  to  become 
affectionate  and  intelligent  members  of  one  family,  having  new 
hearts  and  new  minds,  and  whose  single  object,  through  life,  will 
be,  to  promote  each  others’  happiness  and  thereby  their  own. 

To  attain  this  great  end,  we  shall  not  now  attack  the  errors  of  any 
particular  local  district,  for,  by  so  doing,  the  evil  passions  and  bad  feel¬ 
ings  which  local  errors  engender,  are  aroused  and  brought  into  injuri¬ 
ous  action ;  but  universal  truths  shall  be  unfolded,  which  shall  destroy 
the  seeds  of  those  pernicious  passions  and  feelings,  and,  instead  thereof, 
produce  knowledge,  peace,  and  good  will  among  the  human  race. 

In  furtherance  of  this  mighty  change  in  the  destinies  of  mankind,  I 
am  now  to  prove  “that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  have  originated  in 
error;  that  they  are  directly  opposed  to  the  divine  unchanging  laws  of 
human  nature;  that  they  are  necessarily  the  source  of  vice,  disunion,  f 
and  misery ;  that  they  are  now  the  only  obstacle  to  the  formation  of  a 
society,  over  the  earth,  of  intelligence,  of  charity  in  its  most  extended 
sense,  and  of  sincerity  and  affection.  And  that  these  district  religions 
can  be  no  longer  maintained  in  any  part  of  the  world,  except  by  keep¬ 
ing  the  mass  of  the  people  in  ignorance  of  their  own  nature,  by  an  in¬ 
crease  of  the  tyranny  of  the  few  over  the  many.” 

It  is  my  intention  to  prove  these  all-important  truths,  not  by  exposing 
the  fallacies  of  the  sources  from  whence  each  of  these  local  religions 
has  originated;  but  by  bringing  forth,  for  public  examination,  the  facts 
which  determine  by  what  unchanging  laws  man  is  produced  and  his 
character  formed;  and  by  showing  how  utterly  inapplicable  all  there* 
ligions,  which  have  been  hitherto  invented  and  instilled  into  the  human 
mind,  are  to  a  being  so  created  and  matured. 

It  will  be  Mr.  Campbell’s  duty  to  endeavor  to  discover  error  in  this 
developement,  and,  if  he  shall  find  any,  to  make  the  error  known  to 
me,  and  to  the  public,  in  a  kind  and  friendly  manner. 

If,  however,  Mr.  Campbell  shall  not  detect  any  error  in  this  state¬ 
ment,  but,  on  the  contrary,  shall  find  that  it  is  a  plain  developement 
of  facts,  and  just  deductions  therefrom,  and  in  strict  accordance  with 
ail  other  known  facts,  and  well  ascertained  truths,  as  I  most  conscien¬ 
tiously  believe  it  to  be ;  then  will  it  be  equally  his  duty  to  declare,  to 
the  public,  this  truth  for  the  benefit  ofmankind. 

After  this  shall  be  done,  it  will  become  the  duty  and  interest  of  men  ? 
of  all  other  local  districts,  to  ascertain  the  truth  or  error  of  these  facts, 


*x» 

^w-sy 


DEBATE. 


and  of  the  consequences  to  which  it  is  stated  they  will  lead  in  prac* 
tice,  and  then,  in  the  same  kind  and  temperate  manner,  to  publish  in 
the  shortest  period,  after  such  examination,  the  result,  in  order  to  re^ 
move  error  and  establish  truth. 

It  is  only  by  this  just  and  equitable  mode  of  proceeding  that  truth 
can  be  elicited, and  made  manifest  for  the  good  of  mankind;  that  the 
real  cause  of  disunion  and  misery  can  be  detected  and  withdrawn 
from  society,  and  that,  in  place  thereof,  a  deep  and  lasting  foundation 
can  be  laid,  to  establish,  forever,  among  all  people, union,  peace,  char¬ 
ity,  and  affection. 

The  facts  from  which  I  am  compelled  to  believe  that  these  all- 
important  consequences  are  to  arise,  are : 

1st.  That  man,  at  his  birth,  is  ignorant  of  every  thing  relative  to 
his  own  organization,  and  that  he  has  not  been  permitted  to  create 
the  slightest  part  of  his  natural  propensities,  faculties,  or  qualities, 
physical  or  mental. 

2.  That  no  two  infants,  at  birth,  have  yet  been  known  to  possess  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  organization,  while  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
differences,  between  all  infants,  are  formed  without  their  knowledge 
or  will. 

3.  That  each  individual  is  placed,  at  birth,  without  his  knowledge 
or  consent,  within  circumstances,  which,  acting  upon  his  peculiar  or¬ 
ganization,  impress  the  general  character  of  those  circumstances  upon 
the  infant,  child,  and  man.  Yet  that  the  influence  of  those  circumstan¬ 
ces  is  to  a  certain  degree  modified  by  the  peculiar  natural  organiza¬ 
tion  of  each  individual. 

4.  That  no  infant  has  the  power  of  deciding  at  what  period  of  time 
or  in  what  part  of  the  world  he  shall  come  into  existence ;  of  whom  he 
shall  be  born,  in  what  distinct  religion  he  shall  be  trained  to  believe, 
or  by  what  other  circumstances  he  shall  be  surrounded  trom  birth  to 
death. 

5.  That  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  when  young,  he  may  be 
made  to  receive  impressions,  to  produce  either  true  ideas  or  false  no¬ 
tions,  and  beneficial  or  injurious  habits  and  to  retain  them  with  great 
tenacity. 

j6.  That  each  individual  is  so  created  that  he  must  believe  according 
to  the  strongest  impressions  that  are  made  on  his  feelings  and  other 
faculties,  while  his  belief  in  no  case  depends  upon  his  will. 

7.  That  each  individual  is  so  created  that  he  must  like  that  which 
is  pleasant  to  him,  or  that  which  produces  agreeable  sensations  on  his 
individual  organization,  and  he  must  dislike  that  which  creates^in  him 
unpleasant  and  disagreeable  sensations;  while  he  cannot  discover, 
previous  to  experience,  what  those  sensations  should  be. 

8.  That  each  individual  is  so  created  that,  the  sensations  made  upon 
his  organization,  although  pleasant  and  delightful  at  their  commence¬ 
ment  and  for  some  duration,  generally  become, when  continued  beyond 
a  certain  period,  without  change,  disagreeable  and  painful.  While* 


DEBATE. 


23 


on  the  contrary,  when  a  too  rapid  change  of  sensations  is  made  on  his 
organization,  it  dissipates,  weakens,  and  otherwise  injures  his  physical, 
intellectual  and  moral  powers  and  enjoyments. 

9.  That  Ihe  highest  health,  the  greatest  progressive  improvements, 
and  the  most  permanent  happiness  of  each  individual  depend  in  a  great 
degree  upon  the  proper  cultivation  of  all  his  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  faculties  and  powers  from  infancy  to  maturity,  and  upon  all 
these  parts  of  his  nature  being  duly  called  into  action,  at  their  proper 
period,  and  temperately  exercised  according  to  the  strength  and  capa¬ 
city  of  the  individual. 

10.  Tnatthe  individual  is  made  to  possess  and  to  acquire  the  irorst 
character,  when  his  organization  at  birth  has  been  compounded  of  the 
most  inferior  propensities,  faculties,  and  qualities  of  our  common  na¬ 
ture,  and  when  so  organized,  he  has  been  placed,  from  birth  to  death, 
amidst  the  most  vicious  or  worst  circumstances. 

11.  That  the  individual  is  made  to  possess  and  to  acquire  a  medium 
character,  when  his  original  organization  has  been  created  superior 9 
and  when  the  circumstances  which  surround  him  from  birth  to  death 
produce  continued  vicious  or  unfavorable  impressions.  Or  when  his 
organization  has  been  formed  of  inferior  materials,  and  the  circumstan¬ 
ces  in  which  he  has  been  placed1  from  birth  to  death  are  of  a  character 
to  produce  superior  impressions  only.  Or  when  there  has  been  some 
mixture  of  good  and  bad  qualities,  in  the  original  organization,  and 
when  it  had  also  been  placed,  through  life,  in  various  circumstances  of 
good  and  evil.  This  last  compound  has  been  hitherto  the  common  lot 
of  mankind. 

12.  That  the  individual  is  made  the  most  superior  of  bis  species  when 
his  original  organization  has  been  compounded  of  the  best  proportions 
of  the  best  ingredients  of  which  human  nature  is  formed,  and  when  the 
circumstances  which  surround  him  from  birth  to  death  are  of  a  char¬ 
acter  to  produce  only  superior  impressions;  or,  in  other  words,  when 
the  circumstances,  or  laws,  institutions,  and  customs,  in  which  he  is 
placed,  are  all  in  unison  with  his  nature. 

These  facts, remaining  the  same,  at  all  times  in  all  countries,  are  the 
divine  revelations  to  the  whole  human  race.  They  constitute  laws  of 
nature  not  of  man’s  invention;  they  exist  without  his  knowledge  or 
consent;  they  change  not  by  any  effort  he  can  make,  and  as  they  pro¬ 
ceed,  solely  from  a  power  or  a  cause  unknown  and  mysterious  to. 
him,  they  are  then  a  divine  revelation,  in  the  only  correct  sense  in 
which  the  term  can  be  applied. 

Considered  separately  and  united,  and  viewed  in  all  their  bearings 
and  consequences,  these  divine  laws  of  human  nature  fain  the  most 
perfect  foundation  for  a  divine  moral  code — -if  code  abundantly  suffi¬ 
cient  to  produce,  in  practice,  al!  virtue  in  the  individual  and  in  society, 
sufficient  to  enable  man,  through  a  correct  knowledge  thereof,  to 
“work  out  his  own  salvation”  from  sin  or  ignorance  and  misery,  and 
to  secure  the  happiness  of  his  whole  race. 

For  as  the  first  law  teaches  that,  as  all  men  are  created  by  a  power 
mysterious  and  unknown  to  themselves,  they  can  have  no  merit  or 


24 


DEBATE. 


demerit  for  their  original  formation  or  individual  organization;  that, 
consequently,  the  pride  of  birth  or  superior  physical  form  or  of  intel¬ 
lectual  capacity,  are  feelings  proceeding,  alone,  from  an  aberration 
of  intellect  produced  by  ignorance  and  therefore  irrational.  And  the 
second  law  teaches  us  that,  as  no  two  infants  are  born  alike,  and  as 
they  have  no  knowledge  how  the  difference  is  produced,  we  ought 
not  to  be  displeased  or  to  blame  any  individuals,  tribes,  or  people;  or 
to  be  less  f  riendly  to  them  because  they  have  been  made  to  differ  from 
us  in  color, form,  ox  features. 


The  third  law  teaches  us,  that  as  each  individual,  nt  birth,  may  be 
placed,  without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  within  circumstances,  to 
force  him  to  become  any  of  the  general  characters  now  known  to  exist 
in  any  part  of  the  world,  we  ought  not  to  be  displeased  with  the$e  who 
have  been  made  to  differ  from  ourselves  in  birth,  in  language,  in  reli¬ 
gion,  in  manners,  in  customs,  in  conditions,  in  thinking,  in  feeling,  or 
in  conduct.  On  the  contrary,  wre  are  taught  to  know  that  this  differ¬ 
ence,  to  whatever  extent  it  may  proceed,  is  no  more  than  a  necessary 
effect  arising  from  the  general,  national,  and  district  circumstances 
in  which  the)7  have  been  placed,  modified  by  the  peculiar  organization 
of  each  individual,  and  that,  as  neither  the  organization  or  these  cir¬ 
cumstances  were  formed  by  them,  to  be  surprised  or  displeased,  in 
consequence  of  their  existence,  is  a  certain  proof,  that  we,  ourselves, 
are  in  an  irrational  state,  and  influenced,  alone,  by  ignorance  of  our 
nature.  By  this  law  we  are  further  taught,  that  all  feelings  of  anger 
and  irritation  will  entirely  cease,  as  soon  as  we  shall  acquire  a  real 
knowledge  of  our  nature;  that  these  feelings  belong  to  man  only  du¬ 
ring  his  irrational  state  of  existence,  and  that  when  he  becomes  en¬ 
lightened,  and  shall  be  made  a  rational  being,  they  will  no  longer  be 
found  in  human  society.  Instead  of -these  irrational  feeling,  engem 
uered  solely  by  ignorance  of  this  law  of  our  common  nature,  we 
shall,  through  a  knowledge  of  it,  acquire  a  never-ceasing,  never-tiring 
practical  charity  for  the  whole  human  race ;  a  charity  so  efficient,  so 
s  incere,  and  so  pure,  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  any  one,  thus  taught 
from  infancy,  to  think  ill  of,  or  to  desire  the  slightest  injury  to,  any 
one  of  his  fellow  beings,. 


! 


i 

i 

:: 


i 


By  the  fourth,  fifth, and  sixth  laws,  we  are  taught  that  a  knowledge 
of  the  principles  contained  in  the  preceding  laws,  is  so  essential  to  the 
well  being  of  the  human  race,  that  it  is  again  and  again  reiterated, 
through  each  of  these  laws,  in  every  form  the  most  likely  to  make  the 
deepest  impressions  on  our  minds.  They  express,  in  language  which 
no  one  can  misunderstand,  the  ignorance  and  folly 'of  individual  pride 
and  assumed  consequences  on  account  of  birth,  religion,  learning, 
manners,  habits,  or  any  other  acquirement  or  qualification,  physical, 
intellectual,  or  moral;  and  give  an  entire  new  and  different  direction 
to  all  our  thoughts,  feelings,  and  actions,  and  v.  e  shall  no  longer  con* 
skier  man  f  >rmed  to  be  the  ignorant,  vicious,  and  degraded  being,  that, 
heretofore,  he  has  been  compelled  to  appear,  whether  covered  by  the 
garb  of  savage  or  civilized  life. 


DEBATE. 


The  seventh  law  teaches  us,  that  there  is  no  power,  and  pf  course 
no  right  in  one  man  to  attempt  to  compel  another  to  like  or  dislike  any 
thing  or  any  person  at  his  bidding  or  command ;  for  this  law  shows, 
/  that  liking  or  disliking,  as  well  as  believing  or  disbelieving,  are  invo¬ 
luntary  acts  of  our  nature,  and  are  the  necessary,  and  therefore,  the 
right  impressions  made  upon  our  senses.  Merit  and  demerit,  therefore, 
for  liking  or  disliking,  for  believing  or  disbelieving,  will  be  no  long¬ 
er  attributed  to  man,  than  while  the  human  race  remains  in  an  irra- 
tiondjtafe.  Marriage,  prostitution,  jeafeusy,  and  the  endless  sexual 
ciTmes  and  diseases,  which  these  have  engendered,  have  arisen  solely 
from  ignorance  of  this  fundamental  or  divine  law  of  our  nature ;  and, 
in  consequence,  real  chastity  is  unknowm  among  the  greater  part  of 
the  human  race ;  but,  in  place  thereof,  a  spurious  chastity  exists,  pro¬ 
ducing  insincerity,  falsehood,  deception,  and  dissimulation. 

The  eighth  and  ninth  laws  teach  us  the  necessity  for,  and  the  ad¬ 
vantages  to  be  derived  from,  cultivating  and  duly  exercising  all  the 
propensities,  faculties,  and  powers  with  which  nature  has  supplied  us, 
and  the  folly  of  permitting  any  one  of  them  to  lie  dormant,  unused, 
or  unenjoyed,  or  to  be  over-exerted  and  injured.  These  laws  thus 
teach  us  the  benefit  of  well  directed  industry,  the  evil  of  idleness,  and 
the  all-importnnce  of  temperance  in  the  use  of  each  of  our  faculties, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  and  the  lamentable  error  man  has 
committed,  through  ignorance,  in  every  department  of  human  society. 
He  has  divided  and  subdivided  the  physical  and  intellectual  faculties 
among  various  classes  of  individuals,  while  the  laws  of  our  nature  have 
determined  that  the  highest  happiness  human  nature  is  formed  to  ex¬ 
perience  must  be  derived  from  a  temperate  exercise  of  all  its  powrers 
of  enjoyment, 

The  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth  laAvs  teach  us  by  unfolding,  in  the 
most  plain  and  obvious  manner,  how  the  varied  character  of  man  has 
been  formed,  what  practical  measures  must  be  adopted  before  man 
can  become  an  intelligent  and  rational  being;  that  he  must  be  trained 
and  educated  from  infancy  to  maturity,  altogether  different  from  what 
he  has  been,  in  order  that  he  may  be  taught  to  acquire,  without  excep¬ 
tion,  kind  feelings,  superior  dispositions,  habits,  manners,  knowledge, 
and  conduct;  the  difference  between  them  being  in  variety  and  de¬ 
gree,  but  never  in  kind  and  quality.  The  character  w  ill  be  thus  ol- 
ways  formed  to  be  good  to  the  extent  that  the  natural  powers  will  per¬ 
mit  it  to  be  carried ;  but  as  we  have  been  taught,  by  all  the  preceding 
laws,  that  no  individual  can  form  any  part  of  his  natural  powders,  none 
will  be  blamed  or  will  suffer  in  consequence  of  possessing  incurable 
natural  defects,  but,  on  the  contrary,  all  will  have  pleasure  in  devis¬ 
ing  and  applying  means  to  diminish  their  inconvenience.  By  these 
lawTs,  we  are  taught,  that  the  proper  training  and  education  of  the 
young  of  the  rising  generation,  is,  by  far,  the  most  important  ofallthe 
departments  of  the  society,  and  will  receive  the  first  consideration,  as 
soon  as  men  can  be  . found  to  be  rational.  That  there  is  but  one  sim¬ 
ple  principle  applicable  to  this  practice,  and  it  is,  o  remove  all  the 
vicious  circumstances  now  existing  in  the  laws,  institutions,  and  cus- 

3 


DEBATE, 


26 

terns  which  man,  through  ignorance,  has  introduced,  in  opposition  to 
the  laws  of  human  nature,  and,  in  their  place,  establish  virtuous  cir¬ 
cumstances,  that  is  laws,  institutions,  and  customs,  in  unison  with  the 
divine  or  natural  lawrs  of  human  nature.  These  laws  teach  that  all 
human  w  isdom  consists  alone  in  this  mode  of  acting,  and  that,  w  hat¬ 
ever  conduct  man  may  adopt  w  hich  differs  from  it,  emanates  from  ig¬ 
norance,  and  must  be  irrational. 

And  from  these  divine  laws  we  learn  generally,  that  man  is  now, 
and  ever  has  been,  a  being  essentially  formed  according  to  the  nature, 
hind,  and  qualities  of  the  circumstances  in  which  he  is  permitted  to 
live  by  his  immediate  predecessors.  That  when  these  circumstances 
are  of  an  inferior  and  vicious  character,  man,  of  necessity,  while  under 
fh^ir  influence,  must  become  inferior  and  vicious;  an'<J  when  these  cir¬ 
cumstances  are  of  a  superior  and  virtuous  character,  in  like  manner, 
while  under  their  influence,  he  must  become  superior  and  virtuous. 

The  great  business  of  human  life,  in  a  rational  state  of  society, 
will  be,  therefore,  to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  science  of 
the  influence  of  circumstances  over  human  nature,  both  previous  and 
subsequent  to  birth ;  to  prepare  the  means  by  w  hich  all  shall  be  taught 
to  understand  the  principles  and  practices  by  w  hich  each  of  the  infe¬ 
rior  or  vicious  circumstances,  surrounding  human  life,  may  be  with¬ 
drawn,  in  the  shortest  time,  with  the  least  inconvenience,  to  all,  and 
replaced  by  others  which  shall  benefit  everyone. 

The  knowledge  of  this  new  code  will  thus  speedily  lead  to  a  new 
life,  in  which  all  men  will  be  regularly  trained  from  infancy,  to  ac¬ 
quire  the  most  valuable  knowledge  with  the  best  dispositions,  habits, 
manners,  and  conduct. 

Under  tins  new  dispensation,  their  characters  w  ill  be  so  completely 
changed  or  new-formed,  that,  in  comparison  of  what  they  have  been 
and  arc,  they  will  become  beings  of  a  superior  order;  they  will  be  ra¬ 
tional  in  all  their  thoughts,  words,  and  actions. 

They  will  be  indeed  regenerated,  for  “their  minds  will  be  born 
again”  and  old  things  will  be  made  to  “pass  awray  and  all  to  become 
new.” 

This  in  our  day,  in  part,  but  more  fully  and  completely  in  the  next 
succeeding  generation,  shall  the  prophecies  of  the  partial  knowledge  of 
the  post  times  he  fulfilled,  not,  indeed,  by  disturbing  the  whole  system 
of  the  universe,  by  any  supposed  fanciful  miracles,  effected  in  oppo¬ 
sition  to  the  unchanging  lawrs  of  nature,  but  they  will  be  accomplish¬ 
ed  by  the  regular  progress  of  those  laws,  which  from  the  beginning, 
were  abundantly  sufficient  to  execute  in  due  time  all  the  purposes  of 
that  power  from  which  these  laws  proceed. 

The  principles  and  practice  thus  developed  of  the  newr  moral  code, 
is  a  mere  outline  of  the  mighty  change  which  it  will  effect;  imperfect 
however,  as  it  is,  it  is  yet  sufficient  to  afford  some  idea  of  the  advanta¬ 
ges  which  a  progress  in  real  knowledge,  derived  from  simple  facts  and 
almost  self-evident  truths,  can  give  to  the  world. 

These  tw  elve  primary  law  s  of  human  nature  also  form  a  standard, 
by  which  moral  and  religious  truth  or  falsehood  can  be  unerringly 


DEBATE. 


known;  for  as  truth  must  be  one  throughout  the  universe*  no  two  truths 
can  ever  be,  at  any  tuns  or  in  any  place,  in  opposition  to  each  other, 
and  therefore,  all  that  shall  be  found,  under  every  varied  comparison, 
to  be  in  unison  with  these  divine  laws,  must  be  true,  while  all  that  is 
in  discordance  with  them  must  be  false.  By  the  application,  there™ 
fore,  of  this  standard,  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  all  religious  and  moral 
codes  will  be  discovered,  and  the  utility  or  injury  of  all  institutions 
will  be  easily  ascertained. 

Were  we  now,  in  detail,  to  apply  this  divine  standard  of  truth  to 
all  the  past  and  present  civil  and  religious  codes,  it  would  soon  be  ¬ 
come  manifest  that  they  have,  one  and  all,  originated  in  times  of 
great  darkness,  when  men  were  too  ignorant  of  their  own  nature, 
and  of  the  most  simple  laws  of  nature,  generally,  to  detect  imposi¬ 
tion  or  error,  however  incongruous  or  contradictory  one  part  of  it 
might  be  to  another. 

That  these  religious  and  moral  codes  were  produced  at  a  period 
when  men  were  without  sufficient  experience  to  “understand  what 
manner  of  beings  they  were,”  and  when  the  wildest  and  most  in™ 
Coherent  flights  of  the  imagination,  of  some  deluded  individuals, 
were  received  as  the  inspirations  of  some  single  or  compound  divini¬ 
ty.  That  these  imaginary  inspired  individuals,  themselves  deluded 
by  an  overheated  imagination,  or  intending  to  delude  their  followers, 
succeeded,  at  different  times,  in  various  parts  of  the  earth,  in  pro¬ 
mulgating,  by  force,  fraud,  or  ignorance,  the  most  unnatural  fables 
and  the  most  obscure  and  contradictory  doctrines. 

And  as  such  doctrines  and  fables  could  not,  at  first,  be  received, 
except  through  force,  fraud,  or  ignorance,  they  have  been  the  cause 
of  shedding  the  blood  of  the  most  conscientious  and  best  men  in  all 
countries,  of  deluging  the  world  with  all  manner  of  crime,  and  in 
producing  all  kinds  of  suffering  and  misery. 

But  to  apply  this  standard  to  these  systems,  fables,  and  doctrines, 
in  detail,  would  be  to  proceed  contrary  to  the  plan  laid  down  at  the 
commencement.  It  .would  be,  to  arouse  all  the  ignorant  prejudices 
and  bad  feelings  which  these  institutions  have  implanted  in  the 
human  constitution,  at  so  early  an  age  as  to  induce  many  to  believe 
that  they  really  form  part  of  our  original  organization. 

Suffice  it,  however,  to  say,  that  these  fables  and  doctrines,  one  and 
all,  are  in  direct  opposition  to  the  twelve  primary  Jaws  of  human 
nature;  that,  consequently,  they  run  counter  to  nature,  and  gener¬ 
ally  make  virtue  to  consist  in  thinking  and  acting  contrary  to  nature ; 
and  vice,  in  thinking  and  acting  in  unison  with  nature.  Through 
these  irrational  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong,  these  religious  laws 
and  institutions  have  filled  the  world  with  innumerable  useless, 
absurd,  or  horrible  forms  and  ceremonies,  instead  of  the  simple  prac¬ 
tice  of  virtue  in  accordance  with  our  nature.  They  have  created 
such  a  multiplicity  of  folly,  confusion,  and  irrationality,  that  there 
is  no  one  “that  knoweth  or  doeth  what  is  right:  po,  not  one.” 

For  instead  of  producing  real  knowledge,  they  perpetuate  ignor¬ 
ance;  instead  of  creating  abundance,  without  an}'  fear  of  want,  they 


DEBATE. 


2‘S 

produce  poverty,  or  the  perpetual  fear  of  it*  Instead  of  permitting 
the  regular  exercise  of  the  propensities,  formed  by  nature  to  promote 
health  and  happiness,  they  force  them,  by  unnatural  restraints,  to 
become  violent  passions,  which  interfere  with,  and  disturb  every 
beneficial  arrangement  that  can  be  devised  for  the  amelioration  of 
society.  Thus  engendering  the  worst  feelings  that  Can  be  implanted 
in  human  nature,  instead  of  the  best.  They  produce  hypocrisy  and 
every  coneeiveabie  deception,  instead  of  sincerity  and  truth  without  j 
any  guile  ;  anger  and  irritation,  instead  of  commiseration  and  kindness*; 
war,  instead  of  peace;  religious  massacred,  instead  of  universal  chari¬ 
ty;  hatred,  suspicions,  opposition,  and  disunion,  instead  of  confidence, 
mutual  aid,  union,  and  affection,  among  the  w  hole  fftmily  of  mankind. 

And  thus,  by  these  contradictory  fables  and  doctrines,  with  their  in¬ 
numerable  useless  and  deteriorating  forms  and  ceremonies,  the  earth 
has  been  filled  with  all  manner  o i strife  and  confusion ,  even  to  the  mad 
destruction  of  whole  nations  and  tribes,  creating  miseries  which  it 
would  exhaust  language  to  describe. 

And  so  long  as  any  of  these  fables  and  doctrines  shall  be  taught,  as 
divine  truths,  by  men  who  have  a  supposed  interest  in  their  promulga¬ 
tion,  and  in  their  reception  by  the  ignorant  multitude ;  so  long,  we  are 
compelled  to  believe,  will  all  these  vicious  evils  prevail  and  increase; 

It  is  now  evident  to  me,  that  all  codes  or  laws,  to  be  beneficial  to 
mankind,  and  to  be  permanent,  must  be,  without  exception,  in  accor¬ 
dance  with  all  the  divine  laws  of  human  nature. 

For  when  human  laws  are  opposed  to  divine  laws,  confusion,  crimes, 
and  misery  are  sure  to  be  produced.  We  have  seen  that  all  past  and 
present  human  laws  and  institutions,  are  in  opposition  to  those  laws, 
which  experience  has  now  ascertained  to  be  the  divine  law’s  of  human 
nature,  and  they  have,  therefore,  undergone  continual  change  and  pro¬ 
duced  continual  disappointment. 

When  men  shall  acquire  sufficient  wisdom  or  experience  to  induce 
them  to  abrogate  all  existing  laws  and  institutions  which  are  unnatu¬ 
ral,  and  to  contend  no  longer  against  the  divine  laws  of  human  na¬ 
ture,  but  shall  agree  to  adjust  their  governments  and  institutions  sole¬ 
ly  by  those  lawrs ;  then,  and  not  before,  will  peace  be  established  on 
earth  and  good  will  among  mankind. 

It  is  the  popular  belief  which  prevails  in  all  countries  in  the  suppo¬ 
sed  divine  authority  for  these  fables  and  doctrines,  that  alone  keeps 
men  now  in  ignorance  of  their  nature,  of  the  divine  law’s  of  which  it 
is  organized  at  birth  and  conducted  to  maturity  and  death.  And  this 
popular  belief  is  produced  in  each  of  these  countries,  solely  by  the 
early  and  long  continued  impressions,  forced  on  the  minds  ol  the  pop¬ 
ulation  by  the  most  unnatural  and  artificial  means. 

For  these  impressions  are  forced  into  the  young  mind  before  the 
intellectual  faculties  are  matured,  when  they  are  wholly  incompetent 
to  know  good  from  evil,  right  from  wrong,  or  truth  from  error. 

It  is  thus  that  children  are  compelled  to  receive  as  divine  truths  -the  . 
fables  and  doctrines  prevalent  in  the  country  in  which  they  happen 
to  be  born  and  live.  It  is  thus  that  men  are  made  to  deride  and  vilify? 


DEBATE. 


29 


those  fables  and  doctrines,  in  opposition  to  their  own,  which  are  also 
taught  in  other  countries  as  divine  truths,  of  which  it  is  the  most  hem- 
ous  crime  even  to  doubt.  It  is  thus  that  men  are  compelled  to  dislike  ■ 
and  hate  and  contend  against  each  other  even  to  death,  for  a  difference 
of  opinion  respecting  some  of  these  fanciful  fables  or  doctrines  which 
were  formed  in  them,  without  their  knowledge,  will,  or  consent.  And 
all  this  evil  and  misery  has  been  created,  solely,  for  the  supposed  ben¬ 
efit  of  the  governing  few,  and  of  the  priesthood.  And  it  is  thus  that 
Pagans,  Gentoos,  and  Cannibals,  that  Hindoos,  Chinese,  Jews,  and 
Mahometans  are  made  at  this  day ;  and,  my  friends,  it  is,thus,and  thus 
alone ,  that  you  have  been  made,  and  that  you  are  making  your  chil¬ 
dren  Christians. 

Mr.  Owen  read  at  this  time  50  minutes 9  and  required  a  few  minutes 
more  to  finish  this  part  of  his  manuscript. 

Mr.  Chairman  states ,  that ,  conformably  to  the  preliminaries  of  the 
discussion ,  the  addresses  of  the  disputants  must  be  co-extensive  in  dura¬ 
tion.  Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — At  this  stage  of  the  discussion  I  do  not  wish  to  occupy 
mmy  minutes  in  descanting  upon  the  method  of  debate ;  but  I  must  beg 
to  be  indulged  in  a  few  general  remarks  on  the  matter  or  the  allegata  oi 
this  discussion,  and  the  method  adopted  by  my  opponent.  I  do  cherish 
the  most  kind  feelings  towards  Mr.  Owen.  I  am  sorry  that  controver¬ 
sial  rules  require  me  to  call  him  my  opponent.  This  term  I  use  with 
perfect  good  will  towards  him.  I  am  satisfied  that  Mr.  Owen  is  doing 
that  which  he  conceives  to  be  just  and  right.  I  take  this  occasion  ex¬ 
plicitly  to  declare  that  such  is  my  conviction.  At  the  same  time  I  am 
just  as  fully  persuaded  that  the  aberrations  and  mistakes  into  which  he 
has  fallen  are  properly  referrable,  not  so  much  to  any  want  of  verity 
in  his  documents,  as  to  his  looqe  and  illogical  reasonings  upon  what  he 
is  pleased  to  call  “facts”  and  “laws  of  nature .” 

My  friend  and  opponent  has  stated  some  facts  accordant  with  the 
experience  of  all  mankind.  To  discriminate  his  real  from  his  imagi¬ 
nary  facts  is  not  now  my  object,  so  much  as  it  is  to  advert  to  the  method 
he  adopts.  His  manner ,  rather  than  his  matter ,  now  clairfis  my  atten¬ 
tion.  His  manner  is  certainly  loose  and  declamatory;  and  as  he  does 
not  exhibit  any  bearing  or  connexion  existing  between  his  allegata 
and  the  affirmative  propositions  which  he  intends  to  prove  by  them, 
he  necessarily  imposes  upon  himself  as  well  as  the  audience.  There¬ 
fore,  in  order  to  bring  the  allegata  and  probata  of  our  logical  disputa¬ 
tion  (for  I  trust  this  is  to  be  a  logical  disputation)  in  a  more  orderly 
way  before  us,  it  will  be  necessary  for  me  to  advert  to  the  original 
propositions  which  have  been  mutually  acceded  to,  as  constituting  the 
topics  of  the  discussion  at  present  before  us. 

Here  Mr.  Campbell  reads  the  propositions  which  Mr.  Owen  stood 
pledged  to  prove : — 

“TO  THE  CLERGY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. 

“Gentlemen — I  have  now  finished  a  course  of  lectures  in  this  city, 
the  principles  of  which  are  in  direct  opposition  to  those  which  you  have 
been  taught  it  your  duty  to  preach.  It  is  of  immense  importance  to’ 

3* 


m 


DEBATE. 


the  world  that  truth  Upon  these  momentous  subjects  should  be  now 
established  upon  a  certain  and  sure  foundation*  You  and  I,  and  all 
our  fellow-men,  are  deeply  interested  that  there  should  be  no  further 
delay.  With  this  view,  without  one  hostile  or  unpleasant  feeling  on 
my  part,  I  propose  a  friendly  public  discussion,  the  most  open  that  the 
city  of  New  Orleans  will  afford,  or,  if  you  prefer  it,  a  more  private 
meeting;  when  half  a  dozen  friends  of  each  party  shall  be  present, 
in  addition  to  half  a  dozen  gentlemen  whom  you  may  associate  with 
you  in  the  discussion.  The  time  and  place  of  meeting  to  be  of  your 
own  appointment.” 

“I  propose  to  prove,  as  I  have  already  attempted  to  do  in  my  lec- 
I  tures,  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  have  been  founded  on  the 
!  ignorance  of  mankind ;  that  they  are  directly  opposed  to  the  never- 
changing  laws  of  our  nature;  that  they  have  been,  and  are,  the  real 
source  of  vice,  disunion,  and  misery  of  every  description;  that  they 
are  now  the  only  real  bar  to  the  formation  of  a  society  of  virtue,  of 
intelligence,  of  charity  in  its  most  extended  sense,  and  of  sincerity 
and  kindness  among  the  whole  human  family;  and  that  they  can  be 
no  longer  maintained  except  through  the  ignorance  of  the  mass  of 
the  people,  and  the  tyranny  of  the  few  over  that  mass.” 

“With  feelings  of  perfect  good  will  to  you,  which  extend  also  in 
perfect  sincerity  to  all  mankind,  I  subscribe  myself  your  friend  in  a 
just  cause.” 

“ROBERT  OWEN.” 

“Mrs.  Herries ,  Chartres  st.  New  Orleans,  Jan.  28, 1828.” 

Now,  said  Mr.  Campbell,  it  is  surely  illogical  to  say  that  what  will 
logically  prove  the  first  position,  will  logically  prove  the  second.  If 
each  of  these  positions  is  to  be  distinctively  asserted,  the  facts  and 
reasonings  supporting  each  must  be  as  distinctively  adduced.  Each 
position  requires  a  regular  induction  of  facts  and  documents  to  sustain 
it.  There  can  be  no  separation,  of  argument  from  fallacy  by  the 
clear  simple  rules  of  pure  unsophisticated  logic,  if  we  deal  in  such 
loose  and  general  declamations.  Our  argumentation  might  thus  be 
drawn  out  ad  infinitum ,  without  the  remotest  probability  of  ever  ar¬ 
riving  at  any  logical  conclusion.  If  truth  is  to  be  elicited,  for  the 
love  of  truth  let  us  close  the  door  against  the  admission  of  all  extrane^ 
oas  and  irrelevant  matter. 

We  have  hoard  some  positions,  called  “twelve  facts,”  or  “twelve 
fundamental  laws,”  stated;  but  the  question  ( 'logi.ee )  is,  What  are 
these  “twelve  facts”  to  prove?  How  are  they  logically  to  be  applied ? 
To  the  first,  second,  or  to  all  these  five  positions?  I  must  reiterate 
that  what  may  logically  prove  the  first  position,  cannot,  ex  necessitate , 
prove  the  last ;  and  that  such  facts  and  reasonings  as  may  prove  the 
last,  cannot  prove  the  first.  We  must  have  a  regular  logical  connexion, 
and  dependence  between  the  allegata  and  probata.  Without  this, 
how  can  our  hearers  or  readers  learn  (for  this  is  matter  for  the  press) 
how  much  logical  argument, how  much  fact,  how  much  demonstration 
has  been  elicited  in  this  discussion? 


•  DEBATE, 


31' 


I  now  state  another  preliminary  difficulty  or  objection  to  our  modus 
operands  which  a  feeling  of  self-respect  requires  me  to  have  removed  . 
It  is  not  improbable,  from  the  turn  that  things  have  taken,  that  there 
are  numbers  who  at  this  moment  misapprehend  the  true  object  of  this 
‘controversy.  From  a  letter  which  appeared  in  the  London  Times  last 
October,  it  had  been  stated  in  the  public  prints  in  this  city,  that  I  had 
agreed  to  meet  Mr.  Owen  for  an  object,  toto  e&lo ,  different  from  that 
contemplated  in  my  acceptance  of  Mr.  Owen’s  challenge. 

In  that  communication  I  was  represented  as  being  about  to  co¬ 
operate  with  Mr.  Owen  in  an  attempt  to  expunge  the  abuses  of  all 
religions,  and  to  form  out  of  *hem  all  a  consistent  and  rational  religion 
adapted  to  all  ages  and  nations.  But  we  shall  permit  this  letter  to 
speak  for  itself: — 

“LETTER  IN  THE  LONDON  TIMES. 

“Sir — I  authorise  you  to  state  that  the  paragraph  which  appeared,  in 
the  Times  and  some  other  London  papers,  a  few  days  since,  purporting 
to  give  a  detail  of  my  intended,  proceedings,  and  which  was  copicdfrom 
the  Scotsman  newspaper,  published  in  Edinburgh,  was  given  to  the 
public  without  my  knowledge,  and  that  it  is  incorrect  in  some  important 
particulars .  The  object  of  the  meeting  between  the  clergy  and  myself  \ 
in  April  next,  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  state  of  Ohio,  in  the  United 
States,  is  not  to  discuss  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  Christian  religion , 
as  stated  in  the  Scotsman,  but  to  ascertain  the  errors  in  all  religions 
which  prevent  them  from  being  efficacious  in  practice,  and,  to  bring  out 
all  that  is  really  valuable  in  each,  leaving  out  their  errors ,  and  thus  to 
form  from  them  collectively  a  religion  wholly  true  and  consistent ,  that  it 
may  become  universal,  and  he  acted  upon  conscientiously  by  all? 

“ Neither  is  it  my  intention  to  remove  finally  from  this  country ,  as 
stated  in  the  Scotsman.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  purposely  made  ar¬ 
rangements  to  be,  without  inconvenience,  in  any  part  of  the  world  in 
which  my  earnest  endeavors  to  ameliorate  the  present  condition  of  society 
shall  appear  to  be  the  most  useful ,  as  I  do  not  entertain  the  least  doubt  of 
an  entire  change  being  near  at  hand,  in  the  commercial,  political,  and 
religious  polity  of  all  nations .” 

uThe  very  small  amount  of  benefits  that  is  effected  for  the  great  mass 
of  mankind,  with  the  extraordinary  powers  for  ensuring  general  pros¬ 
perity,  now  possessed  by  society,  united  with  the  daily  grow? g  intelli¬ 
gence  of  the  population  in  civilized  countries ,  render,  1  think,  this  change 
not  only  unavoidable,  but  not  very  distant .” 

“ROBERT  OWEN.” 


You  will  perceive  that  this  representation  of  this  discussion  is  very 
different  from  Mr.  Owen’s  challenge,  published  in  New  Orleans,  upon 
which  the  debate  is  based.  I  now  put  the  question  to  my  friend  Mr. 
Owen  categorically,  whether  I  ever  did,  directly,  or  indirectly,  ac¬ 
cede  to,  or  propose,  a  scheme  of  the  character  portrayed  in  this  letter? 
This  is  a  question  which  Mr.  Owen  will  soon  have  an  opportunity  to 
meet  and  answer.  Mr.. Owen’s  simple  affirmation  or  negation  ee  this 
porftf  will  clear  up  the  whole  of  this  preliminary  difficulty,  and  exoner- 


DEBATE. 


52 

ate  me  from  the  calumnies  of  one  of  the  editors  of  this  city.  And 
while  on  the  subject  of  preliminary  difficulties,  it  is  necessary  for  me 
to  remark,  that  there  can  be  no  developement  of  logical  truth  without 
the  nicest  precision  and  co-intelligence  in  the  use  of  our  terms.  It  .is 
a  rule  of  logical  interpretation,  that  all  words  are  to  be  received  and 
understood  according  to  their  most  usual  and  known  acceptation ;  and 
if  there  is  to  be  any  co-intelligence  in  the  use  of  terms  between  Mr, 
Owen  and  myself,  he  must  not  establish  a  peculiar  vocabulary  of  his 
own,  but  permit  me  to  understand  his  terms  according  to  their  usual 
arid  most  ordinary  acceptation.  Let  me  not  be  supposed  destitute  of  a 
just  contempt  for  mere  verbal  criticism  or  hypercriticism.  I  am  not 
contending  that  if  the  law  of  the  state  of  Ohio  should  say  that  whoever 
drew  blood  in  Cincinnati  should  suffer  death,  that  this  law  should  be 
interpreted  to  apply  to  the  case  of  a  surgeon  who  opened  the  vein  of  a 
man  who  fell  down  in  Main  street  with  a  fit.  But  I  do  contend  that 
between  Mr.  Owen  and  myself,  there  must  be,  in  the  course  of  this 
discussion,  (if  it  is  to  be  governed  by  polemic  laws)  a  co-intelligence, 
co-application,  and  co-acceptation  of  such  terms  as  are  of  cardinal 
importance  in  the  questions  at  issue.  For  example,  the  terms,  divine , 
divinity,  religion ,  virtue ,  moral  law ,  created ,  Creator ,  <fec.  &c.  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Christian  vocabulary.  These  terms  Mr.  Owen  uses ; 
but  in  what  sense  ?  In  the  Christian  acceptation,  or  in  a  private  inter¬ 
pretation  of  his  own?  1  may  very  appositely  inquire  of  Mr.  Owen 
whether  he  has  not  a  peculiar  phraseology  of  his  own,  and  whether  he 
does  not  annex  a  very  different  meaning  to  these  terms,  divine ,  divinity , 
religion ,  intellectual ,  moral ,  virtue ,  vice ,  <fec.  from  what  he  may  ration¬ 
ally  suppose  is  my  acceptation  of  them  and  that  of  all  other  Christians  ? 
Is  it  candid  or  honest  to  use  our  terms  in  a  sense  different  from  that 
we  have  stipulated  ?  I  hold  myself  bound  to  render  the  most  precise 
definition  of  any  term  which  I  may  use,  when  called  upon  by  my  op¬ 
ponent;  wherefore  I  apprehend  that  he  cannot  complain  that  I  should 
mete  out  the  same  measure  to  him,  and  insist  on  the  like  precision 
and  perspicuity  on  his  part.  If  Mr.  Owen  will  use  Bible  terms,  let 
him  use  them  in  the  Bible  sense,  or  tell  us  honestly  what  mean- 
inghe  attaches  to  them.  He  must  either  believe  in  the  Bible,  or  he 
conceives  its  language  superior  to  all  other  language,  or  he  would  not 
•impose  upon  our  understanding  by  a  parade  of  words,  well  approved 
in  the  vulgar  sense,  but  rejected  in  his  acceptation.  But  I  confine 
not  this  inquiry  nor  these  remarks  to  Bible  terms  only,  but  to  all  the 
current  terms  in  religious  discussion,  morality  and  philosophy.  Every 
thing  depends  upon  precision  and  co-intelligence  in  the  use  of  terms. 

I  apprehend  it  is  altogether  unnecessary  to  elaborate  this  matter  any 
further.  Will  Mr,  O  wen  have  the  goodness  to  explain  himself  in  this 
particular?  The  simple  naked  question  is,  Does  Mr.  Owen  use  cer¬ 
tain  very  significant  terms,  such  as  those  specified,  in  th£  commonly 
recei'  ed  significance  ? 

I  would  appeal  to  the  gentlemen  who  moderate  this  discussion  whe¬ 
ther  the  exceptions  I  have  taken  to  the  course  pursued  by  Mr.  Owen, 
are  not  reasonable;  whether  the  queries  I  have  proposed  to  him  for 


DEBATE. 


as 

^oluiioiij  are  not  pertinent  and  necessary;  and,  especially,  I  would 
request  them  to  decide  one  important  question  of  order,  viz.  Whether 
Mr.  Owen  is  not  logically  bound  to  show  some  logical  connexion  be¬ 
tween  the  matter  he  reads  and  some  one  of  the  positions  he  has  under¬ 
taken  to  prove.  The  same  matter  cannot  be  received  in  evidence  of 
each  position;  it  must  apply  to  some  one  in  particular;  it  cannot  to  all$ 
unless  they  be  identical  positions. 

♦  Here  it  was  suggested  to  Mr,  Owen ,  ( whether  by  the  Board  or  by  Mr. 

Campbell  the  Reporter  cannot  recollect ,)  that  all  the  arguments  which 
he  might  be  about  to  introduce  in  support  of  any  one  of  his  positions 
might  have  exclusive  relevance ,  and  pertinence ,  and  logical  connexion , 
with  that  single  position.  The  Board  thought  that  Mr.  Owen  was ,  logi- 
ee,  bound  to  exhibit  the  logical  connexion  and  dependance  between  his 
proofs  and  positions.  (  The  Reporter  believes  that  Mr.  Campbell  uttered 
the  last  sentence ,  and  not  the  honorable  Chairman .)* 

Mr.  Campbell  proceeded— As  matters  now  stand,  every  thing  is 
perfectly  intangible.  There  has  been  nothing  presented  that  mortal 
man  can  logically  prove  or  disprove— -no  matter  whether  he  espouses 
the  affirmative  or  negative  of  the  proposition.  And  why  ?  The  why 
is  as  plain  as  the  way  to  the  parish  church.  The  why  is,  that  there  is 
not  a  single  quod  erat  demonstrandumlogicaWy  before  Mr.  Owen,  myself, 
or  the  audience.  It  must,  I  repeat,  be  obvious  to  men  of  the  plainest 
understanding  that  the  clear  and  simple  rules  of  unsophisticated  logic, 
(indispensable  to  the  elicitation  of  truth  in  all  literary  questions,)  can 
never  be  brought  to  bear,  or  to  apply  in  the  present  vascillating 
state  of  the  premises.  In  this  chaotic  state  of  the  premises,  what  can 
Mr.  Owen’s  twelve  fundamental  laws,  or,  as  he  calls  them  facts,  prove, 
even  admitting  that  they  carried  along  with  them  internal  evidence  of 
their  own  absolute  verity. 

Now  were  I  to  admit  that  Mr.  Owen’s  laws  contained  a  great  many 
facts,  and  this  I  am  by  no  means  unwilling  to  admit,  yet  how  can  I 
save  any  one  of  these  facts  from  the  general  wreck  which  must  await 
his  deductions,  if  he  will  not  place  himself  logically  in  my  power. 
.Must  I  deny  all  Mr.  Owen’s  philosophical  and  mathematical,  or  other 
scientific  facts,  in  order  that  I  may  place  myself  in  a  logical  predica¬ 
ment  to  take  exceptions  to  any  two  out  of  the  whole  twelve? 

If  Mr.  Owen  attempt  to  prove  a  metaphysical  position  by  those 
arguments  which,  in  the  nature  of  things,  can  only  elucidate  a  truth 
in  physics,  how  can  I  join  issue  with  him?  How  can  this  be  expect¬ 
ed  from  me  ?  The  corollary  of  the  whole  matter  is  this,  that  if  this 
matter  be  not  logically  discussed,  it  cannot  be  discussed  at  all  in  the 
manner  its  own  intrinsic  dignity  requires,  or  in  the  manner  which 
public  expectation  and  the  deference  the  disputants  owe  to  the  public 
would  seem  to  require.  And  if  Mr.  Owen  will  not  acknowledge 
himself  amenable  and  conformable  to  those  equitable  laws  which 
govern  and  control  all  argumentative  discussions,  ’tis  impossible  for 
me  to  dispute  with  him.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  reply  to  any  thing 
he  may  advance  in  a  shape  so  loose,  so  desultory,  and  so  intangible. 

*  Tae  honorable  chairman  so  decided. - Ed. 


34 


DEBATE, 


There  is  no  man,  and  perhaps  never  was  there  a  man,  more  dis¬ 
tinguished  for  moral  courage  than  Robert  Owen.  Let  this  moral 
courage  now  support  him;  and  let  him  boldly,  frankly,  explicitly,  and 
logical^,  come  out  with  those  premises,  if  any  he  have,  which  I 
stand  here  prepared  to  combat.  But  if  Mr.  Owen  will  not  take  an 
affirmative  logical  position,  nor  sustain  those  which  he  promised 
to  sustain,  let  him  avow  it,  and  then  I  will  abandon  my  vantage 
ground,  and  take  affirmative  positions,  subversive  of  his  whole  scheme, 
which  I  think  are  as  logically  immoveable  as  the  rock  of  Gibraltar. 

Mr.  Owen  well  knows  if  he  were  to  take  lip  a  mathematical  posi¬ 
tion  and  fortify  it,  he  would  laugh  at  and  contemn  every  other  weapon, 
but  mathematical  weapons.  He  would  exclaim  against  all  other 
proofs,  illustrations,  or  reasonings,  save  mathematical  axioms,  de¬ 
ductions,  and  demonstrations.  He  would  tell  me  that  I  might  as 
reasonably  expect  to  ba  tter  down  mud  or  stone  walls  with  roses,  as  to 
adduce  Doctor  Darwin’s  “Loves  of  the  Plants”  in  refutation  of  a 
mathematical  hypothesis. 

Mr.  Owen  well  knows  that  a  mathematical  discussion  must  be  ar¬ 
gued  mathematically — so  of  botanical,  geological,  and  astronomical 
questions,  and  so  on  throughout  the  whoffi  circle  of  the  sciences. 

Mr.  Owen,  in  his  essay  and  in  his  comments  upon  his  fundamental 
laws  of  human  nature,  has  brought  forward  mathematical  illustrations; 
but  does  he  expect  to  prove  to  your  minds,  the  fallacy  of  Christianity 
by  mathematical  demonstrations,  by  the  verity  of  those  laws  which 
establish  the  mathematical  properties  of  triangles?  I  contend  that  the 
grand  question  at  issue  is  a  question  of  fact,  chiefly  dependant  upon 
historic  evidence.  Now  can  we  take  a  pair  of  brass  compasses  and 
measure  that  evidence  as  we  would  measure  the  degrees  of  any  given 
angle  in  mathematics;  or  by  addition  and  subtraction  prove  it,  as  we 
would  a  question  in  arithmetic  ?  We  cannot  measure  historic  evi¬ 
dences  as  if  they  wrere  so  many  mathematical  lines.  If  this  be  a  ma¬ 
thematical,  anatomical,  or  botanical  question,  let  Mr.  Owen,  with  that 
candor  which  he  claims  as  so  peculiarly  and  almost  exclusively  his 
own — I  say,  let  him  at  once  openly  avow  which  of  these  it  is,  and 
then ,  perhaps,  we  may  be  able  to  discuss  its  merits,  either  mathema¬ 
tically,  botanically,  or  physiologically.  I  aver  that  the  Christian 
religion  is  founded  upon  facts,  upon  veritable,  historical,  incontro¬ 
vertible  facts — facts  triable  by  all  the  criteria  known  to  the  courts  of 
law  in  the  ascertainment  of  what  is  or  is  not  established  in  evidence — 
facts  triable  by  all  the  historic  criteria  which  any  respectable  histori¬ 
an  of  ancient  or  modern  times  has  ever  had  for  his  pilots.  These 
facts  on  which  the  Christian  religion  is  predicated,  either  are  or  are 
not  susceptible  of  proof.  Let  Mr.  Owen  impugn  them,  or  put  me  to 
the  proof.  I  say  again,  rather  let  him  do  this,  than  read  irrelevant 
matter,  or  loosely  declaim  against  every  thing  in  the  general,  and 
disprove  nothing  in  the  detail.  If  this  be  a  simple  question  of  fact, 
it  must  be  tried  and  examined  as  such.  It  would  be  unjust  to  try  it 
before  any  other  tribunal.  Mr.  Owen  would  not  expect  me  to  as¬ 
certain  the  number  of  cubic  inches  in  any  given  tub  of  water,  ii  he 


DEBATE, 


35 


require  me  to  measure  it  by  a  pedlar’s  ell — nor  could  he  expect  me 
to  measure  the  length  of  a  given  web  by  a  gallon.  Were  he  to  require 
me  to  prove  his  axiomatic  mathematical  truth  that  2  and  2  make  4, 

I  might  reply  that  this  was  axiomatic  or  self-evident,  and  there¬ 
fore  incapable  of  proof,  unless  he  was  prepared  to  deny  that  this 
whole  is  made  up  of  the  sum  of  all  its  parts.  But  suppose  he 
could  so  manoeuvre  as  to  put  me  on  the  proof,  would  I  go  about 
it  in  like  manner  as  1  would  essay  to  prove  the  locale  of  Washington’s 
nativity,  or  as  I  would  essay  to  analyze  the  moral  qualities  of 
that  moral  hero?  Would  I  essay  to  prove  an  axiomatic  truth  in  math¬ 
ematics  by  the  same  process  of  reasoning  which  I  would  adopt  to 
prove  a  topical  fact,  or  a  moral  truth.  My  caveat  is  that  this  is  purely 
a  question  of  fact,  subject  to  all  the  common  sense  criteria  by  which 
all  facts  ever  have  been  and  ever  must  be  tried,  and  that  it  is  not  tria¬ 
ble  by  those  criteria  which  we  could  rationally  institute  and  recognize 
as  the  fair,  true,  and  legitimate  criteria  of  the  verity  of  mathematical, 
botanical,  geological,  or  even  moral  facts,  if  you  please.  ’Tis  a 
naked,  simple,  historic  question,  and,  ex  necessitate  rei ,  can  only  be 
passed  through  the  historical ,  logical,  and  philosophical  crucibles. 
Mr.  Owen,  I  think,  cannot  deny  this.  As  a  lover  of  truth  he  is  bound 
to  declare  whether  he  conceives  me  obliged  to  defend  my  cause  by  his¬ 
toric  and  veritable  evidence ,  or  by  mathematical  demonstrations. 
Only  let  him  tell  me  what  are  his  rules  of  evidence;  what  species 
of  evidence  he  conceives  admissible  and  what  inadmissible;  and 
then  we  may  happen  to  light  upon  tangible  and  pertinent  premises. 
But  as  matters  now  stand,  all  must  necessarily  be  air-built;  for  this 
plain  reason,  that  there  is  not  one  hair’s  breadth  of  foundation  for 
either  of  us  to  erect  any  other  kind  of  superstructure  upon. 

My  friend,  Mr.  Owen,  must  perceive  that  here  is  neither  time, 
place,  nor  subject,  for  vain  empty  declamation.  His  ow  n  tact,  dis¬ 
crimination,  and  knowledge  of  the  world  and  its  concerns,  must  indi¬ 
cate  to  him  the  necessity  of  our  mutually  confining  this  discussion 
within  its  legitimate  and  logical  bounds  and  precincts. 

Perhaps  I  have  elaborated  this  matter  to  tediousness ;  but  I  claim  a 
fair  start  in  this  race,  and  in  conclusion,  as  my  half  hour  is  out,  I 
call  on  Mr.  Owen  for  a  precise  and  technical  definition  of  his  terms — 
and  for  an  explanation  of  the  misrepresentations,  in  his  letter  to  the 
editor  of  the  London  Times,  if,  indeed,  that  was  his  letter. 

Here  Mr.  Owen  rises  to  meet  and  answer  Mr.  Campbell. 

Mr.  Owen  said — l  see  no  necessity  of  replying  at  present  to  any 
part  pf  my  friend’s  last  address,  save  so  much  as  relates  to  the  com¬ 
munication  which  appeared  in  the  London  Times  newspaper.  In  re¬ 
gard  to  that  letter,  I  have  only  to  say,  it  is  my  letter,  I  wrote  if,  and 
sent  it  to  the  press.  When  that  letter  was  written,  it  did  not,  nor  does 
it  now,  appear  to  me  that  I  stand  pledged  to  prove  the  fallacy  of  the 
Christian  religion,  separated  from  all  other  religions.  To  me  they 
all  appear  one  and  the  same  in  principle  and  in  general  practice,  ex¬ 
cept  the  difference  in  the  rites  and  ceremonies,  which.  1  deem  mere 
forms.  I  believe  that  my  wdrdy  are  that  all  religions  of  the  world  are 


36 


DEBATE. 


founded  in  error — the  Christian  religion  is  embraced  in  the  word  alp 
Mr.  Campbell  should  not  presume  that  I  have  already  stated  all  that 
may  be  brought  forward,  if  more  shall  be  required.  I  think  Mr. 
Campbell  will  be  satisfied  after  a  little  while,  that  I  have  adhered 
closely  to  the  spirit  of  the  engagement.  When  I  shall  have  presented 
the  whole  of  my  views,  Mr.  Campbell  will  have  an  opportunity  of 
discovering  the  connexion  of  each  part  with  the  whole,  and  of  making 
a  reply  accordingly.  I  have  no  wish  that  any  thing  abstract  or  met¬ 
aphysical  should  make  its  way  into  this  discussion,  to  render  it  too 
complex  for  plain  men  to  understand.  Let  us  have  nothing  to  dis¬ 
tract  our  attention  from  plain  simple  truth,  and  if  possible,  from  facts 
and  just  reasoning  from  them.  In  the  course  of  this  discussion  lean 
assure  Mr.  Campbell  that  I  have  not  the  least  desire  to  avail  myself 
of  any  advantage  which  might  possibiy  accrue  to  me  by  reason 
of  our  having  different  vocabularies,  or  of  our  discordant  acceptation 
of  terms;  but  I  shall  pursue  a  straight  forward  path  to  endeavor  to  eli¬ 
cit  truth,  and  shall  explain,  where  necessary,  the  meaning  which  I 
annex  to  my  letters.  As  it  would  be,  however,  unfair  to  expect  Mr. 
Campbell,  or  any  other  person,  to  reply  off-hand  to  the  mass  of 
matter  that  will  be  presented,  X  wish  him  to  take  home  my  manu¬ 
script,  and  to  have  time  allowed  him  to  consider  them  at  his  leisure. 
I  do  not  desire  to  take  any  advantage  in  the  present  discussion ;  my 
sole  object  is,  if  possible  to  discover  truth  for  the  benefit  of  all. 

Here  Mr .  Owen  read  the  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Lpndon  Times ,  or  a 
part  of  it. 

Now,  said  Mr.  Owen,  I  believe  I  have  to  show  that  not  only  the 
Christian  religion  but  also  all  other  religions  are  founded  in  ignorance, 
&c.  if  such  be  the  case,  I  hope  to  make  the  truth  so  plain  that  all  may 
understand  it  and  derive  the  practical  benefit  from  it  which  it  is  my 
sole  object  to  produce. 

Mr.  Campbell  rose  and  said — that  the  object  stated  in  that  letter 
was  to  elicit  all  that  is  valuable  in  each  religion  and  to  reject  all 
that  is  false.  Now,  if  it  be  Mr.  Owen’s  object,  by  this  meeting,  to 
form  a  new  religion  extracted  from  all  religions,  and  partaking  of  the 
excellencies  of  each,  and  rejecting  al  that  is  erroneous  in  each  of  them, 
I  can  only  say  that  this  is  a  very  different  meeting  from  any  that  I  have 
ever  contemplated.  But  I  ask  Mr.  Owen,  continued  he,  did  I  agree 
to  such  an  undertaking? 

Mr.  Owen  said — Mr.  Campbell  agreed  to  this  meeting  in  the  exact 
terms  of  my  challenge  to  the  clergy  in  New  Orleans  and  to  no  other. 
But  this  must  elicit  all  that  is  true  in  the  principles  of  all  religions, 
and  thus  bring  out  all  that  is  perfect  in  each. 

Mr.  Campbell  adds—- 1  only  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  that  I 
/have  never  even  connived  at  a  convention  having  such  an  object  in 
view  as  stated  in  the  London  Times. 

Here  the  Hon.  Chairman  rose  and  stated: — That  it  was  the  unani¬ 
mous  opinion  of  the  Board  that  the  disputant  holding  the  affirmative 
of  any  proposition,  should  distinctively  stajte  that  proposition;  and  when 


DEBATE. 


37 


stated,  that  then  it  should  be  discussed  distinctively,  and  that  all  the 
arguments  Gr  demonstrations  adduced  should  be  connected  with  that 
single  proposition,  until  nothing  new  could  be  offered— and  when  one 
of  the  propositions  was  thus  discussed,  the  second  should  be  treated 
in  the  same  manner,  and  in  the  order  stated.  In  the  discussion  of  the 
great  proposition,  whether  all  religions  are  not  founded  in  error,  the 
‘‘Board  would  suggest  that  the  discussion  might  be  shortened  by  nar¬ 
rowing  down  the  proposition,  which  could  he  done  by  substituting 
the  word  Christian  and  Jewish  religions  for  all  religions  in  the  world, 
in  this  way,  the  party  holding  the  negative,  might  bring  all  his  argu¬ 
ments  to  hear  upon  that  particular  religion,  which  he  wished  to  advo¬ 
cate.  The  Board  have  no  idea  of  dictating  in  tins  matter,  but  they 
'merely  wish  to  suggest  that  the  discussion  might  be  shortened  by 
narrowing  the  proposition  as  proposed  . 

To  this  suggestion  of  the  Board ,  Mr.  Owen  replied—- That  to  alter 
the  nature  of  the  discussion  would  be  rather  to  increase  the  length  of 
it.  If  said  he,  I  prove  all  religions  to  be  erroneous,  I  prove  the  Chrisr 
Han  religion  to  be  founded  in  error. 


Here  Mn.  Owen  commenced,  reading  Ids  address . 


You  are  not,  however,  to  be  blamed  on  this  account,  any  more  than, 
the  Cannibals,  Centoos,  or  Pagans.  You  arid  they  have  been  placed, 
from  infancy,  without  your  knowledge,  will,  or  consent,  within  cir¬ 
cumstances,  not  of  your  formation,  which  have  ma  de  each  what  they 
are,  and  ail  are  alike  objects  of  deep  commiseration  to  those  who 
have  been  permitted  to  discover  the  thick  darkness  of  error,  which,  at 
this  day,  veils  the  most  valuable  knowledge  from  men,  and  through  ig¬ 
norance  thereof  keeps  them  in  sin  and  misery.  And  it  is  the  uiiiver- 
sal  belief,  in  these  fables  and  doctrines,  thus  forced  into  the  infant 
mind,  that  is  now  the  only  real  obstacle  to  the  formation  of  a  soci¬ 
ety,  over  the  earth,  of  intelligence,  of  charity  in  its  most  extended 
sense,  of  unlimited  sincerity,  and  of  pure  affection. 

Hitherto,  however,  all  governments,  from  the  circumstances  in  which 
they  have  existed,  have  had  but  two  primary  objects  to  attain  and  se¬ 
cure.  The  first  to  keep  the  governed,  or  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
in  .the  greatest  possible  ignorance  of  human  nature,  and  the  second  to 
devise  safe  means  by  which  the  largest  amount  of  their  labor  could  be 
obtained  from  them  for  .the  use  of  the  governing  party.  The  first  ofu 
ject  has  been  alw  ays  attained  by  the  aid  of  the  priesthood,  who  have 
been  appointed  to  instruct  the  people  in  some  of  these  fables  and  doc¬ 
trines,  which,  however  they  may  differ  from  or  be  opposed  to,  tbo,-  o 
taught  in  other  countries,  all  governments  agree  to  call  the  true  reli¬ 
gion ,  derived  immediately  by  some  revelation  or  other,  from  their  chief 
divinity  or  divinities. 

By  these  means  the  faculties  of  memory  and  imagination  have  been 
highly  cultivated  in  those  countries,  which  are  deemed  the  most  civ¬ 
ilized,  while  the  superior  intellectual  faculties,  when  applied  to  ac¬ 
quire  a  correct  knowledge  of  human  nature,  have  been  held  in  no 
>est*i»atsori ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  their  cultivation  for  this  purpose,  has 


\ 


DEBATE, 


m 

been  discoufaged  by  every  unfair  means  that  cunning  could  invent 
and  power  apply. 

And  die  success  of  these  measures  has  been  so  complete,  that  in 
all  countries,  at  this  day,  man  is  more  ignorant  of  himself  than  of  al¬ 
most  any  thing  else  by  which  he  is  surrounded. 

Up  to  this  period,  however,  no  government  could  pursue  any  other 
course  with  safety  or  with  the  least  prospect  of  being  permanent.-r— 
The  circumstances  did  not  exist  to  permit  them  to  do  it.  For  the 
population  of  the  world  must  be  governed  by  force,  through  their  ig¬ 
norance,  or  by  great  justice,  intelligence,  and  good  feelings. 

There  is  no  permanent  stopping  place  between  these  two  extremes, 
and  the  best  disposed  governments  have  often  felt  this  truth.  Until 
now  the  knowledge  and  the  means  to  govern  a  numerous  population 
through  intelligence  and  affection  did  not  exist. 

Previous  to  any  successful  attempt,  it  was  necessary  that  experi¬ 
ence  should  develope  two  sciences,  first;  the  science  of  the  influence 
of  circumstances  over  human  nature;  the  second,  the  science  of  the 
means  of  creating  unlimited  wealth,  and  of  its  equal  distribution. 

By  the  knowledge  of  these  two  sciences, properly  applied  to  prac¬ 
tice,  all  men  may  be  easily  taught  and  trained  from  infancy  to  be¬ 
come  intelligent,  independent,  and  happy,  and  to  be  governed  without 
any  difficulty,  through  their  affections. 

These  two  sciences  are  now  known,  sufficiently,  to  be  applied,  with 
success,  to  the  population  of  all  countries;  and  upon  investigation,  it. 
will  be  found  to  be  the  interest  of  ail  governments  to  prepare  the 
means,  without  delay,  by  which  the  people  in  their  respective  coun¬ 
tries,  may  be  taught  this  knowledge,  in  such  a  manner  that  all  shall 
be  benefited  and  none  shall  be  injured. 

By  these  measures  being  adopted,  and  openly  and  honestly  made 
known  to  the  public,  all  collision  between  the  governments  and  peo¬ 
ple  will  be  avoided;  all  attempts  at  future  revolutions  will  cease;  the 
governors  and  governed  will  be  actively  engaged  in  this  good  and 
great  work;  mutual  confidence  will  be  acquired,  and  peace  and  good 
will  will  every  where  prevail. 

Were  any  parties  so  ignorant  of  their  own  interest  or  happiness,  as 
to  desire  to  withhold  this  happy  change  from  their  fellow-beings,  they 
could  not  now  effect  it,  except  by  an  increase  of  the  tyranny  of  the 
few  over  the  many. 

For  the  knowledge  of  these  sciences  have  gone  forth,  never  again 
to  be  recalled,  or  to  become  unknown,  by  any  efforts,  man  can  make. 
They  are  nowr  actively  passing  from  mmd  to  mind,  and  from  country 
to  country ;  and  no  human  power  can  stay  their  course,  until  they 
shall  pervade  all  countries  and  every  mind. 

Thus,  as  it  appears  to  me,  have  1  proved  that  all  the  religions  ovf 
the  world  have  originated  in  error;  that  they  are  directly  opposed  tp 
the  divine  unchanging  laws  of  human  nature;  that  they  are  necessa¬ 
rily  the  source  of  vice,  disunion,  and  misery;  that  they  arc  now  the 
only  obstacle  to  the  formation  of  a  society,  over  the  earth,  of  intelli¬ 
gence,  of  charity  in  its  most  extended  sense,  and  of  sincerity  and  kind- 


DEBATE. 


hess  among  the  whole  human  race.  And,  also,  that  these  district 
religions  can  be  no  .longer  maintained  in  any  part  of  the  world,  ex¬ 
cept  by  the  perpetuation  of  the  ignorance  of  the  mass  of  the  people, 
and  of  the  continued  tyranny  of  the  few  over  the  many. 

Mr.  Owen  having  finished  reading,  he  remarked ,  that — ~ 

In  consequence  of  the  remarks  which  had  fallen  from  Mr.  Camp¬ 
bell,  it  becomes  necessary  to  state,  generally,  that,  in  my  opinion,  it 
is  perfectly  useless  to  go  into  the  examination  of  the  verity  of  any  or 
all  the  religions  against  which  I  am  contending;  for  if  I  can  show 
that  man  is  a  being  entirely  different  from  what  all  those  religions 
assume  him  to  be,  I  apprehend  that  I  shall  thereby  prove  all  that  is 
incumbent  on  me  to  establish.  And  I  trust  that  I  shall  be  able  to 
show  to  this  assembly,  that  man  is  a  being  to  whom  no  religion,  ever 
yet  invented,  can  apply. 

Mu.  Campbell  rose  and  said — - 

Before  the  discussion  intermits,  I  should  like  to  make  a  few  re* 
marks.  I  feel  much  interested  in  having  this  discussion  brought  to  a 
'  satisfactory  issue.  Mr.  Owen  and  myself  have  given  birth  to  large 
and  liberal  expectations  from  this  discussion.  There  are  a  great 
many  persons  who  honestly  doubt  the  truths  of  religion— and  these 
.honest  sceptics,  who  are  without  sufficient  evidence  to  determine  their 
minds,  have  come  hither  with  a  view  to  be  edified  by  the  discussion. 
Surely  then  we  have  an  object  of  great  importance  before  us. — -What 
now  is  our  progress  towards  this  great  object?  Mr.  Owen  read  us  an 
essay  upon  what  he  calls  twelve  matters  of  fact  or  divine  laws  of  hu* 
man  nature — suppose  now  we  were  to  admit  all  these  twelve  facts, 
does  this  admission  oblige  us  to  accede  to  all  the  lav/s  and  deduc¬ 
tions  he  may  superinduce  on  these  facts? — by  no  means.  Is  Mr. 
Owen’s  loose  declamation  to  settle  or  unsettle  the  faith  of  any  one? 
Has  he  introduced  either  argument  or  proof?  Who  can  say  that  he 
has?  Nevertheless,  it  appears  to  me,  that  Mr.  Owen  really  thinks  he 
has  established,  in  evidence,  every  thing  which  he  has  undertaken  to 
prove.  I  have  a  strong  misgiving  that  Mr.  Owen  is  about  to  give  us 
a  view  or  theory  of  the  world,  as  foreign  to  the  appropriate  subject 
now  before  this  meeting,  as  would  be  the  history  of  a  tour  up  the 
Ganges.  I  repeat,  that  there  arc  in  this  assembly  some  doubting 
Christians,  that  require  to  be  confirmed,  and  some  sceptics  to  bo  cor¬ 
rected.  To  the  confirmation  and  conviction  of  such  auditors,  all  our 
reasonings  should  tend.  All  this  time  I  should  have  been  proving  or 
disproving  some  position  bearing  upon  the  great  question  at  issue — 
Instead  of  this  I  must  hear  Mr.  Owen  reading  upon  a  variety  of  topics 
having  no  legitimate  bearing  upon  the  subject  matter  before  us. 

During  the  recess  before  us,  I  could  wish  that  the  gentlemen  mod¬ 
erators  would  agree  upon  some  course,  and  compel  us  to  pursue  it. — 
Shall  I  be  permitted  to  speculate  abstractly  upon  the  possibility  or 
impossibility  of  any  human  being  in  any  age,  having  the  power  to 
invent  any  religion?  Will  it  be  in  order,  for  me  to  introduce  some 
affirmative  propositions  in  case  Mr.  Owen  proceeds  to  read  as  he  has 


40 


DYjBATK 


done,  essays  upon  human  nature,  civil  government,  or  a  new  order  o£ 
political  society.  I  think  I  am  able  to  prove  that  man  cannot  invent 
any,  even  the  most  extravagant  religion  in  the  world.  In  all  reli¬ 
gions  I  conceive  that  there  are  certain  ideas,  for  the  invention  of 
which  man,  viewed  philosiphically,  cannot  be  supposed  to  possess 
any  powers.  Shall  I  be  at  liberty  to  prove  this  by  facts  equal  in 
strength,  to  say  the  least  of  them,  to  any  one  of  those  on  which 
Mr.  Owen  predicates  his  theory  of  human  nature.  I  merely  ask  for 
permission  to  take  this  course  on  condition  that  Mr.  Owen  refuses  to 
ie  confined  to  the  discussion  of  his  own  propositions.  Ifl  am  permit¬ 
ted  to  take  this  course,  I  will  attempt,  to  demonstrate  that  man  is  in 
possession  of  powers  never  developed — never  even  glanced  at,  in 
any  one  ofMr.  Owen’s  twelve  divine  laws.  I  will  endeavor  to  show 
that  in  all  religions  there  are  ideas,  terms,  and  phrases  so  supernatu¬ 
ral  that  no  human  mind  could  originate  them,  according  to  any  sys¬ 
tem  of  philosophy  taught  in  the  world.  If  tins  permission  cannot 
logically  be  granted,  according  to  the  stipulated  rules  ofthe  discussion, 
1  ask  what  part  of  Mr.  Owen’s  address  am  I  to  reply  to?  For  I  do 
confess  that  Mr.  Owen  has  not  presented  to  my  mind  any  thing  for 
it  to  take  hold  of,  having  any  argumentative  bearing  upon  any  one  of 
his  five  positions.  I  confess  myself  too  obtuse  to  discover  the  logical 
bearing  of  what  he  has  read.  I  hope  upon  his  first  position  we  shall 
be  able  in  the  afternoon  to  take  up  the  subject  in  a  more  logical  form. 
For  I  am  now  determined  to  present,  with  your  permission,  to  this  au*. 
dience  such  a  body  of  evidence  as  shall  put  it  out  of  the  power  of  any 
honest  inquirer  to  doubt  the  truth  and  divine  origin  of Christianity. 

Here  Mr.  Campbell  stated  that  the  time  had  expired,  and  moved  an 
adjournment,  which  was  carried . 

Monday ,  April  13/ft,  1829. 

Afternoon-™^ The  Hon.  Chairman  rose  and  stated,  that  the  Modera¬ 
tors  had  felt  it  their  duty  to  re-examine  the  challenge  given,  and  the 
acceptance. —-We  find,  said  he,  that  the  challenge  contains  five  dis¬ 
tinct  propositions,  separately  stated.  The  first  is,  that  all  religions 
have  been  founded  in  ignorance.  It  is  the  opinion  of  tho  Moderators 
i bat  the  discussion  this  afternoon  ought  to  be  confined  to  that  propo¬ 
sition,  until  the  subject  is  exhausted.  Then  the  second  proposition 
-hould  be  taken  up.  It  is  therefore  expected  that  the  discussion  this 
afternoon  will  be  founded  on,  and  confined  to  this  first  proposition, 
viz.  “that  all  religions  are  founded  in  ignorance.” 

Mr.  Campbell  stated,  to  the  Chairman  that  Air.  Owen  wished  to  be 
informed  when  his  half  hour  expired. 

Air.  Owen  rises  with  the  Christian  Baptist  in  his  hand  containing  the 
particulars  of  the  challenge  and  acceptance. 

Mr.  Owen  said — 

My  friends,  I  am  now  liere  toprove  that  all  Ihe  religions  ever  known 
from  the  beginning  of  time  till  the  present  hour,  have  originated  in 
the  general  and  universal  ignorance  of  mankind.  I  conclude  that,  to 
do  lias 'at  this  period  would  be  unnecessary,  if  men  had  been  taught 


DEBATE. 


41 


to  Imcw  what  manner  of  beings  they  were,  how  they  were  formed  at 
birth,  and  how  their  characters  were  afterwards  produced  for  them. 
Had  this  knowledge  been  born  with  man,  it  would  have  been  impossi¬ 
ble  that  any  one  of  these  religions  could  have,  existed  for  one  hour.  I 
shall  endeavor  to  show  that  man  is  a  being  entirely  different  from 
what  he  has  been  supposed  to  be  by  any  religion  ever  invented,  and 
that  none  of  these  religions  apply  in  any  degree  to  a  being  formed  as 
man  is.  And  to  prove  this  we  require  the  aid  of  no  authority  derived 
from  testimony  from  the  darkest  ages  of  ignorance,  from  a  period 
of  the  world  when  no  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  any  doubtful  testi¬ 
mony.  We  have  on  the  contrary,  only  to  appeal  to  ourselves  and  the 
facts  which  exist  here  at  this  moment,  which  exist  wherever  human 
beings  can  be  found.  I  have  stated  as  a  fundamental  law  of  human 
nature  that  man,  at  birth,  is  ignorant  of  every  thing  relative  to  his 
own  organization — that  he  has  not  been  permitted  to  create  any  part 
of  his  faculties,  qualities  or  powers,  physical  or  mental.  Now  if  we 
are  so  formed  that  we  have  not  any  kind  of  will  or  control  in  the  for- 
mation  of  ourselves;  of  our  physical  propensities;  of  our  intellectual 
faculties  and  qualities;  surely  we  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  what 
they  have  been  made  for  us.  How  can  an  infant  be  made  responsible 
for  that  of  which  it  was  entirely  ignorant?  Any  religion,  therefore, 
which  pre-supposes  man  bad  by  nature,  mdst  surely  be  founded  in 
utter  ignorance  of  human  nature.  1  do  not  imagine  it  to  be  necessa¬ 
ry  to  take  up  much  of  your  time  in  proving  that  an  infant  at  birth  is 
quite  incapable  of  knowing  any  thing  about  his  organization  or  natu¬ 
ral  capabilities.  And  yet  his  character  and  conduct  proceed  essentially 
from  them;  they  are  the  only  foundation  of  his  virtues  and  vices. — 
Over  the  formation  of  these,  however,  he  has  had  no  control,  nor  in 
the  forming  of  any  thing  that  belongs  to  himself  No  being,  therefore, 
so  created  can  ever  be  made  to  become  responsible  for  his  nature.  It 
is  said  that  there  is  a  difference  between  men — and  this  is  true;  for 
some  are  evidently  created  superior  and  some  inferior  in  certain 
natural  qualities;  but  whether  inferior  or  superior,  they  were  not  de¬ 
signed  or  executed  by  the  individuals  possessing  them,  and  they  cannot 
therefore,  deserve  merit  or  demerit  for  having  them,  or  be  made,  with¬ 
out  great  injustice,  responsible  for  them.  Every  parent,  and  every 
individual  who  has  the  power  of  observation,  know  that  there  are  no 
two  persons  born  precisely  alike;  that  there  is  almost  every  kind  of 
variety  in  the  formation  of  the  human  being  at  birth.  They  know  also 
that  the  individuals  themselves  could  not  make  the  smallest  part  of 
this  difference,  that  the  children  could  have  no  influence  whatever  in 
giving  to  themselves  Avhatare  called  good  or  bad,  or  superior  or  infe¬ 
rior  qualities.  Let  us  suppose  two  infants,  one  the  best,  and  one  the 
worst,  in  nature.  As  neither  could  make  himself,  what  are  we  to  say 
respecting  each?  shall  we  praise  the  one  and  blame  the  other?  shall 
we  make  each  responsible  for  the  conduct  that  must  flow  from  these 
two  different  organizations,  if  left  to  themselves  without  culture?  I 
repeat,  did  either  infant  make  his  propensities  weak  or  strong,  supe¬ 
rior  or  inferior?  If  not,  if  there  ought  to  be  any  difference  in  our 

4* 


DEBATE. 


conduct  towards  these  infants  as  they  grow  to  maturity,  it  ought  to  be 
shown  in  our  greater  commiseration  for  the  inferior;  this  ought  to  be 
the  feeling  which  all  should  possess,  and  which  all  will  possess  when 
they  shall  understand  what  manner  of  beings  they  are.  If  one  of  our 
species  be  made  inferior  to  the  other,  it  is  our  duty  and  our  interest 
not  only  to  commiserate  him,  but  to  endeavor  to  remedy  the  defect  of 
his  nature ;  and  when  we  shall  know  ourselves  we  shall  so  act,  because 
no  other  conduct  will  appear  to  us  to  be  rational.  Well,  then,  if  the 
infant  at  birth  did  not  make  himself,  and  if  the  difference  discovera¬ 
ble  between  infants  was  not  made  by  themselves,  surely  we  cannot 
say  that  the  infant  is  responsible  either  for  the  one  or  the  other.  I 
feel  it  unnecessary  to  take  more  time  to  prove  the  truth  of  these  two 
laws  or  the  obvious  deductions  which  evefy  one  who  reflects  must 
draw  from  them.  And  if  these  things  be  as  I  have  stated,  all  reli¬ 
gions  are  founded  in  error,  for  their  dogmas  are  in  direct  opposition 
to  these  self-evident  truths  and  the  deductions  made  from  them, — 
These  laws  of  our  nature,  then,  must  be  erroneous  or  all  religions  are 
untrue  and  founded  in  ignorance.  The  third  divine  law  of  our  nature 
is,  that  each  individual  is  placed  at  birth;  without  his  knowledge  cr 
consent,  within  the  influence  of  circumstances  which  operate  irresisti¬ 
bly  upon  his  peculiar  organization;  and  these  circumstances  thus 
stamp  their  own  general  character  upon  the  infant  and  the  man;  yet 
the  influence  of  these  circumstances  is  modified  by  the  peculiar 
organization  of  the  individual  subjected  to  them.  Now  I  do  not  sup¬ 
pose  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  enter  into  any  very  elaborate  argu¬ 
ment  to  prove  this  law. 

Is  there,  I  ask,  in  this  varied  assembly,  composed  of  individuals  born 
in  so  many  different  and  distant  countries,  one  individual  who  can 
say  that  he  determined  the  period  when  he  should  be  born,  of  whom. + 
in  what  country.,  and  who  should  be  his  instructor?  Did  any  of  you 
determine  which  of  all  the  religions  of  the  world  you  should  be  taught 
m  believe,  or  whether  you  should  be  born  a  prince  or  a  peasant? — 
Whether  you  should  be  well  or  ill  educated,  according  to  our  ideas  of 
education  1  Or  is  there  any  one  here  who  can  suppose  it  possible  that 
he  has  ever  had  the  slightest  control  over  any  one  of  these  circum¬ 
stances?  Many  individuals  of  this  audience  have  been  born  in  very 
coherent  parts  of  Europe  and  America,  anti  have  unavoidably  received 
♦heir  local  impressions  accordingly.  But  suppose  we  had  all  been 
born  amongst  a  tribe  of  thoroughgoing  Cannibals,  would  we  not,  in 
that  case,  have  been  sure  to  have  experienced  great  delight  in  killing 
and  eating  our  enemies?  But  if  we  had  been  taken  soon  after  our 
birth  to  India,  and  been  taught  to  become  Gentoos,  how  many  of  ns 
could  have  resisted  acquiring  a  character  that  would  have  compelled 
u?  to  shudder  with  horror  even  at  the  idea  of  injuring  a  fly  ?  Probably 
net  one  in  this  assembly — I  imagine  no  one  will  doubt  it;  and  if  true, 
coos  it  not  prove  beyond  all  doubt  that  we  are  not  the  formers  of  our 
own  character;  that  we  are  beings  irresponsible  for  what  we  are — 
irresponsible  for  our  feelings,  opinions  and  conduct?  Does  it  not 
prove  that  we  u?e  tne  effects  o (causes  irresistible  in  their  influenced 


DEBATE 


43 


Who  amongst  us  decided  that  he  should  be  taught  to  speak  English, 
be  instructed  in  the  Christian  religion  and  belong  to  his  particular  sect? 
If  we  had  happened  to  have  been  born  in  the  great  circle  of  Mahomed- 
anism ,  what  would  have  been  our  character  compared  with  what  it 
now  is?  And  it  is  not  our  fault  or  our  merit  that  this  was  not  our  lot 
in  life.  No,  my  friends,  we  are  to  all  intents  the  effects  of  causes  to 
us  irresistible;  and  when  we  shall  be  taught  to  know  what  manner 
of  beings  we  are,  this  will  be  to  us  the  most  inestimable  of  all  know¬ 
ledge  ;  it  will  enable  us  to  open  a  road  for  the  removal  of  all  the  poverty, 
ignorance,  disunion,  vice,  and  crime  which  every  where  abound;  it 
will  moreover  open  a  direct  road  to  enable  us  to  act  upon  the  risin  g 
generation  in  such  a  manner  that  there  shall  not  be  one  individual 
trained  to  remain  inferior  in  society.  We  shall  discover  a  math¬ 
ematical  mode  of  training  the  rising  generation,  by  which  ,iiey  shall 
be  prevented  from  receiving  one  error,  one  bad  habit,  or  acquiring  one 
injurious  passion.  Yes,  this  knowledge  of  ourselves  will  lead  us  to 
know  precisely  how  all  this  is  to  be  accomplished,  and  speedily  too. 
But  it  will  effect  }Tet  more;  it  will  render  it  utterly  impossible  for  one 
human  being  to  become  angry  with  another,  or  to  feel  any  irritation 
or  displeasure  towards  any  one.  All  our  irritation  against  our  fel¬ 
low-men,  arises  from  our  entire  ignorance  of  what  manner  of  beings 
we  all  are.  Where  is  there  any  just  cause  for  anger  amongst  men  ? — - 
Does  my  brother  differ  from  me  in  language,  color,  religion,  or  man¬ 
ners?  Did  he  decide  upon  the  formation  of  any  one  of  these  ?  Does  he, 
in  consequence,  differ  from  me  in  habits,  feelings,  conduct?  Was  he 
the  framer  or  is  he  the  controller  of  these  feelings,  habits  and  conduct?' 
No,  these  have  all  been  forced  upon  him  in  like  manner  as  mine  have 
upon  me.  And  whenever  we  shall  become  only  slightly  rational, 
there  will  be  no  longer  either  anger  or  irritation,  or  opposition,  or  dis¬ 
union,  among  the  human  family.  Are  not  the  principles  which  can 
produce  these  results  deserving  our  most  serious  investigation  ?  When 
they  shall  be  fully  developed  and  well  understood,  there  will  be  no 
longer  any  doubt  or  uncertainty  as  to  the  proper  conduct  to  pursue  in 
all  the  affairs  of  life.  No  fanciful  notions  under  the  name  of  any 
religion  will  be  permitted  to  divide  man  from  man  and  render  the 
whole  race  irrational  and  miserable.  In  your  commercial  proceed¬ 
ings  an  entire  change  wilktake  place.  A  knowledge  of  the  best  inter¬ 
ests  of  society  will  introduce  a  new  practice  and  supercede  all  attempts 
to  buy  cheap  and  sell  dear.  There  will  be  no  more  covert  enmity 
amongst  those  who  are  now  by  their  training  and  education  endeavor¬ 
ing  to'grasp  at,  and  monopolize  all  benefits  to  themselves.  Then  the 
heart  and  the  hand  will  be  always  open;  then  there  will  be  no  neces¬ 
sity  for  any  one  to  spend  all  his  time  and  exert  all  his  faculties  to  pro¬ 
vide  the  means  of  existence  for  himself  and  family,  while  those  who 
do  nothing,  or  worse  than  nothing,  live  upon  his  labor.  This  grievous 
evil  will  altogether  cease.  The  fundamental  principle  of  human 
nature  stated  this  forenoon  was,  “that  each  individual  at  birth  is  so 
organized  that  in  infancy  he  is  liable  to  imbibe  false  and  injurious 
fictions,  & c.  or  their  opposites,  and  to  retain  them  With  great  tenacity. 


44 


DEBATE, 


In  proof  of  this  we  have  only  to  notice  the  details  of  the  measures  by 
which  sects  and  parties  and  conditions  of  mankind  are  formed  and  pro¬ 
duced.  They  are  compelled  to  receive  the  impressions  from  the 
persons  and  circumstances  around  them  ;  and  after  the  mental  and 
physical  habits  have  been  some  time  formed,  they  then  often  cannot 
part  with  them  again,  except  by  much  labor  and  suffering.  Man  has 
heretofore  been  a  mere  passive  subject,  obliged  to  receive  any  impres¬ 
sions  which  have  been  made  upon  his  senses ;  and  whatever  they  may 
be,  whether  good  or  bad,  true  or  false,  they  are  not  the  impressions, 
correctly  speaking,  of  the  individual,  but  solely  the  influence  of  exter¬ 
nal  circumstances  acting  upon  an  organization  which  he  had  no  hand 
in  framing  and  which  he  does  not  understand,  and  for  w  hich,  therefore, 
it  would  be  an  act  of  the  greatest  injustice  to  reward  or  punish. 

We  have  been  taught  so  much  error,  and  have  gone,  in  consequence, 
so  far  astray  that  it  will  be  a  considerable  time  before  our  ideas  can 
be  made  consistent  and  rational ;  but  wdien  this  shall  be  done  it  will 
be  discovered  that  there  exists  no  cause  in  nature  why  any  human 
being  should  suppress  the  expression  of  sensations  which  he  has  been 
compelled  to  receive.  When  we  shall  know  ourselves  truth  only  will 
be  the  language  of  mankind.  Neither  young  nor  old,  male  nor  female, 
will  then  discover  any  reason  why  they  should  not  speak  their  thoughts 
and  feelings  as  their  nature  compels  them  to  receive  them. 

It  is  man’s  ignorance  of  his  nature  that  has  alone  produced  false¬ 
hood  ;  all  the  falsehood  that  has  ever  existed  in  the  world  emanates 
directly  and  alone  from  this  source.  The  religions  of  the  world  pre¬ 
vent  men  from  investigating  ihe  laws  of  nature,  they  give  quite  5a 
different  direction  to  men’s  thoughts,  and  render  them  unfit  to  com¬ 
mence  a  calm  and  unprejudiced  investigation  of  themselves.  “Know 
thyself,”  was  the  most  valuable  precept  that  ever  ancient  or  modern 
oracle  has  delivered.  And  when  we  shall  all  be  taught  to  know  our¬ 
selves,  then,  and  then  only,  can  the  world  become  intelligent,  virtuous 
and  happy.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  immediate  commence¬ 
ment  of  a  very  superior  and  happy  state  of  society  but  the  present 
universal  ignorance  of  mankind  of  themselves.  When  you  retire  from 
this  meeting,  you  may  be  assured,  there  is  no  subject  which  can  occu¬ 
py  your  thoughts  at  all  comparable  in  importance  to  the  serious 
investigation  of’ what  you  yourselves  are;  This  is  a  subject  that  would 
be  fairly  open  to  every  one  except  for  the  early  prepossessions  which 
have  been  imbibed.  When  you  shall  be  released  from  the  errors  upon 
this  subject  that  all  religions  have  been  forced  into  the  human  mind 
you  will  be  relieved  from  a  state  ofdarkness  ofwhichnow  you  have  not 
the  means  of  forming  any  adequate  conception.  Now,  indeed,  you 
see  nothing  as  it  is  ;  you  see  only  as  through  a  glass  darkly,  and  a 
glass  so  dark  that  no  rays  of  pure  light  can  pass  through  it. — [Half 
hour  out „] 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — We  shall  again  indulge  ourselves  in  a  few  general 
strictures  upon  the  data  before  us.  With  regard  to  the  terms  in  which 
Mr.  Owen  has  couched  his  first  position,  we  have  a  few  remarks  to 


DEBATE 


4'5- 

offer.  Mr.  Gwen  distinctly  asserts  that  all  religions  are  founded  in 
ignorance.  Whether  this  be  a  recommendation  or  disparagement  of 
all  religions  is  a  question  of  doubtful  decision  from  the  words  of  the 
position.  Let  us  try  this  position  with  a  reference  to  our  existing  in¬ 
stitutions:  all  schools  and  colleges  have  been  founded  and  predicated 
on  the  ignorance  of  man ;  all  testimony  has  been  predicated  on  the 
ignorance  of  man;  all  the  books  that  have  ever  been  printed  are  pre* 
dicated  on  the  ignorance  of  man?  Are  not  these  facts?  But  does  the 
existence  of  these  facts  cast  any  opprobrium,  obloquy,  or  disparage¬ 
ment  upon  books,  human  testimony,  or  seminaries  of  instruction  ?— 
These  terms,  then,  have  nothing  in  their  nature  or  import  calculated 
to  engender  a  prejudice  against  religion. 

I  do  believe  that  all  religion  is  predicated  upon  ignorance,  using 
that  term  according  to  its  legitimate  import  .  And  this  very  consider 
ation  proves  the  necessity  of  religion.  If  men  were  perfectly  intelli¬ 
gent  with  regard  to  the  relations  in  which  they  stand  to  matter,  spirit, 
a  future  state,  &.c.  there  would  be  no  occasion  for  the  institution  of 
any  sort  of  religion.  “If,”  saiih  a  distinguished  writer,  “our  reason 
were  always  clear  and  perfect,  unruffled  by  passion,  unclouded  by 
prejudice,  unimpaired  by  disease  or  intemperance,  we  should  need 
no  other  guide,  in  physics  or  in  morals,  but  the  light  of  nature.  But 
every  man  finds  the  contrary  in  his  own  experience;  that  his  reason 
is  corrupt  and  his  understanding  full  of  ignorance  and  error;  and 
hence  is  derived  to  us  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  and  direct  reve¬ 
lation.  If,  then,  men  need  a  religion  at  all,  they  need  it  because  of 
their  ignorance.  It  was  instituted  to  remove  human  ignorance,  and 
the  necessity  of  supernatural  revelation  has  ever  been  predicated  on 
that  ignorance.  The  difficulties,  my  friend,  Mr.  Owen,  presents  on  the 
subject  of  human  responsibility,  are  of  no  ordinary  magnitude.  The 
most  profound  philosophers  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  have  all 
differed  upon  this  knotty  point,  “How  far  does  necessity  affect  human 
character?”  But  Mr.  Owen’s  argument  ascribes  every  thing  to  an 
irresistible  necessity;  which  necessity,  after  all,  is  the  operation  of  a 
blind  and  undesigning  Nature.  But  let  us  admit,  fer  the  sake  of  argu¬ 
ment,  that  we  could  not  trace  how  far  we  are  the  creatures  of  necessity, 
suppose  wre  were  to  fail  in  showing  how  far  we  are  irresistibly 
influenced  by  extrinsic  causes,  would  this  failure,  I  ask,  be  sufficient 
to  discredit  the  whole  body  of  evidence  which  establishes  the  truth 
of  Christianity?  How  many  necessarians  are  there  who  believe  in 
supernatural  revelation?  I  know  that  we  may  fall  so  deeply  in  love 
with  a  favorite  idea,  that  our  passion  may  transport  us  far  beyond  the 
limits  oi  common  sense  and  sober  reason.  But  if  we  are  to  be  governed 
by  common  sense,  in  objects  of  sense,  let  us  learn  a  lesson  from  the 
experience  we  have  of  our  liability  to  err,  even  when  we  have  the 
evidence  of  sense.  Errors  may  exist  on  subjects  of  sensible  de¬ 
monstration,  which,  though  discoverable  by  the  senses,  often  elude 
detection.  It  is  an  axiom  in  mathematics,  that  two  parallel  lines, 
though  projected  ad  infinitum ,  can  never  meet  in  one  point.  Now 
this  is  certainly  and  evidently  true.  But  where  is  the  man  living,  who, 


DEBATE. 


by  his  eye,  or  by  the  aid  of  the  most  perfect  glasses,  can,  at  one  glance* 
decide  whether  any  seemingly  parallels  ore  perfect  mathematical 
parallels?  You  might  draw  them  out  to  a  great  length,  and  yet  they 
might  not  seem  to  approximate;  but  it  is  still  possible  that,  if  suffi¬ 
ciently  projected,  they  might,  at  some  remote  point,  form  an  angle. 
How  hazardous,  then,  with  onr  imperfect  vision,  lo  affirm  that  any 
two  lines  are  perfectly  parallel.  And  yet  this  is  a  sensible  object, 
and  an  object  of  which  we  take  cognizance  by  the  most  perfect  and 
delightful  of  all  our  senses.  Now  we  all  confess  that  there  are  inherent 
difficulties  in  the  ascertainment  of  abstract  metaphysical  truths,  much- 
more  difficult  to  overcome  than  those  difficulties  which  appertain  to 
sensible  objects.  As,  then,  our  mental  vision  is  still  more  imperfect 
than  our  corporeal  vision,  does  it  become  us  at  once  to  decide,  with 
an  air  of  infallibility,  a  question  purely  abstract,  or  to  affirm  that, 
in  comparing  two  abstract  ideas,  they  do,  or  do  not  agree?  How  much 
more  irrational  to  predicate  a  whole  system  of  scepticism  upon  a 
dogma  of  one  metaphysical  school,  which  is  more  difficult  to  appre¬ 
hend  than  the  parallelism  of  two  given  straight  lines,  seemingly  run¬ 
ning  in  the  same  direction?  Now  w  hen  twTo  lines,  seemingly  parallel, 
are  presented  to  my  eye,  and  I  cannot  decide  by  a  mere  glance  of  the 
eye,  there  are  other  means  of  deciding  such  a  question,  which  cannot 
be  applied  to  a  question  purely  metaphysical ;  for  there  are  no  scale 
nor  dividers  by  which  we  can  actually  measure  the  agreement  or 
disagreement  of  abstract  ideas.  If  now,  in  sensible  objects,  such 
difficulties  may,  and  do  ccccur,  would  it  be  common  sense  in  me  to 
conclude  that  an  abstract  metaphysical  position  is  at  variance  with 
experience  and  common  sense,  because  I  cannot  set  about  to  prove  or 
disprove  it  as  I  would  set  about  to  prove  or  disprove  the  perfect  paral¬ 
lelism  of  twro  mathematical  lines? 

If  we  are  not  able  to  draw  the  line  of  demarcation  between  necessity 
and  free  agency,  are  we  therefore  to  upset  all  the  experience  of  man 
in  relation  to  the  existence  of  a  God,  of  a  spiritual  world,  a  future  state* 
and  every  thing  connected  with  the  Christian  religion? 

But  we  have  facts  and  arguments  to  prove  that,  to  a  very  consider¬ 
able  extent,  we  are  not  the  pure  creatures  of  circumstances.  My 
opponent  is  himself  a  living  refutation  of  his  own  doctrine.  He  was 
bom  in  Great  Britain,  consequently  was  bred  in  a  state  of  society 
very  different  from  that  which  he  is  so  anxious  to  induce.  Now  the 
question  is,  Did  his  early  circumstances  make  him  such  a  man  as  he 
is,  or  originate  those  ideas  which  he  is  now  divulging  through  Europe 
and  America?  lie  ascribes  every  thing  to  circumstances.  But  he 
talks  of  happiness.  Now  let  me  ask,  Has  he  ever  seen  such  a  set  of 
circumstances  as  would  make  a  man  perfectly  happy  ?  How  did  he 
come  by  his  peculiar  ideas  ?  They  are  the  creatures  not  of  circum¬ 
stances,  but  of  a  warm  and  overheated  imagination.  This  he  may 
never  see,  owing  to  the  obduracy  of  that  hard-hearted  necessity  which 
presides  over  his  destiny.  I  am  walling  to  make  very  ample  con¬ 
cessions  to  the  doctrine  of  circumstances.  It  is  a  very  specious  and 
plausible  doctrine,  and  many  honest  minds  have  been  deceived  by  its 


DEBATE. 


Hr  t 


plausibility..  The  curious  and  absurd  intellectual  aberrations,  the 
strange  mental  hallucinations  of  philosophy  and  system-mongers  are 
unaccountable.  Hobbs  reasoned  himself  into  a  perfect  conviction 
that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  right  or  wrong — that  there  was  no 
moral  difference  in  actions.  Hume  convinced  himself  that  there  was 
nothing  else  in  the  world  but  ideas  and  impressions.  Berkeley,  Bishop 
of  Clovne,  thoroughly  persuaded  himself  that  matter  did  not  exist; 
and  he  framed  abeautiful  and  ingenious  theory,  of  the  fallacy  of  which 
there  was  no  convincing  him.  Reed,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Human 
Mind ,  states  that  some  of  the  old  philosophers  (philosophists  I  should 
call  them)  went  so  far  as  to  doubt  of  their  own  existence.  Descartes 
was  one  of  these.  He  would  not  believe  in  his  own  existence  until  he 
had  proven  it  to  his  own  satisfaction.  And  how  think  you  did  he 
prove  it?  Why,  said  he,  Cogito ,  ego  sum.  Now  this  was  proof,  just 
as  illogical  as  if  he  had  said,  ‘I  have  an  eye  or  an  ear,  and  therefore  I 
-am.’  Yet  this  proof  satisfied  his  mind.  It  is  said  of  Pyrrho,  the 
father  of  the  Elean  Philosophy,  that  so  incredulous  was  he  in  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  his  senses,  that  he  would  not  get  out  of  the  way  of  any 
danger,  however  imminent;  that  his  friends  had  to  take  him  out  of  the 
way  of  danger ;  for  he  would  not  turn  away  from  the  brink  of  a  pre¬ 
cipice.  But  there  is  no  stopping  place  to  such  philosophical  reveries. 
It  is  not  strange  that  Mr.  Owen  should  diverge  so  far  from  the  beaten 
track  of  common  sense.  Many  philosophers  have  done  so  before  him. 
Some  of  them  have  gone  still  farther  than  he  His  case  is  by  no 
means  singular. 

i  am  quite  willing  to  allow  that  there  is  great  speciousness  in 
the  doctrine  of  necessity.  This  we  may  yet  find  necessary  to  expose. 
I  am  willing  to  concede  many  of  Mr.  Owen’s  points;  such  as,  We 
cannot  help  being  born  black  or  white;  we  cannot  choose  the  period 
.or  place  of  our  birth,  nor  control  the  circumstances  of  our  nurture 
and  education.  But  does  it  follow,  as  a  logical  ^conclusion,  that, 
because 'all  men  did  not  create  themselves,  ergo,  all  religions  are 
.  founded  in  ignorance.  This  would  seem  to  be  the  logical  tendency 
of  Mr.  Owen’s  ratiocinations.  Godwin,  a  highly  gifted  writer,  runs 
at  random  pretty  much  after  the  same  fashion;  but  he  was  constrained 
to  stop  some  miles  on  this  side  of  materialism.  An  insuperable 
difficulty  occurred  to  him  in  the  doctrine  of  causation.  Godwin,  in 
his  reasonings  on  causation,  discovered  that  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  ascertain  what  degree  of  power  thought  exercised  over  the 
movements  of  matter.  After  exploring  the  whole  area  of  materialism, 
and  the'  popular  doctrine  of  necessity,  he  discovered  that  it  was  most 
philosophic  to  make  the  following  confessions  or  concessions : — 

‘*0/  the  origin  of  the  faculty  of  thought,  we  are  wholly  uninformed. 
It  is  far  from  certain 9  that  the  phenomenon  of  motion  can  any  where 
exist -where  there  is  no  thought.  The  motions  of  the  animal  and  vegeta - 
hie  systems  is  the  most  inexplicable  of  all  motions ,  simple  or  complex. 
Thought  appears  to  be  the  medium  of  operation  in  the  mater  ial  system. 
The  materialists  make  thought  the  effect  of  matter  or  motion  impressing 
lid  ctj'c  not  these  effects  again  causes  ?  Consequently  thought  becomes 


,48 


DEBATE, 


the  cause  of  ike  movements  and  changes  of  matter.  We  are  universally 
unable  to  discover  the  ground  of  necessary  connexion.  It  is  possible  that 
as  a  numerous  class  of  motions  have  their  constant  origin  in  thought; 
so  there  may  he  no  thoughts  altogether  unattended  icith  motion.  There 
arc  hut  two  ways  in  which  thought  can  he  excited  in  the  mind — -1st.  hy 
external  impressions;  and ,  2 dly.  hy  the  property  which  one  thought  ex¬ 
isting  in  the  mind  is  found  to  have  of  introducing  another  hy  some  link 
„ unknown y- 

These  cardinal  points,  dimly  apprehended,  saved  him  from  the 
vortex  of  materialism,  and  afford  some  wholesome  admonitions  to  our 
modern  wise  men  who  are  dressing  up  anew  the  long  exploded  doc¬ 
trines  of  fate  and  materialism. 

But,  to  return  to  the  doctrine  of  circumstances;  we  have  proof, 
deduced  from  the  experience  of  every  man,  that  we  are  not  always 
controlled  by  the  circumstances  around  us. 

Do  we  not  originate  new  ideas  giving  birth  to  new  systems?  Carry 
the  influences  of  circumstances,  according  to  Mr.  Owen’s  doctrine, 
out  to  its  legitimate  consequences,  and  we  must  cease  to  be  progres¬ 
sive  beings — there’s  a  stop  put  to  our  progressive  improvability.  But 
it  behoves  Mr.  Owen, before  he  can  establish  the  truth  of  his  positions, 
to  account  for  a  variety  of  principles  in  human  nature,  in  direct  oppo¬ 
sition  to  his  whole  theory.  Of  these  we  shall  hereafter  speak. 

I  have  been  very  much  pleased  with  the  perusal  of  my  friend’s 
“twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature,”  which  he  handed  me 
during  the  intermission.  I  have  very  little  objection  toanv  of  them, 
Save  that  which  undertakes  to  settle  the  amount  of  influence  which 
the  will  exercises  over  our  belief.  But  this  is  a  question  which  I  am 
not  about  to  agitate  at  present.  But  the  admission  of  Mr.  Owen’s 
“facts”  does  not  involve  an  admission  of  all  the  reasonings  and  de¬ 
ductions  superinduced  upon  them.  But' these  very  “facts”  demon¬ 
strate  that  Mr.  Owen  has  lost  sight  of  the  creature  man,  and  of  the 
relations  in  which  he  exists  and  acts.  He  never  takes  into  view  the 
intellectual  endowments  of  man.  No  analysis  of  the  powers  or  ca¬ 
pabilities  of  the  human  mind  has  been  attempted.  ’Tis  the  mere 
animal,  the  external  case,  which  is  the  mere  habitation  of  the  intelli¬ 
gent  principle,  which  engrosses  his  whole  thought  and  theory.  All 
that  Mr.  Owen  has  said  of  man,  might,  with  the  same  logical  propriety, 
be  affirmed  of  a  goat.  There  is  scarcely  one  of  these  twelve  laws 
that  is  not  as  true  of  the  irrational  part  of  the  animal  creation  as  it 
is  of  man.  According  to  these  “divine  laws  of  human  nature,”  man 
is  as  effectually  deprived  of  all  data  whereon  to  form  a  judgment,  or 
even  a  conjecture  concerning  his  primitive  origin  or  future  destiny, 
a is  is  the  horse  or  dog.  Now  in  laying  the  foundation  of  any  science 
or  theory  regarding  the  nature  of  man,  we  must  take  into  view  the 
whole  premises,  as  well  in  relation  to  mind  as  matter — to  things 
future  as  to  things  present.  Every  rational  theory  on  the  nature  of 
man  must  be  predicated,  de  rebus  spiritualihus}  as  well  as  de  rebus  , 
naturaUbus-^upon  his  spiritual,  as  well  as  his  animal  endowments; 

*  Godwin,  vot.  i.  p.  404 — 420. 


DEBATE. 


49 


otherwise  a  theory  predicated  on  only  a  part  of  man,  must  be  defec¬ 
tive,  and  at  variance  with  all  experience. 

Errors  of  this  kind  are  very  common  among  theorists.  Each  of 
them  has  some  favorite  principle,  by  which  he  resolves  every  thing, 
and  to  which  all  his  reasonings  tend.  But  every  rational  theory  of 
man  must  be  predicated  upon  a  strict  analysis  of  the  whole  man, 
moral  and  physical — upon  an  analysis  of  his  mental  endowments  as 
well  as  his  physical  faculties— upon  an  analysis  of  every  thing  per  ¬ 
taining  to  the  man,  soul,  body,  and  spirit  But  these  “twelve  facts*1 
only  prove  that  all  our  ideas  are  the  result  of  mere  sensation — that 
they  are  acquired,  accumulated,  and  imposed  by  the  influence  of 
external  circumstances. 

We  may  yet  examine  whether  such  a  theory  can  be  predicated 
upon  the  principles  alleged.  Locke,  Hume,  and  all  the  mental  philo¬ 
sophers,  have  agreed  upon  certain  premises.  Mirabeau  himself  agrees 
with  Locke  and  Hume.  They  all  agree  that  all  our  original  ideas 
are  the  result  of  sensation  and  reflection  ;  that  is.,  that  the  five  senses 
inform  us  of  the  properties  of  bodies,  that  our  five  senses  are  the  only 
avenues  through  which  ideas  of  material  objects  can  be  derived  to  us; 
that  we  have  an  intellectual  power  of  comparing  these  impressions 
thus  derived  to  us  through  the  media  of  the  senses ;  and  this  they  cal! 
reflection.  Admitting  this  theory  to  be  correct,  (Mr.  Owen  has 
doubted  it;)  but  if  it  be  correct  that  all  our  simple  ideas  are  the  result 
of  sensation  and  reflection,  how  can  we  have  any  idea,  the  archetype 
Gf  which  does  not  exist  in  nature? 

But  the  question  is,  Whence  are  the  ideas,  which  we  call  religious, 
derived  to  us?  Neither  our  sensations,  impressions,  nor  their  combina¬ 
tions,  have  ever  been  able  to  shadow  out  an  archetype  of  a  God  or 
Creator  producing  something  out  of  nothing.  All  our  ideas  concern¬ 
ing  creative  power  have  exclusive  reference  to  changes  v/rought  upon 
created  matter.  From  the  preceding  sketch  the  idea  of  changing  a 
shapeless  piece  of  wood  into  a  chair,  is  easily  derived  to  us— it  is 
simply  an  idea  of  a  change  wrought  upon  the  raw  material,  that  being 
created  to  the  hand  of  the  maker.  But  we  have  an  idea  of  God,  of  a 
Creator,  a  being  who  has  produced  the  whole  material  universe  by  the 
bare  exhibition  of  physical  creative  power.  This  idea  we  contend 
can  have  no  archetype  in  nature,  because  we  have  never  seen  any 
thing  produced  out  of  nothing.  But  we  have  the  idea  of  the  existence 
of  this  creative  power.  It  is  to  be  found  in  almost  all  religions.  If 
we  appeal  to  traditionary  or  historic  evidence,  we  shall  find  that  all 
nations  had  originally  some  ideas  of  the  existence  of  a  Great  First 
Cause.  But  the  difficulty  is — how  did  the  idea  originate?  By  what 
process  could  it  have  been  engendered  ?  Where  was  the  archetype  in 
nature  to  suggest  (consistently  with  the  analysis  of  the  human  mind) 
the  remotest  idea  of  a  Creator,  or  any  other  idea  concerning  spiritual 
things?  Locke  and  Hume  admit  the  almost  unbounded  power  of  the 
imagination.  It  can  abstract,  compound,  and  combine  the  qualities 
of  objects  already  known,  and  thus  form  new  creations  ad  infinitum . 
But  still  it  borrows  all  the  original  qualities  from  the  other  faculties 

5 


60 


DEBATE. 


pf  the  mind,  and  from  the  external  senses.  Imagination  can  roam 
at  large  upon  the  properties  of  animals,  and  by  abstracting  from 
one  and  adding  to  another,  and  thus  combining  their  respective 
qualities,  it  creates  to  itself  images  unlike  any  thing  existing  in 
nature.  Hence  the  Centaur,  the  Sphinx,  and  the  Griffin.  But  our  ideas 
of  all  the  constituents  of  these  creatures  of  imagination  are  derived 
from  our  senses  and  reflections.  There  is  no  limit  to  its  vagaries ;  for, 
as  the  poet  says,  it  can  most  easily  convert  a  bush  into  a  bear.  But  a 
man,  some  say,  may  imagine  the  idea  of  a  First  Cause,  and  may 
originate  spiritual  ideas.  But  this  is  impossible  from  any  thing  yet 
known  in  experience  or  in  philosophy.  To  form  ideas  concerning 
spiritual  things,  imagination  has  to  travel  out  of  her  province.  To 
form  the  very  first  idea  of  a  God,  she  must  transcend  the  visible  ma¬ 
terial  world.  Nothing  so  fantastic  as  the  vagaries  of  imagination,  and 
yet  nothing  is  more  circumscribed.  My  imagination  might  picture 
to  me  a  tree,  the  roots  of  which  are  iron ,  the  stem  brass ,  the  leaves 
silver,  and  the  apples  gold;  but  if  I  had  never  seen  a  tree  growing  in 
the  earth,  could  I  possibly  have  conceived,  in  the  wildest  vagaries  of 
my  imagination,  an  idea  of  this  wonderful  metallic  tree?  I  therefore 
conceive  that  it  devolves  upon  Mr.  Owen  (in  deducing  his  proofs  of  the 
iirst  position,  that  “all  religions  are  founded  in  the  ignorance  of 
man’*)  to  show  that  we  possess  those  powers  which  can  enable  us  to 
reason  from  sensible  material  objects  up  to  spiritual,  immaterial  ex¬ 
istences.  It  behoves  him  to  show  that  ignorant  men,  or  men  in  the 
rudest  ages  of  the  world,  were  competent  to  invent  and  establish  re¬ 
ligion.  If  it  be  so  that  man  is  destitute  of  power  to  create  something 
out  of  nothing,  or  to  originate  the  fundamental  ideas  and  terms  found 
in  all  religions — if  he  cannot  clear  up  this  matter,  how  can  he  affirm 
that  all  religion  is  founded  upon  the  ignorance  of  men?  But  this  is 
not  all :  there  are  a  few  questions  which  I  nowr  beg  leave  distinctively 
to  propose  to  my  opponent  for  his  consideration.  I  will  furnish  him 
with  a  copy  of  them  for  his  examination  during  the  evening,  that  on 
the  morrow  he  may  see  the  necessity  of  going  more  philosophically 
to  work,  if  he  intend  to  debate  the  points  at  issue  at  all : — 

1.  Can  man,  by  the  exercise  of  his  mental  powers,  originate  lan¬ 
guage?  And  even  suppose  he  could  invent  names  for  external  sensible 
objects,  could  he  also  originate  the  terms  peculiar  to  religion,  for 
which  he  has  no  types  in  the  sensible  creation? 

2.  Must  not  the  object  or  idea  exist  prior  to  the  name  or  term  by 
which  it  is  designated?  For  example,  the  term  “steam-boat,”  a  word 
invented  in  our  time — -was  not  the  object  in  existence  before  this  name 
was  found  in  our  vocabulary  ? 

3.  Must  not  the  idea  of  the  existence  of  any  particular  object,  be 
prior  to  the  idea  of  any  of  its  properties  ?  Or  can  we  conceive  of  the 
properties  of  a  thing,  before  we  have  an  idea  of  that  thing’s  existence? 

4.  How,  then,  do  we  become  conscious  of  the  idea  of  spirit,  our 
consciousness  being  limited  to  the  objects  of  sensation,  perception, 
and  memory;  and  consequently  all  our  mental  operations  being  ne¬ 
cessarily  confined  to  the  same  objects? 


DEBATE.  51 

5,  Docs  not  our  belief,  as  well  as  our  knowledge  and  experience, 
depend  upon  our  mental  operations? 

I  choose  to  present  the  matter  in  this  form  in  order  to  elicit  from  my 
opponent  something  like  an  analysis  of  the  powers  of  the  human  mind, 
which  we  must  have  soon  or  late  in  this  controversy,  if  either  of  us  will 
redeem  the  pledge  we  have  given  to  this  community.  [ Half  hour  out] 

Here  Mr.  Owen  rises  and  states  that  the  period  has  expired  for  which 
they  can  be  permitted  to  occupy  the  building  this  afternoon . 

Tuesday  forenoon,  April  14  th,  1829. 

Mr.  Owen  rises —  '  ' 

Gentlemen  Moderators — -You  decided  yosterday  evening,  that  the 
part  of  the  subject  to  be  continued  by  me,  was  to  prove  that  all  reli¬ 
gions  have  been  founded  in  ignorance.  It  was,  I  believe,  so  stated 
by  the  Chairman. 

I  last  night  received  some  questions  from  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell ; 
but  discovering  that  they  are  not  applicable  to  the  subject  matter  im¬ 
mediately  before  us,  we  will  postpone  the  consideration  of  them  until 
I  have  demonstrated  the  five  propositions  which  I  have  engaged  to 
prove.  Afterwards  1  will,  if  time  permit,  discuss  any  metaphysical 
question,  however  subtle.  But  as  you,  gentlemen,  have  decided  that 
we  shall  proceed  to  investigate  the  points  agreed  upon  between  Mr. 
Campbell  and  myself,  I  feel  bound  to  abide  by  your  decision. 

My  friends,  I  yesterday  pursued  this  point  through  four  of  the  fun¬ 
damental  laws,  upon  which  I  rely  to  prove  all  1  have  undertaken  to  do, 
in  this  engagement  with  Mr.  Campbell.  I  will  now  proceed  to  the 
fflh ,  viz.  “That  each  individual  is  so  created,  at  birth,  that  he  may  he 
compelled  to  receive  true  ideas  or  false  notions,  and  beneficial  or  in¬ 
jurious  habits,  and  retain  them  with  great  tenacity.”  This  is  one  of 
the  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature,  which  may  properly  be  called 
a  divine  law;  no  man  created  it;  no  man  knows  how  it  was  created; 
it  exists  in  man  at  all  times,  wherever  he  may  be  found ;  it  is  beyond 
man’s  control ;  and  I  conceive  that  that  which  is  beyond  human  con¬ 
trol,  to  be  truly  divine,  if  any  thing  can  be  so  called.  If  then  it  be  a 
law  of  our  nature,  that  infants  may  be  so  placed,  that  without  the 
possibility  of  resistance,  on  their  parts,  they  may  be  compelled  to  re¬ 
ceive  rational  ideas  or  false  notions ;  they  cannot  be  responsible  for 
what  they  are  thus  made  to  receive,  without  their  consent.  When  wTe 
look  at  the  countenance  of  those  who  have  been  born  and  reared  in 
very  inferior  circumstances  of  life — of  those  wholly  devoid  of  educa¬ 
tion,  we  discover  at  once  their  ignorance,  before  they  speak.  The 
expression  of  their  countenances  assures  us,  before  a  word  is  spoken, 
that  they  are  devoid  of  intelligence.  We  perceive  that  their  training 
and  instruction  have  been  entirely  neglected.  Are  these  men  to  bo 
responsible  for  the  neglect  which  they  have  experienced  ?  On  the 
other  hand,  let  us  observe  the  countenances  of  intelligent,  well  educa¬ 
ted  men,  and  we  shall  be  compelled  to  draw  the  conclusion,  that  they 
have  been  educated  amidst  circumstances  comparatively  favorable  for 
the  developement  of  their  mental  faculties.  But  can  these  individu- 


DEBATE. 


$2 


als  deserve  merit  for  being  so  placed?  Surely  man  has  always  been 
in  error  on  these  subjects.  The  character  of  the  varied  circumstances 
■in  which  they  were  placed,  from  infancy,  is  stamped  upon  the  expres¬ 
sion  and  features  of  both.  They  were  made  what  they  are,  by  mea¬ 
sures  adopted  by  persons,  over  whom  they  had  no  control,  and  by  a 
power  of  which  they  were  ignorant. 

My  friends,  whenever  you  shall  consider  these  things,  rationally, 
_v ou  will  discover  that  not  one  of  the  religions  which  has  ever  been 
invented,  or  forced  upon  mankind,  apply  to  a  being  who  is  thus  or¬ 
ganized.  Fortunately,  for  our  posterity,  we  have  now  discovered  that 
we  are  so  created  that  the  adults  of  this  or  any  subsequent  generation 
.may  form  the  character  of  their  successors,  to  attain  high  physical 
.and  mental  excellence;  and  through  this  knowledge  we  shall  soon 
learn  to  do  justice  to  human  nature.  We  shall  not  continue  as  we 
have  heretofore  done,  to  find  fault  with  human  nature,  because  our 
parents  have  allowed  us  to  be  trained  in  all  kinds  of  ignorance  and 
bad  feeling.  No,  we  shall  discover  that  we  are  the  effects  of  causes 
as  certain  and  known,  as  any  effects  that  ever  man  traced  up  to  the 
known  and  ascertained  causes. 

When  we  shall  learn  to  know  ourselves ;  when  we  shall  no  longer 
remain  in  ignorance  of  what  manner  of  beings  we  are;  then,  and  then 
only,  shall  we  know  how  to  estimate  the  value  and  importance  of  a 
human  being  at  birth ;  they  will  be  no  longer  neglected  in  infancy. 
Wc  shall  be  conscious  of  the  necessity  which  exists,  to  give  the  great¬ 
est  attention  to  the  formation  of  their  ideas,  habits,, and  characters, 
from  the  commencement  of  their  existence.  Then  we  shall  discover 
the  certain  method  whereby  to  make  our  infants  the  most  superior  of 
human  beings — superior  in  ideas,  in  habits,  in  manners,  in  disposition, 
and  in  morals-— superior  in  every  thing  calculated  to  improve  the 
condition  of  society.  If.  however,  these  new,  arrangements  were  now 
i fi  the  full  tide  of  successful  experiment  ;  if  they  were  now  even  actu¬ 
ally  consummated,  and  their  happy  effects  experienced;  I  would  not 
conscientiously  attribute  one  particle  of  praise  or  blame  to  the  indi 
viduais  who  had  been  the  most  prominent  agents  in  bringing  about 
such  a  revolution.  No,  my  friends,  we  might,  with  equal  justice,  at¬ 
tribute  merit  to  the  coat  which  I  now  wear,  because  it  is  black,  as  to 
the  individval  to  whose  lot  it  may  fall  to  bring  about  this  new  order  of 
things.  We  can  paint  any  infant  black  or  white,  in  character,  by  our 
care  or  neglect;  but  who  shall  blame  or  praise  the  infant  for  what 
others  perform  for  him  *  and  not  err?  No;  when  once  the  full  truth 
upon  this  subject  shall  be  understood  and  appreciated,  all  irrational 
praise  and  blame,  all  those  unkind  feelings,  which  the  present  system 
generates,  will  no  longer  exist;  there  will  not  be  a  single  motive  for 
a  harsh  feeling  amongst  the  whole  race.  Why,  my  friends,  we  have 
been  told  (and  that  truly,  too,)  that  the  greatest  of  all  virtues  is  charity. 
But  what  kind  of  charity  ?  Is  it  a  charity  for  those  who  happen  to  be 
placed  in  like  circumstances  with  ourselves?  Is  it  a  charity  for  our 
own  particular  sect  or  party?  No;  the  character  which  is  required  to 
form  this  virtue,  can  be  derived  only  from  this  knowledge  of  ourselves. 


DEBATE, 


53 


and  through  this  knowledge  it  will  become  irresistible  and  universal ; 
it  will  be  a  pure  unalloyed  charity,  extending  to  the  whole  human  race. 
Compare  now  this  charity,  which  excludes  not  one  human  being  that 
ever  has  been  born,  with  the  charity  which  now  exists  in  the  world. 
And  why  has  not  this  charity  been  coeval  with  our  race?  Why,  sim¬ 
ply,  because,  from  the  beginning  of  time,  we  have  been  kept  in  the 
dark ;  because  all  manner  of  foul  play  has  been  employed  to  make  and 
to  keep  us  irrational,  and  to  prevent  us  from  knowing  any  thing  about 
ourselves. 

Whenever  a  spirit  more  ardent  than  that  belonging  to  the  ordinary 
race  of  mortals,  attempted  an  investigation  of  moral  and  social  dis¬ 
eases,  there  has  ever  been  a  government  and  a  priesthood  at  hand  to 
say  to  them  in  a  voice  of  thunder,  “Trespass  not  upon  our  preroga¬ 
tives  ;  advance  not  one  step  in  that  direction  without  our  permission ; 
know  you  not  that  the  people  must  be  kept  in  the  dark?’5  But,  my 
friends,  how  beautiful  are  the  simple  truths  of  nature !  They  require 
j  no  preaching,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  year  after  year,  generation  after 
generation,  to  prove  that  they  are  true.  A  half  dozen  sermons  upon 
h  religion  and  morals  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  enlighten  all  who 
;  might  hear  them.  This  plan  of  proceeding  would  certainly  save  a 
great  expense  of  time  and  money,  and  be  a  great  gain  in  many 
important  points  of  view  to  the  public.  But  do  not  suppose  that  I 
wish  to  excite  one  angry  feeling  against  the  priesthood.  They  are  a 
class,  formed  like  all  other  classes,  by  the  circumstances  of  the  soci¬ 
eties  in  which  they  live,  and  are  no  more  culpable  than  any  other 
portion  of  any  other  society.  I  have  several  friends,  whom  I  highly 
esteem,  who  are  ministers,  not  of  one  but  of  all  the  sects  generally 
known  in  Europe — men  whom  I  believe  to  be  strictly  conscientious; 
and  with  some  of  these  in  particular  I  live  on  terms  of  great  intimacy,  \ 
and  feel  a  great  regard  and  affection  for  them  personally.  I  have 
two  brothers-in-law  who  are  Christian  ministers,  and  we  have  always, 
had  a  sincere  friendship  for  each  other.  I  cannot  blame  them  or  other* 
ministers  of  religion,  for  being  made  what  they  are.  I  feel  the  in¬ 
justice  of  attributing  to  any  of  them  individually  the  errors  of  their 
sects,  or  the  evils  which  they  create.  The  responsibiliiy  which  I 
have  assumed  in  my  continued  earnest  endeavors  to  subvert  all  the 
religions  of  the  world,  and  thereby  deprive  many  individuals  of  their 
present  only  mode  of  support,  has  been  always  one  of  serious  con¬ 
sideration.  It  has  occupied  much  of  my  thoughts.  I  have  been  most 
anxious  to  discover  a  safe  and  secure  mode  to  prevent  priests,  lawyers, 
physicians,  or  merchants  being  injured  personally  by  the  change,  in 
mind,  body,  or  estate.  I  know  that  the  time  has  now  arrived  when 
this  change  (tremendous  as  it  may  and  must  appear  to  those  who  are 
not  prepared  for  it)  must  take  place!  and  take  place  too  rapidly,  my 
friends,  unless  we  can  beforehand  infuse  so  much  charity  as  to 
prompt  us  to  the  adoption  of  the  means  by  which  the  present  indivi¬ 
duals  in  these  classes  may  be  supported  as  long  as  they  live.  But 
I  am  not  without  consolation  even  upon  this  subject.  The  peculiar 
circumstances  in  which  I  have  been  placed,  (circumstances  which 

5* 


54 


DEBATE. 


I  may  hereafter  explain  if  necessaiy,)  enable  me  to  state  confidently 
that  the  time  has  passed  when  it  is  necessary  to  have  any  contest  about 
the  means  of  living  in  comfort,  or  about  any  pecuniary  consideration. 
The  enormous  scientific  power  obtained  within  the  last  half  century 
for  the  creation  of  wealth,  with  the  increase  of  knowledge  upon  many 
other  important  subjects,  will  change  men’s  minds  on  these  matters 
and  introduce  a  principle  of  justice  instead  of  the  practice  of  gain. 
The  public  may  be  expected  to  become  rational  upon  these  subjects, 
and  be  enabled  tp  guide  these  two  powers  to  produce  a  general  benefit 
forall  classes.  When  these  powers  are  developed, they  will  be  found 
amply  sufficient  to  secure  to  every  child,  from  birth  to  death,  a  full 
supply  of  every  thing  really  beneficial  for  his  nature,  or  that  can 
contribute  to  his  happiness.  As  we  advance  in  real  knowledge,  and 
thus  become  rational,  we  shall  discover  that  there  can  be  no  cause 
for  anxiety,  with  regard  to  pecuniary  matters,  or  rather  the  means  of 
living  in  comfort.  We  shall  perceive  that,  with  the  ample  means  no  w 
posessed  by  society,  arrangements  the  most  simple  and  beautiful  may 
be  created  to  produce  a  superfluity  of  real  wealth  for  the  whole  soci¬ 
ety,  so  abundant,  indeed,  that  we  may  all  freely  use  as  much  as  we 
desire — even  then  there  will  be  a  surplus,  greatly  exceeding  the  wants 
of  all. 


My  friends,  do  not  suppose  that  these  are  chimerical  notions,  un¬ 
warranted  by  fact.  They  may  be  easily  explained  and  demonstrated 
to  be  truths,  by  facts,  the  most  valuable  to  mankind,  and  capable^ 
when  rightly  applied,  to  make  the  most  happy  results  for  the  genera¬ 
tions  to  come.  This  beneficial  change  is  as  certain  to  arrive  through 
the  necessary  progress  of  improvement  and  advance  of  knowledge* 
as  that  you  now  hear  the  sound  of  my  voice.  These  must  be  the  ne¬ 
cessary  results  of  this  law  of  our  nature,  when  understood  and  acted 
upon  in  connexion  with  the  other  laws;  and  I  think  Mr.  Campbell  has 
admitted  the  accuracy  of  them  all,  except  the  one  that  declares  our 
wills  to  have  no  power  to  change  our  convictions  or  to  force  any  be¬ 
lief  on  our  minds,  contrary  to  the  strongest  conviction  already  made 
upon  them.  But,  my  friends,  this  law  of  our  nature  promulgates  a 
self-evident  truth.  If  man  is  thus  plastic,  in  childhood,  shall  we  not 
adopt  the  same  method  of  moulding  them  into  beings  who  shall  be 
virtuous,  and  consequently,  happy  themselves,  and  dispensers  of  hap¬ 
piness  to  others.  Why,  with  a  knowledge  of  this  law,  shall  one  infe¬ 
rior  human  being  be  hereafter  formed  ?  There  is  surely  no  necessity 
for  it — not  even  that  one  discordant  disposition  should  be  formed,  to 
mar  the  general  happines.  My  friends,  do  you  not  already  perceive 
how  much  we  should  all  be  benefited,  if  there  were  no  inferior  char¬ 
acters  amongst  us. 

■ 

We  come  now  to  the  6th  fundamental*  principle  of  human  nature 
which  my  friend  Mr.  Campbell,  says  he  is  not  quite  willing  to  sub¬ 
scribe  to.  Now,  my  friends,  I  should  he  sorry  to  leave  any  thing  even 
doubtful  or  unsettled,  either  in  your  minds  or  my  friend  Mr.  Camp- 
jreiis.  To  establish  the  truth  of  this  divine  law  of  our  n^ture^  it  is  only 


DEBATE,  55' 

necessary  to  adduce  facts  which  every  one  can  comprehend,  and 
must  assent  to. 

Therefore  I  trust,  that  before  we  separate,  not  only  my  friend  Mr. 
Campbell,  but  every  reflecting  person  here  will  admit  the  truth  of  this 
law.  This  8th  law  then  (which  appears  to  be  the  present  stumbling 
block)  is  “  that  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  he  must  believe  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  strongest  impressions  made  upon  his  feelings  and  fac¬ 
ulties,  and  that  his  belief  in  no  case  depends  upon  his  will.”  If  the 
human  race  had  not  been  involved  in  ignorance,  the  most  gross,  and 
if  that  ignorance  had  not  been  continued  up  to  the  present  hour,  no 
one  could  have  imagined  for  a  moment  that  he  had  the  power  of  belief, 
or  disbelief  at  his  control.  t — 

We  are  beings  so  formed  by  nature,  that  we  are  compelled  often 
strongly  against  our  wills,  to  believe  what  we  do  not  desire  to  believe; 
to  be  convinced  of  that  which  we  have  not  any  inclination  to  believe, 
and  what  we  never  expect  to  believe.  If  any  of  you  now  suppose, 
that  you  have  the  power  to  believe  or  disbelieve,  according  to  your  vo¬ 
litions,  be  so  good  as  to  believe  fora  few  moments,  that  I  am  not  here; 
can  any  of  you  do  this?  But  it  may  be  said,  that  this  is  a  fact,  so 
clear,  that  we  cannot  disbelieve  it  against  the  evidence  of  our  senses. 
Well  then,  will  you  have  the  goodness  to  control  your  wills,  to  believe 
fully  and  unreservedly  that  Mahomet  was  a  trpe  prophet  sent  of  God? 
Now  is  there  an  individual  here,  who  has  been  able  so  far  to  influence 
his  will,  as  to  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Mahomet’s  mission.  I  know 
that  this  is  impossible.  And  so  it  is  my  friends  in  all  the  other  de¬ 
partments  of  human  belief  and  opinions.  When  ever  the  human 
mind  shall  be  rescued  from  the  thick  darkness  which  has  heretofore 
enveloped  it,  no  proposition  will  be  more  self-evident,  than  that  our 
will  haS  no  control  over  our  belief  and  opinions.  Whether  born  in 
China  or  Hindostan;  amongst  Christains  or  Jews — whether  in  India 
or  in  Africa — all  men  are  coerced  by  this  and  other  laws  of  our  na¬ 
ture  to  believe  according  to  the  strongest  impressions  which  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  birth,  nurture,  and  education,  have  forced  upon  them. — - 
And,  my  friends,  are  you  aware  that  this  error,  taught  us  from  infan¬ 
cy,  that  our  will  has  power  over  our  belief,  is  the  main  pillar  of  all  relig 
ions  ?  They  have  indeed  no  other  foundation ;  and  you  perceive  it  is 
quicksand  only.  Be  assured,  there  never  has  been  a  more  injurious 
idea,  forced  into  the  human  mind  than  that  which  has  forced  it  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  there  is  merit  or  demerit  in  any  opinion  whatsoever.  We 
can  give  to  all  children,  true  ideas  or  false  notions;  for  in  this  res¬ 
pect  they  are  perfectly  passive.  And,  indeed,  in  the  universal  ig¬ 
norance,  of  this  plain  simple  truth,  is  to  be  found  the  chief  cause  of 
all  the  massacres,  wars,  dissentions  and  miseries  which  have  afflicted 
the  human  race,  and  the  lamentable  want  of  that  pure  and  unrestrict¬ 
ed  charity,  which  ought  to  pervade  the  population  of  all  countries. — • 
When,  however,  we  shall  be  taught  to  understand,  and  -hereby  made 
cordially  to  receive  this  truth,  how  delightfully  shall  we  communi¬ 
cate  with  each  other;  then,  my  friends,  we  shall  no  longer  be  angry 
In  the  slightest  degree,  because  our  brother  has  been  placed  in  cir- 


DEBATE. 


cumstances,  which  coerce  him  to  think  differently  from  ourselves.  We 
shall  then  perceive  that  there  is  quite  as  much  rationality  in  being 
angry  with  him,  because  his  opinions  do  not  accord  with  ours,  as  there 
would  be  in  being  angry  w  ith  him  because  his  features  are  not  ex-* 
actly  like  ours.  No,  my  friends,  it  is  just  as  absurd  for  us  to  form 
our  brethern,  to  think  as  we  do,  without  producing  evidence  sufficient 
to  create  conviction  in  their  minds,  as  it  would  be  to  force  every  one 
of  them,  to  be  six  feet  high.  We  can  establish  a  uniform  standard  for 
men’s  height,  with  as  much  color  of  rationality,  as  we  can  for  their 
opinions.  No  man  can  alter  his  opinions,  by  his  own  will.  We 
must,  before  such  a  change  can  be  made,  receive  from  some  new 
source  reasons  sufficient  to  create  a  conviction  stronger  than  that  by 
which  he  has  been  previously  influenced.  It  is  true  as  my  learned 
friend  will  perhaps  say,  that  men  may  be  more  inclined  to  open  their 
minds,  to  receive,  or  to  be  confirmed  in  one  set  of  opinions,  and  to 
neglect  the  means  of  acquiring,  or  close  their  minds  against  receiv¬ 
ing  some  other  opinions,  which  they  have  been  taught  to  believe,  are 
erroneous,  and  injurious;  but  our  motives  for  so  doing,  exist  in  our 
minds  independently  of  our  wills.  We  have  been  in  such  cases  pre¬ 
viously  prejudiced  in  favor  of,  or  against  these  opinions.  Some  wills 
were  necessarily  formed  by  these  prejudices,  and  we  could  no  more 
avoid  our  feelings,  in  these  respects,  than  our  convictions,  when  they 
have  been  made.  Now  I  wish  to  put  you  all  on  your  guard,  relative 
to  this  fundamental  law  of  our  nature,  because  as  I  have  previously 
stated,  it.  is  one  of  the  two  chief  pillars,  on  which  the  religions  of  the 
world  rest  for  support,  and  if  this  shall  be  now  destroyed, ^they  must, 
of  necessity*  fall.  They  have,  as  I  most  concientiously  believe,  no 
other  foundation  of  any  sufficient  strength  to  retain  them  in  existence. 
They  rest  but  upon  these  two  pillars,  and  we  shall  soon  try  the 
strength  of  the  other,  wffiich  will  next  come  under  our  view.  Let  us 
here  pause,  my  friends,  for  a  moment,  to  consider  the  depth  of  that 
darkness,  in  which  our  ancestors  must  have  been  involved,  not  to 
have  discovered  through  so  many  ages,  this,  almost  self  evident  truth. 
[Half  hour  out] 

Me.  Campbell,  rose — 

Mr.  Chairman — The  questions  which  were  yesterday  proposed,  to 
Mr.  Owen,  very  naturally  presented  themselves  from  his  own  prem¬ 
ises.  He  proposed  to  prove  all  religions  human,  therefore  he  must 
show  that  human  beings  could  invent  them.  This  I  contend,  he  must 
do,  or  give  up  his  first  position.  But  he  supposes  that  I  will  not  insist 
upon  his  attending  to  them.  In  this  he  is  doubtless  mistakenyI  do 
insist  upon  it,  and  I  think  he  wall  feel  himself  compelled  to  attend  to 
them.  But  he  has  promised  to  take  them  under  his  consideration  by 
and  by.  I  wall  just  remark  here,  that  his  last  address  is  but  a 
repetition  of  the  preceding  one.  Both  amount  to  this,  that  man  did 
not  make  himself,  and  consequently  is  irresponsible;  ergo ,  all  relig* 
ions  must  be  false.  This  appears  to  be  his  darling  corollary..  As  to 
my  admission  of  the  twelve  “facts,”  which  1  did  for  the  sake  of  argu¬ 
ment,  I  say  again  I  am  ready  to  admit  them  ail3  with  the  exception 


-Debate. 


*»'  <*&> 
[$/ 

already  stated.  But  what  of  this  ?  Mr.  Owen  may  state  twelve  facts'^ 
as  he  calls  them,  more  about  man,  and  I  may  admit  them  all,  and 
yet  the  original  question  be  just  as  it.  was.  If  Mr.  Owen  had  said,  that 
a  man  has  two  eyes,  two  ears,  two  hands,  two  feet&c.  &c.  and  such 
and  such  mental  faculties;  I  would  admit  it.  But  when  admitted, 
will  it  follow  from  these  truths,  accidents  or  properties,  affirmed  of 
man,  that  all  religions  are  false?  I  admitted  at  first  hearing,  most 
of  his  facts,  because,  my  great  object  is  to  admit  every  thing  in  any  de¬ 
gree  relevant  or  pertinent  to  the  argument,  that  we  may  save  time,  and 
put  the  controversy  upon  the  proper  issue.  But  my  friend  has  said 
that  the  whole  pith  of  the  argument  is  concentrated  in  the  corollary, 
that  man  did  not  make  himself,  ergo,  is  irresponsible.  Now  this  dogma 
puts  out  of  the  world,  and  out  of  human  language,  every  idea  of  re¬ 
sponsibility  of  any  kind,  or  to  any  being  whatever.  Is  this  the  con¬ 
summation  devoutly  to  be  wished  by  all  necessarians!  According 
tt>  ibis  argument,  no  responsibility  of  any  sort  can  be  predicated  of 
man  any  more  than  of  a  stone.  This  is  the  legitimate  stopping  place 
of  the  emancipating  principle,  of  the  system  of  unconquerable  circum¬ 
stances.  What  mighty  results !  No  blame,  no  praise,  no  virtue,  no 
vice,  no  thanks,  no  gratitude.  All  our  social,  moral,  natural,  and  re¬ 
ligious  relations,  obligations,  and  dependences  are  at  once  annihila¬ 
ted  by  the  besom  of  this  sweeping  corollary. 

Mr.  Owen  has  dwelt  with  much  pleasure  upon  the  loveliness  of 
those  kind  feelings  which  his  system  is  to  generate.  How  short  sight¬ 
ed  the  philosopher!  Will  not  this  principle  of  necessity  inevitably 
exterminate  all  good,  kind,  and  generous  feelings!  Does  he  lay  any 
basis  for  benevolent  feelings !  He  inveighs  against  the  bad  feelings 
of  society.  His  system  condemns  him  here.  He  might  as  rationally 
inveigh  against  benevolent,  as  malevolent  feelings.  And  I  repeat, 
what  basis  does  he  lay  for  the  former,  rather  than  the  latter!  Do 
not  these  principles  assume  man  to  be  as  much  a  particle  of  matter 
as  my  friend’s  coat,  which  he  says  cannot  help  being  black.  Who 
would  think  of  praising  a  coat  because  it  is  white,  or  of  blaming  a 
coat  because  it  is  black?  As  little  commendable  is  virtue — as  little 
condemnable  is  vice!! 

Mr.  Owen  views  man  as  just  so  many  pounds  of  matter  subject  to 
all  the  laws  of  matter,  and  in  this  view  his  laws  of  human  nature  are 
no  more  than  the  laws  of  a  stone.  And  it  is  plain  that  no  man  compos 
mentis  can  attribute  praise  or  blame,  merit  or  demerit,  virtue  or  vice 
to  a  stone.  It  is  quite  natural  for  me  to  like  good  water,  but  can  I  feel 
grateful  to  the  fountain  or  rivulet  which  slakes  my  thirst  ?  Can  I 
thank  the  earth  which  sustains  me  with  its  harvests,  or  the  tree  which 
refreshes  me  with  its  fruit  and  its  shade?  No,  because  there  is 
nothing  voluntary,  nothing  moral,  in  these  contributions  of  na  ture. — 
This  beneficence  of  the  fountain,  the  earth,  and  the  tree  is  purely  ne¬ 
cessary  or  involuntary.  I  know  that  they  cannot  refuse  to  render  me 
their  tributes.  I  know  that  it  is  a  necessary  and  inseparable  incident 
to  the  law  of  their  nature  that  they  should  be  tributary  to  man.  I,, 
repeat  it,  that  Mr.  Owen’s  doctrine  of  irresponsibility  lays  the  axe  to 


58 


DEBATE. 


the  root  of  that  tree  from  whence  spring  all  our  feelings,  good  as  welt 
as  evil.  Like  a  rash  and  unskilful  physician,  he  kills  the  patient 
while  he  kills  the  fever.  All  the  kind  feelings,  complacency,  affec¬ 
tion,  and  social  delights  are  murdered  by  the  same  sword  which  is 
unsheathed  to  stab  religion  to  the  heart. 

If  I  could  be  brought  to  admit  that  man  is  altogether  a  material  be¬ 
ing,  a  pure  animal,  I  could  have  little  difficulty  in  admitting  the  whole 
of  Mr.  Owen’s  theory.  I  could  then  be  brought  to  believe  that  all  our 
ideas  of  our  natural,  moral,  social  and  religious  relations,  obligations 
and  dependencies  were  absurd.  I  earnestly  wish  that  my  friend  was 
more  fully  aware,  than  he  seems  to  be,  that  while  he  is  thus  aiming  at 
the  extermination  of  all  bad  feelings,  he  is  in  reality  sapping  the  foun¬ 
dations  of  society. 

But  Mr.  Owen  tells  us  that  the  infant  man  could  not  help  being  sur¬ 
rounded  with  his  individual  set  of  circumstances.  Well,  admit  it; but 
is  man  ever  to  remain  an  infant  ?  If  he  were  always  to  remain  in  a 
state  of  infantile  imbecility,  then  he  might  be  likened  to  the  tree  or 
to  the  stone  located  to  the  soil,  subject  only  to  the  laws  of  mere  organic 
matter.  But  how  few  of  the  human  family  are  controlled  by  the  pecu¬ 
liar  circumstances  which  surrounded  their  infancy  ?  That  they  are 
in  some  measure  affected  by  them  is  admitted ;  but  ninety-nine  in 
©very  hundred  rise  superior,  or  fall  inferior  to  their  circumstances.— ** 
I  apprehend  it  to  be  a  capital  fallacy  in  Mr.  Owen’s  theory  that  while 
he  originates  man  in  a  certain  set  of  circumstances  he  leaves  him 
there,  and  never  considers  that  the  adult  man  is  continually  changing 
his  circumstances,  and  that  there  is  not  a  more  common  incident  in 
human  life,  nor  a  more  common  phrase  in  human  language  than  to 
change  one’s  circumstances.  We  change  our  circumstances,  and  our 
circumstances  change  us.  And  while,  in  one  sense,  man  is  as  de¬ 
pendent  for  his  future  developement  as  for  his  origination  on  circum¬ 
stances,  it  is  just  as  true  that  he  controls  his  circumstances  with  as 
much  ease  as  Mr.  Owen  changes  his  coat,  his  climate,  his  food,  or  his 
country. 

We  say  that  infants,  idiots,  lunatics,  and  the  non  compos  mentes,  are 
irresponsible  and  we  have  guardians  assigned  them.  All  societies 
agree  that  these  are  irresponsible  because  they  are  either  untaught, 
or  unteachable.  But  carry  out  Mr  Owen’s  principles  to  their  legiti¬ 
mate  length,  and  the  conclusion  irresistably  follows  that  all  men  are 
reduced  to  the  state  of  non  compos  mentis — the  sage  is  as  irresponsible 
as  the  idiot.  Irrational  animals  and  vegetables  are  to  be  loved  or  hated, 
praised  or  dispraised — are  as  sociable,  as  responsible  and  as  irrespon¬ 
sible  as  philosophers.  There  can  be  no  responsibility  exacted  from 
any  human  being  on  these  principles  more  than  from  a  stone,  a  tree, 
a  horse,  or  a  dog. 

What  is  involved  and  pre-supposed  in  the  idea  of  responsibility? — - 
Certainly  rationality.  We  never  think  of  praising  or  blaming,  of  re¬ 
warding  or  punishing  an  infant  until  its  rational  faculties  are  in  some 
degree  developed.  When  he  nas  been  trained  to  acquire  a  rational 
discrimination  between  right  and  wrong,  then  we  begin  to  connect  the 


DEBATE, 


m 

idea  of  responsibility  with  that  infant.  Common  sense,  then,  teaches  us 
that  rationality  and  responsibility  are  terms  nearly  allied,  and  that  the 
developement  of  the  one  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  develope- 
ment  of  the  other.  All  but  philqsophists  agree  that  reason  can  control 
that  which  is  irrational ;  that  reason  is  stronger  than  the  laws  of  attrac¬ 
tion  or  cohesion,  and  therefore  all  men  who  have  not  philosophised 
themselves  beyond  the  regions  of  common  sense,  are  agreed  that  every 
being  whose  reason  is  developed  is  responsible  for  his  actions,  and 
that  where  reason  does  not  exist,  or  is  not  developed,  praise  or  blame, 
or  responsibility  cannot  be  attributed.  Now  Mr.  Owen  makes  all 
men  everlasting  infants,  or  predicates  his  whole  philosophy  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  infant,  the  idiot,  and  the  philosopher  are  equally 
irresponsible  and  equally  controlled  by  circumstances,  both  of  which 
are  as  far  removed  from  the  regions  of  common  sense  and  all  human 
experience,  as  the  reveries  of  Baron  Swedenborg.  This  far  right 
reason  and  common  sense  go  with  us.  But  when  we  transcend  these 
limits  both  reason  and  common  sense  bid  us  adieu.  It  is  obvious  that 
man  in  the  first  instance  comes  upon  the  stage  under  a  great  variety  of 
circumstances,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  he  is  riveted  to  those  circum¬ 
stances,  or  that  he  may  not  exalt  or  degrade  himself  by  rising  superior 
Or  falling  inferior  to  these  circumstances. 

But  not  only  are  sages  and  idiots  reduced  to  the  same  level  of  irres¬ 
ponsibility  by  Mr.  Owen’s  system ;  but  it  reaches  still  further.  It 
saps  the  foundations  not  only  of  all  human  responsibility,  of all  morali¬ 
ty,  but  also  of  all  obligation  to  any  being  in  the  universe.  In  the  first 
instance  it  involves  us  in  impenetrable  darkness  with  respect  to  our 
origin.  Mr.  Owen’s  system  gives  us  no  idea  of  any  origin  of  our  being, 
or  of  any  relation  in  which  as  creatures  we  stand  to  our  Creator.  The 
system  not  only  goes  to  revolutionize  the  moral,  civil  and  municipal 
policy  of  all  the  civilized  world,  but  it  proscribes  all  dependence  upon 
any  unknown,  unseen  cause  whatever.  This  led  me  yesterday  to 
show  that  Mr.  Owen  could  not  demonstrate  his  first  proposition  with¬ 
out  accounting  for  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  a  superior  being, 
Or  discarding  it  altogether.  This  led  me  to  call  on  him  for  an  analysis 
of  our  mental  powers.  This  too,  induced  me  to  present  those  five 
questions  to  him  at  our  adjournment  yesterday  evening.  This  is  just 
the  point  on  which  so  much  depends,  and  to  which  we  anxiously  solicit 
the  attention  of  my  opponent  and  this  audience.  But  Mr.  Owen  de¬ 
clines  this  investigation  for  the  time  being,  but  promises  it  hereafter. 

In  the  meantime,  then,  as  I  conceive,  I  have  glanced  at  the  items  in 
his  la&t  address,  which  have  any  direct  bearings  on  the  proposition 
before  us,  I  will  occupy  my  time  yet  remaining  with  some  strictures 
on  the  different  systems  of  scepticism.  And  I  think  it  will  be  seen 
from  the  brief  notices  which  we  are  about  to  take  of  them  that,  so  soon 
as  we  abandon  the  Bible  there  is  not  a  speck  of  terra  fmna  accessible 
to  human  ingenuity,  on  which  any  thing  worthy  of  the  name  of  system 
can  be  built.  No  system  of  nature,  nor  of  human  nature  can  be  pre¬ 
sented  from  the  annals  of  the  world,  nor  from  the  improvements  of 
mod  era  science*  which  is  not  confessedly  conjectural,  doubtful,  and 


60 


DEBATE. 


unworthy  of  any  sort  of  confidence ;  which  is  not  based  purely  upon 
imagination;  and  which  only  allures  from  the  haven  of  safety,  to  the 
wide  and  tempestuous  ocean  of  absolute  uncertainty,  without  even 
promising  us  compass,  helm,  or  pilot  to  conduct  us  to  a  safe  anchorage 
again.  I  hawe  rummaged  antiquity,  and  the  systems  of  philosophy, 
ancient  and  modern.  I  have  explored  these  systems,  and  find  them 
all  rich  in  promise,  but  bankrupt  in  accomplishment.  They  begin 
with  a  perhaps,  proceed  with  a  may  be ,  and  end  with  a  perchance*— 
But  let  us  take  a  peep  into  these  treasures. 

Scepticism  embraces  as  great  &  variety  of  sects  as  any  other  of  the 
isms  of  ancient  or  modern  times.  The  sceptics  generally  range 
themselves  under  one  or  other  of  the  following  general  denominations : 

*“The  philosophers  admitted  their  own  ignorance,  and  the  necessity  there  was 
for  further  instruction.  Socrates  meeting  Alcibiades  going  to  the  temple  to 
pray,  dissuaded  him  from  it,  because  he  knew  not  how  to  do  it  till  one  should 
gome  to  teach  him.  “It  is  altogether  necessary,”  says  he,  “that  you  should 
wait  for  some  person  to  teach  you  how  you  ought  to  behave  yourself,  both  to 
the  gods  and  men.”  Plato  tells  the  Athenians,  that  they  would  remain  in  a 
state  of  sleep  forever,  if  God  did  not  out  of  pity  send  them  an  instructor.  Cicero 
says,  “I  do  not  suppose  that  Arcesilaus  engaged  in  dispute  with  Zeno  out  of  ob¬ 
stinacy,  or  a  desire  of  superiority,  but  to  show  that  obscurity,  under  which  all 
things  lie,  and  which  forced  Socrates  to  a  confession  of  his  ignorance.  And  all 
those  who  in  a  manner  were  enamoured  with  Socrates;  such  also  as  Democritus, 
Anaxagoras,  Empedocles,  and  almost  all  the  ancients,  were  reduced  to  the  same 
confession.  They  all  maintained  that  no  true  insight  could  be  acquired;  nothing 
clearly  perceived  or  known-;  that  our  senses  were  limited,  our  intellect  weak, 
and  the  course  of  man’s  life  short.  ”  According  to  Democritus,  truth  lay  buried 
in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  or  in  a  well  without  a  bottom.  Such  was  the  utter  un¬ 
certainty  into  which  these  philosophers  had  reasoned  themselves  respecting  the 
nature  of  God,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  a  future  state,  the  most  impor¬ 
tant  of  all  subjects,  of  which  barbarians,  keeping  closer  to  early  tradition,  were 
not  so  grossly  ignorant.  Here  we  may  adopt  the  words  of  Gibbon,  which  we 
should  scarcely  have  expected  from  such  a  quarter.  4 

“Since,  therefore,  the  most  sublime  efforts  of  philosophy  can  extend  no  far- 
ther  than  feebly  to  point  out  the  desire;  the  hope,  or,  at  most,  the  probability, 
of  a  future  state,  there  is  nothing  except  a  divine  revelation  that  can  ascertain  the 
existence,  and  describe  the  condition,  of  the  invisible  country  which  is  destined 
to  receive  the  souls  gf  men  after  the  seperation  from  the  body.  But  we  may 
perceive  several  defects  inherent  to  the  popular  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
which  rendered  them  very  unequal  to  so  arduous  a  task.  1.  The  general  sys¬ 
tem  of  mythology  was  unsupported  by  any  solid  proofs;  and  the  wisest  among 
the  Pagans  had  already  disclaimed  its  usurped  authority.  2.  The  description 
of  the  infernal  regions  had  been  abandoned  to  the  fancy  of  painters  and  of  poets, 
who  peopled  them  with  many  phantoms  and  monsters,  who  dispensed  their  re¬ 
wards  and  punishments  with  so  little  equity,  that  a  solemn  truth,  the  most  con¬ 
genial  to  the  human  heart,  was  oppressed  and  disgraced  by  the  absurd  mixture 
of  the  wildest  fictions.  3.  The  doctrine  of  a  future  state  was  scarcely  consider¬ 
ed  among  the  devout  Polytheists  of  Greece  and  Rome  as  a  fundamental  article 
of  faith.  The  providence  of  the  gods,  as  it  related  to  public  communities  rather 
than  to  private  individuals,  was  principally  displayed  on  the  visible  theatre  of' 
the  present  world.  The  petitions  which  were  offered  on  the  altars  of  Jupiter 
or  Anollo,  expressed  the  anxiety  of  their  worshippess  for  temporal  happiness 
and  their  ignorance  or  indifference  concerning  a  future  life.  The  important 
truth  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  was  inculcated  with  more  diligence,  as  well 
as- sue  cess,  iu  India,  in  Assyria,  in  Egypt,  and  in  Gau  VJ~-Hald's,  Ev.y.  1,  p.  23 


DEBATE. 


01 


Deists,  Theists,  Atheists,  Pantheists.  The  subdivisions  a*e  too  nu¬ 
merous  to  mention  in  this  place.  It  comes  with  a  very  ill  grace  from 
sceptics  to  object  to  Christianity  because  of  the  various  sects  into 
which  the  Christian  community  is  torn,  seeing  they  cannot  exhibit 
any  thing  like  a  visible  unity  among  themselves,  except  in  opposing 
Christianity.  I  presume  there  are  not  to  be  found  upon  earth  so  many 
writers  on  any  one  subject,  differing  so  much  from  one  another,  as 
the  sceptical  writers.  I  do  not  know  that  there  can  be  found  two 
works  extant,  under  any  respectable  name,  on  any  one  system  of 
scepticism,  which  do  not  differ  from  each  other  as  much,  at  least,  as  . 
flic  Calvinists  differ  from  the  Arminians.  While  they  boast  so  much 
(especially  such  of  them  as  believe  with  Mr.  Paine)  of  the  easy  in¬ 
telligibility  of  the  volume  of  Nature,  which  he  sometimes  calls  the 
“Word  of  God (that  speaks  the  same  thing  in  all  languages;)  one 
would  expect  to  find  a  remarkable  conformity  and  coincidence  of 
sentiment  amongst  the  students  of  this  one  volume,  which  needs 
neither  translation  nor  commentary.  Yet  none  are  more  unsociable 
in  their  sentiments,  nor  more  diverse  in  their  conclusions,  than  they. 
The  Persian,  the  Indian,  the  Hindoo,  and  the  Philosopher,  all  read 
and  understand  this  volume  of  Nature  very  differently.  There  are 
more  versions  of  the  volume  of  Nature,  than  of  the  volume  of  Reve¬ 
lation.  Though,  they  say,  it  wants  no  written  commentary,  it  cer¬ 
tainly  requires  some  prophet  or  interpreter  to  explain  it.  IIow  else 
came  it  to  pass  that  all  the  ancient  nations,  and  all  the  modern, 
without  revelation,  have,  from  the  same  premises,  come  to  so  many 
different  conclusions  !  Rome  had  one  hundred  and  seventeen  opinions 
about  the  summum  bonum  in  its  Augustan  age;  the  Grecian  states  huff 
almost  as  many  gods  as  soldiers;  and  a  wit  once  said,  “It  is  more 
easy  to  find  a  god  than  a  man  in  Athens!"’  But  not  only  did  the  mul¬ 
tiplication  of  gods  and  goddesses  exhibit  the  fooleries  of  the  readers 
of  the  volume  of  Nature,  but  the  infamous  characters  they  gave 
their  gods  and  the  crimes  they  laid  to  their  charge.  Their  gods  were 
monsters  of  cruelty,  lewdness,  and  profligacy.  The  morality  learned 
from  this  volume  was  as  various  and  as  imperfect  as  its  theology. 
Human  sacrifices  were  offered  upon  their  altars;  their  teipplcs  were 
places  of  prostitution ;  fornication  and  drunkenness  formed  the  reli¬ 
gious  worship  of  Venus  and  Bacchus.  Plutarch,  in  some  particular 
instances,  recommended  as  a  virtue,  that  which,  in  many  places, 
was  a  common  usage,  viz.  to  expose  infants  to  death  by  cold  anti 
hunger,  or  to  be  devoured  by  wild  beasts.  The  Grecian  sages  gave 
parents  permission  to  kill  their  children— and  suicide  was  recom¬ 
mended  as  a  virtue.  So  teaches  the  volume  of  Nature! 

But  I  only  intend  here  to  notice  the  divisions  amongst  sceptics  as 
respects  the  systems  extant. 

Some  Italian  and  French  sceptics,  shortly  after  the  Reformation, 
>>r  about  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  assumed  the  honorable  desig¬ 
nation  of  Deists.  These  agreed  in  three  things,  viz.  1.  To  profess 
no  system  of  religion,  and  to  oppose  Christianity.  2,  To  contend 
-Or  the  existence  of  one  God.  And  3.  To  follow  what  they  called 

fi 

•-  V  ’  •'  ' ;  ‘ 

i  My  -  i  ■  .’Ccitttr  •  ■  .  A 


DEBATE. 


“the  light  cf  nature f  Bat  about  this  “one  God”  and  this  flight  of 
nature,”  they  were  any  thing  hut  agreed.  Deistical  writers  sub¬ 
divide  themselves  into  Mortal  and  Immortal  Deists;  the  former  de¬ 
nying,  and  the  latter  affirming  a  future  state.  Dr.  Clarke  enumerated 
four  grand  classes  of  Deists  or  of  deistical  writers,  all  agreeing  in 
acknowledging  one  Supreme  God,  but  differing  in  almost  every  thing 
else.  Lord  Herbert  stands  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  the  English 
fraternity,  and  seems  to  have  aimed  in  his  book,  “De  Veritate at 
giving  some  sort  of  a  system  to  scepticism.  Ilis  five  points  are  the 
following : — 

1.  That  there  is  one  Supreme  God. 

2.  That  he  is  chiefly  to  be  worshipped. 

3.  That  piety  and  virtue  are  the  principal  parts  of  his  worship. 

4.  That  we  must  repent  of  our  sins;  and  if  we  do  so,  God  will 
pardon  them. 

5.  That  there  are  rewards  for  good  men,  and  punishments  for 
bad  men,  both  here  and  hereafter. 

This  English  Baron  wished  to  form  a  universal  religion  for  all 
mankind,  predicated  upon  what  he  calls  “reason  and  the  light  of 
nature.”  lie  was  emboldened  to  publish  it  in  the  seventeenth  cen¬ 
tury  by  a  miracle,  as  he  represents  it! 

Concerning  the  Theists  wc  shall  only  observe  that  they  are  cen¬ 
sured  more  than  the  Deists  by  Monsieur  Mirabaud  for  approximating 
more  to  the  superstition  of  Christians  than  the  pure  Deists.  They 
humanize  their  God  too  much;  give  him  too  much  the  character  of  a 
governor,  and  too  many  of  the  attributes  which  are  supposed  essen¬ 
tial  to  a  good  governor;  whereas  the  pure  Deists  make  their  Gcd 
rather  an  indifferent  spectator,  an  uninterested  observer  of  the  affairs 
of  this  life.  Among  these  natural  religionists,  or  Theists,  there  is  a 
great  variety.  They  are  as  discordant  •  as  the  Speculative  Deists. 
The  celebrated  Atheist  Mirabaud  thus  castigates  them,  vol.  2.p.  208: 

“The  Theists ,  one  after  another,  to  explain  the  conduct  of  his 
God,  finds  himself  in  continual  embarrassment,  from  which  he  will 
not  know  how  to  withdraw  himself,  but  in  admitting  all  the  theolo¬ 
gical  reveries,  without  excepting  even  those  absurd  fables,  which 
were  imagined  to  render  an  account  of  the  strange  economy  of  this 
being,  so  good,  so  wise,  so  full  of  equity;  it  will  be  needful  from  sup¬ 
position  to  supposition,  to  recur  to  the  sin  of  Adam,  or  to  the  fall  cf 
the  rebel  angels,  or  to  the  crime  of  Prometheus  and  the  box  of  Pan¬ 
dora,  to  find  in  what  manner  evil  has  crept  into  the  world,  subjected 
to  a  benevolent  intelligence.  It  will  be  necessary  to  suppose  the 
free  agency  of  man;  if  will  be  necessary  to  acknowledge  that  thq 
creature  can  offend  his  God;  provoke  his  anger,  move  his  passions, 
and  calm  them  afterwards  by  superstitious  ceremonies  and  expia¬ 
tions.”  All  these  and  many  more  faults  does  lie  find  to  the  Theists. 

Thomas  Paine,  in  bis  Age  of  Reason,  page  3,  gives  his  creed  in  one 
period — “I  believe  in  one  God, and  no  more;  and  I  hope  f>r happiness 
beyond  this  lift1.”  In  another  period  he  gives  Lis  creed  in  morality 
— B I  believe  the  eguality  of  mapA  and  1  believe  that  religious  duties 


DEBATE. 


68 


consist  in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  and  endeavoring  to  make  our 
fello\V‘Creatures  happy.1’  In  speaking  of  the  perfection  of  the  b.ook  of 
creation ,  as  a  word  of  God ,  or  as  a  revelation,  he  thus  eulogizes  it 
* — “Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  power  ?  We  see  it  in  the  immensi¬ 
ty  of  creation.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  wisdom?  We  see  it 
m"*he  unchangeable  order,  by  which  the  incomprehensible  whole  ia 
governed.  Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  munificence?  We  see  it 
in  the  abundance  with  which  he  tills  the  earth?  Do  we  w7ant  to  con¬ 
template  his  mercy?  We  see  it  in  his  not  withholding  that  abundance 
even  from  the  unthankful.  In  short,  do  we  want  to  know  what  God 
is?  Search  not  the  scripture  other  than  that  called  the  creation.” 

Mr,  Paine  did  not  want  to  see  his  justice;  and  therefore,  he  failed 
in  telling  us  what  to  contemplate  in  order  to  discover  this.  Deists 
have  not  so  much  curiosity  on  this  point.  The  sceptics  of  the  ctfAo 
istical  school  are  not  more  unanimous  than  they  of  the  Deistical.  It 
is  amusing,  if  not  instructive  to  hear  or  see  how7  these  sceptics  of  the 
two  schools  handle  one  another.  Let  us  take  a  sample  from  tw7o  of 
the  most  notable— viz,  Mr.  Paine  the  Deist  and.  M.  Mimbcaud  the 
atheist .  The  atheist  says — vol.  2,  211.  Is  there  in  any  one  reli¬ 
gion  in  the  world  a  miracle,  more  impossible  to  be  believed,  than  that 
of  the  creation ,  or  Gf  the  eduction  from  nothing?  Is  there  a  mystery 
more  difficult  to  be  comprehended  than  a  God  impossible  to  be  con-., 
ceived;  and  whom,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  admit.*’  “Betwixt 
the  Deist  and  the  superstitious  (christians)  it  is  impossible  to  fix  the 
line  of  demarcation,  which  separates  them  from  the  most  credulous 
men ;  or  from  those  w  ho  reason  the  least  upon  the  article  of  religion. 
Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  decide  writh  precision  the  true  dose  of  folly 
which  may  be  permitted  them.”  After  this  denunciation  let  us  hear 
Mr.  Paine,  page  57.  “The  only  idea  man  can  affix  to  the  name  of 
God,  is  that  of  a  first  cause,  the  cause  of  all  things.  And  incompre- 
hensively  difficult  as  it  is  for  rnan  to  conceive  what  a  first  cause  is, 
he  arrives  at  the  belief  of  it,  from  the  tenfold  greater  difficulty  of  dis<- 
believingit.  It  is  difficult  beyond  description  to  conceive  that  space 
can  have  no  end*  but  it  is  more  difficult  to  conceive  an  end.  It  is 
difficult  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  conceive  an  eternal  duration  of 
what  we  call  time;  but  it  is  more  impossible  to  conceive  a  time  when 
there  shall  be  no  time.  In  like  manner  of  reasoning  every  tiling  we 
behold  carries  in  itself  the  internal  evidence  that  it  did  not  make 
itself.  Every  man  is  an  evidence  to  himself  that  he  did  not 
make  himself;  neither  could  his  father,  nor  his  grandfather,  nor  any 
of  his'  race ;  neither  could  any  tree,  plant,  or  animal  make  itself: 
and  it  is  the  conviction,  arising  from  this  evidence,  that  carries  us  on, 
as  it  were  by  necessity,  to  the  belief  of  .a  First  Cause  eternally  exist¬ 
ing,  of  a  nature  totally  different  from  any  material  existence  w  e  know 
of,  and  by  the  powrer  of  which  all  things  exist,  and  this  first  cause  man 
calls  God.”  Then  he  sings  Addison’s  versification  of  the  19  th  psalm. 
These  distinguished  sceptics  arc  as  opposite  here,  though  not  so  pal¬ 
pably  so,  as  when  the  former  says,-  All  theology  is  false;”  and  the  latter- 
affirms  there  is  one  true  theology— and  cue  unadulterated  revelation 


til  DEBATE. 

«f  God— viz.  the  Universe — The  Deist  even  puts  these  words  into 
the  mouth  of  his  Deity/’  I  have  made  an  earth  for  man  to  dwell 
lipon,  and  I  have  rendered  the  starry  heavens  visible,  to  teach  him 
science  and  the  arts.  He  can  now  provide  for  his  own  comfort,  and 
learn  from  my  munificence  to  all,  to  be  kind  to  each  other/’  page  35. 
But  more  contradictory  yet — Mirabaud  asks,  “Can  there  be  a  mys¬ 
tery  more  difficult  to  be  comprehended  than  a  God  ?*’  and  Paine 
asserts,  page  54 ;  “The  belief  of  a  God  so  far  from  having  any  thing  of 
a  mystery  in  it,  is  of  all  beliefs  the  most  easy :  because  it  arises  to  us 
jjut  of  necessity.5’  But  the  French  sage  though  he  so  frequently  as¬ 
serts  the  belief  of  a  God  to  be  the  climax  of  absurdity  is  contradicted 
flatly  and  boldly  bv  his  brother  sceptics  of  the  great  assembly  at 
Bordeaux  who  in  their  twenty-five  precepts  of  reason,  placed  the 
following  at  the  head  of  the  list: — 

^All  nature  announces  to  thee  a  Creator:  adore  him.  He  is  every 
inhere:  Every  where  lie  will  hear  thee .” 

But  going  no  farther  into  the  detail — let  us  just  notice  the  varieties 
existing  amongst  Atheists — Amongst  the  ancients  Dr.  Cudworth  reck¬ 
ons  fbup  distinct  sects  of  Atheists — 1 .  The  Disciples  of  Anaxamanr 
tier,  called  Hylopathians,  who  attributed  the  formation  of  every  thing 
to  matter  destitute  of  feeling — 2.  Atomists,  or  the  Disciples  of  Demo- 
v  coitus,  who  attributed  every  thing  to  the  concurrence  of  atoms — 3. 
The  stoical  atheists,  who  admitted  a  blind  nature,  but  acting  after 
certain  laws — 4,  The  Hylozoists  or  the  disciples  of  Strato — who 
attributed  life  to  matter;  Dr.  Cudworth’s  Sy  sterna  Intellectuale ,  chap.  2, 
mir.  vol.  2.  page  300. 

Other  diversities  have  occasioned  various  sects  amongst  atheists. 
They  have  differed  as  much  upon  morality,  virtue,  and  vice,  as  about 
the  origin  of  all  things.  Aristippus,  Theodoras  the  atheist,  Bion  and 
Pyrrho,  denied  anv  distinction  between  virtue  and  vice.  In  modern 
times,  the  author  of  the  fable  of  the  Bees,  and  the  Man  Automaton 
have  reasoned  away  all  difference  between  virtue  and  vice.  Mi¬ 
rabaud,  vol.  2.  page,  819. 

Indeed,  Mirabeaud,  though  one  of  the  oldest  advocates  of  atheism, 
declares,  vol.  2,  page  318,  “that  athkism  will  not  make  a  wicked 

MAN  GOOD.” 

Bayle,  when  speaking  of  the  Epicureans,  says,  “Those  who  em¬ 
braced  the  sect  of  ‘Epicurus  the  atheist'1  did  not  become  debauchees, 
because  they  had  embraced  the  doctrine  of  Epicurus ;  they  only  em¬ 
braced  the  doctrine  ofEpicurus,  then  badly  understood,  because  they 
were  debauchees  /”  High  encomiums  on  atheism  !1 

Amongst  the  moderns  we  have  had  several  sects  of  atheists,  or  athe¬ 
istical  writers,  such  as  Spinoza,  Hobbes,  Vanini. 

Spinosism,  so  called  from  Spinoza,  the  Jew,  born  in  Amsterdam, 
1632,  teaches  but  one  substance  in  nature — all  the  bodies  of  the  uni 
verse  are  various  modifications  of  this  one  substance — all  the  souls 
of  men  are  modifications  of  this  one  substance- — that  there  is  but 
one  being  and  quc  nature;  and  that  this  nature  by  an  imminent  act 
produces  all  those  which  we  cull  creatures^  Thus  Iiis  Deity ‘is  both 


DEBATE, 


65 


agent  and  patient,  creator  and  creature,  No  two  atheists  now  living, 
or  who  have  published  any  thing  to  the  world  agree  in  their  specula¬ 
tions,  Indeed  how  can  they  ?  There  is  no  fixed  principle.  The  ma¬ 
terialists  of  Mr.  Owen’s  scheme  differ  in  some  respect  from  the  materi¬ 
alist  of  the  French  school.  But  indeed  they  differ  from  themselves. 
The  v  are  not  the  same  theorists  in  June  and  January.  A  change 
m  the  thermometer  often  produces  a  change  in  the  whole  system! 
An  attack  of  bilious  fever,  a  single  kinetic,  or  a  cathartic,  has  been 
known  essentially  to  change  a  whole  system.  - 

Pantheism  is  of  early,  but  unknown  origin.  Some  of  the  Panthe¬ 
ists,  held  the  universe  to  be  one  immense  animal,  of  which  the  uncor- 
poreal  soul  was  properly  the  god,  and  the  heavens  and  the  earth  the 
body  of  that  god.  Orpheus  one  of  the  most  ancient  pantheists  of 
whom  we  read,  called  the  world  the  body  of  God,  and  its  several  parts 
his  members,  making  the  whole  universe  one  divine  animal.  Aristotle 
was  pretty  much  of  the  same  opinion :  he  held  that  God  and  matter 
were  co-eternal,  and  that  there  is  some  such  union  amongst  them  as 
exists  between  the  soul  and  body. 

Polytheists  have  deified  dead  men,  animals,  and  even  vegetables, 
and  have  ascribed  to  them  honors  and  attributes  which  belong  to  the 
Creator  alone.  But  there  is  no  boundary  to  he  set  to  the  vagaries  of 
the  human  mind.  .  At  ,  one  time,  and  in  some  circumstances,  it  sees  a 
god  in  every  thing  ,  at  another  time,  and  in  other  circumstances,  it 
sees  a  god  in  nothing.  So  true  is  yet  found  the  saving  of  the  unpopu¬ 
lar  Paul  of  Tarsus,  “Professing  themselves  to  be  philosophers  they  be¬ 
came  foots  r 

Sly  friend  and  opponent  lias  contributed  his  mite  to  the  mass  of 
bewilderment  which  has  been  read.  lie  has  given  us  a  new  system 
of  scepticism  perfectly  mitangible.  “Twelve  facts”  have  been  assert¬ 
ed,  concerning  the  materiality  of  man.  And  these  facts  have  been 
p  resented  to  us  in  such  a  shape  as  to  strike  at  the  root  of  all  our  ideas 
concerning  our  spiritual  relations. 


We  are  unable  to  conceive  of  the  immense  revolution  which  must 
be  produced  in  the  mindof  one  who  has  been  put  in  possession  of  all 
idle  biblical  ideas  and  terms,  by  the  annihilation  of  all  ideas  of  God, 
and  the  relations  to  which  they  give  birth.  The  idea  of  the  existence 
of  a  God  and  his  perfections  once  annihilated,  and  what  have  5  011 
left?  On  the  principles  of  philosophy  it  is  just  as  hard  to  destroy  as 
to  create  a  single  idea.  In  philosophy  these  two  ideas  concerning 
the  power  of  creating  and  the  power  of  destroying  are  intimately  con¬ 
nected  and  inseparably  interwoven.  If  I  could  forget  that  I  ever  had 
heard  the  name  of  God,  and  could  erase  from  the  tablet  of  my  mind  all 
my  ideas  of  spiritual  things,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive  what  views  I 
could  entertain  of  any  object  around  me.  Every  thing  would  be  to  me 
r  most  inexplicable  puzzle.  But  the  question  which  must  forever  con¬ 
found  the  materialists  of  all  schools  is,  7 low  dvoj  these  ideas  get  into  the 
zrorld?  There  must  be  some  way  of  disposing  .of  them.  It  devolves 
cm  my  friend  and  opponent  to  explain  the  orinincf  these  ideas,  which 


have  universally  obtained  amongst  mankind,  on  spirtliuiL  subjects, 
js  incumbent  on  him  to  avow  explicitly,  whether  he  conceives  us  to 
be  indebted  to  a  supreme  or  superior  being  for  any  thing  we  possess, 
Man  does  not  owe  his  existence  to  any  human  being;  from  whence 
then  does  he  derive  it?  The  unde  derivatur  of  man,  or  the  whence 
came  he,  must  be  determined  before  he  can  ascertain  the  nature  of 
any  of  his  relations. 

The  basis  of  all  obligation  or  responsibility,  1  hold  to  he  dependence, 
A  being,  independent  of  any  other,  has  no  rule  to  obey,  but  that  which 
his  own  leason  or  will  prescribes.  But  a  state  of  dependance  will, 
inevitably,  oblige  the  inferior  to  take  the  will  of  him  on  whom  he  de¬ 
pends,  as  the  rule  of  his  conduct,  at  least,  in  all  those  points  wherein 
his  dependance  consists;  consequently,  as  man  depends  absolutely 
upon  his  Creator  for  every  thing,  it  is  necessary  that  lie  should,  in  all 
points,  submit  to  his  will.  This  I  do  hold  to  be  the  true  and  immovea¬ 
ble  basis  of  natural,  social,  and  religious  obligation,  and  responsibility., 
sow,  if  Mr.  Owen  can  prove  that  we  are  all  independent  beings,  and 
.-how  wherein  wc  arc  all  independent,  he  carries  out  his  system  to  a 
triumphant  issue  at  once.  Only  let  him  prove  that  we  are  not  depen¬ 
dant  beings,  and  then  the  conclusion  must  follow  out  that  we  owe  Ho¬ 
ming  to  our  Creator,  to  our  parents,  our  benefactors,  or  any  other  cred¬ 
itors.  I  say,  in  holding  the  affirmative  that  we  are  irresponsible,  he 
must  prove  that  we  are  independent.  But  this  will  be  to  wage  war 
with  common  sense,  with  universal -experience — I  will  not  consume 
time  in  proving  a  point  which  is  itself  as  plain  as  the  proof  could  be, 
viz.  that,  mankind  are  dependant,  and  therefore  responsible. 

Mr.  Owen  supposes  the  capital  error  of  all  religions  to  be  that  they 
teach  that  belief  is  under  the  control  of  the  will — whereas  he  suppo¬ 
ses  the  contrary.  But  it  would  seem  that  he  attaches  no  very  definite 
meaning  to  the  word  belief;  when  lie  asked  you  to  be  so  good  as  to  be¬ 
lieve  for  only  five  minutes  that  lie  did  not' stand  in  propria  persona 
.before  you,  or  that  Mahomet  was  a  prophet,  sent  from  God. 

Mr.  Owen  certainly  errs  in  his  views  of  faith,  or  supposes  you  have 
hi  uncontrolled  power  over  your  belief,  when  he  asked  you  to  believe 
without,  evidence ,  that  Mahomet  was  a  true  prophet.  If  I,  or  any  Chris¬ 
tian,  had  affirmed  that  a  person  could  believe  w it hou t  evidence,  then  he 
might  have  made  such  a  demand  upon  you;  otherwise  he  could  not 
rationally  have  made  such  an  appeal.  We  contend  that  testimony  is 
essential  to  faith;  and  that  whether  we  shall  possess  the  testimony 
sufficient  to  constrain  belief,  very  generally  depends  upon  our  deter¬ 
mination  or  volition. 

But  1  would  ask  what  idea  he  attaches  to  the  word  belief.  I  am 
apprehensive  that  lie  confounds,  or  uses  interchangeably,  the  terms 
belief,  knowledge ,  and  opinion.  Belief  always  depends  upon  the  tes¬ 
timony  of  others;  knowledge  upon  the  evidence  of  our  senses;  opin¬ 
ion  upon  our  own  reasonings.  I  do  not,  in  strict  propriety  of  language, 
believe  by  my  eyes, 'any  more  than  1  hear  hv  my  fingers.  I  know 
i  his  desk  is  before  me,  I  do  not  believe  it — We  know  that  Mr.  Owen  is 
Here,  but  cannot  hdiece  it.  Therefore,  for  Mr.  Qwea  toaskth^ 


auoicnee  to  believe  that,  he  is  not  now  before  them,  is  entirely  unwar¬ 
rantable.  I  know  that  which  is  communicated  to  my  sensorium  through 
the  avenues  of  my  senses;  and  all  that  is  thus  communicated,  we  ae-> 
nominate  knowledge.  On  the  other  hand,  belief  has  exclusive  refer 
ence  to  testimony ;  and  opinion  merely  expresses  different  degrees  of 
probability ;  and  after  weighing  these  probabilities,  we  say  that  we  are 
of  this,  that,  or  the  other  opinion,  I  may  be  of  opinion  that  there  is  a 
navigable  passage  round  the  north  pole — that  all  infants  who  die  go' 
to  heaven,  &c,  Opinions  result  from  premises  not  certain,  or  are  the 
conclusions  to  which  we  are  led  from  all  the  data  before  us.  But 
wherever  we  bel  ieve,  it  must  be  upon  sufficient  testimony.  In  a  word , 
I  know  this  desk  is  before  me ;  1  believe  that  Thomas  Jefferson  is  dead ; 
and  I  am  of  opinion  that  Sy  mines’  theory  is  all  a,  mere  fancy.  ■  I  think 
Mr.  Owen  will  accede  to  this. 

I  must  just  remark,  in  passing,  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  prove  the 
contrary  of  Mr.  Owen’s  sixth  position.  That  our  volitions  do,  in  many 
instances,  determine  our  belief,  or  have  some  influence  upon  it,  I 
doubt  not  can  be  made  apparent  to  all.  Suppose,  for  example,  that 
lam  told  that  some  important  event  has  transpired,  which,  in  a  pecu¬ 
niary  point  of  view,  is  very  important  to  me — my  informant,  we  will 
farther  suppose,  is  a  man  of  suspected  veracity.  Now,  I  cannot  believe 
nor  disbelive  on  the  evidence  offered.  But  in  consequence  of  the  in¬ 
terest  I  feel,  I  determine  to  examine  the  evidence,  and  finally  I  collect 
such  a  body  of  evidence,  as  convinces  me  of  the  truth  of  the  first  report. 
But,  if  I  had  not  willed  or  determined  on  eviscerating  or  searching 
out  the  truth  of  my  first  informant’s  narrative,  could  I  have  arrived  at  a 
full  belief  of  the  report?  Now,  the  question  is,  was  not  my  belief  of 
1  his  fact,  some  way  dependent  on  my  volition? — [Half  hour  out,\ 


Mr.  Owen  rose — 

Mr.  Chairman — I  perfectly  agree  with  my  friend  in  his  discrimina¬ 
tions  between  knowledge,  belief,  and  opinion ;  but  all  I  have  to  say  is, 
that  in  the  case  to  which  he  has  referred,  it  was  his  interest  that,  gen¬ 
erated  his  will,  and  therefore  it  was  his  interest  that  compelled  him  to 
investigate.  I  am  also  much  indebted  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  for 
his  learned  dissertation  upon  the  opinions  of  others,  for  I  did  not  trou¬ 
ble  myself  very  much  about  a  knowledge,  in  detail,  of  these  opinions 
before.  My  researches  were  not  in  that  direction,  after!  ascertained 
they  contained  so  little  really  useful  practical  information.  The  ob¬ 
ject  I  had  in  view  compelled  me  to  become  a  practical  man,  ‘ho  study 
from  the  life,  and  in  the  original  peruse  mankind.”  I  have  totally 
avoided  metaphysical  reading,  because  1  discovered  it  was  not  calcu¬ 
lated  to  relieve  society  from  its  errors  and  difficulties :  it  lias  too  many 
words  and  too  few  facts. 

Much  have  1  read  formerly  of' this  character,  that  was  unsatisfacto¬ 
ry,  and  muck  have  I  seen  and  observed  since.  In  consequence,  met¬ 
aphysical  disquisitions  which  have  interested  me  in  my  youth  have 
long  since  given  place  to  the  investigation  of  facts,  and  legitimate  de¬ 
duction?  from  them  that;  I  might  acquire  a  knowledge  of  their  best  a]* 


08 


DEBATE. 


plication  to  practice.  Many  of  these  $)Qjp.physicai  disquisitions  have 
already  continued  for  thousands  of  years,  and  may  continue  to  pro¬ 
ceed  for  millions  more,  without  producing  any  practical  benefit,  or 
bringing  us  nearer  to  our  object:  It  is  now  full  time  that  we  direct 
our  attention  to  facts,  and  to  a  just  practice  founded  on  those  facts.— 
It  does  appear  to  me  from  ail  the  facts  1  know,  that  not  only  our  be¬ 
lief  but  our  knowledge  and  opinions  are  determined  for  us  by  the 
strongest  impressions  which  external  circumstances  make  upon  our 
individual  organizations.  That  no  man  lias,  of  his  own  will,  by  the 
exercise  of  his  own  volition,  formed  his  own  knowledge,  belief,  or 
opinion.  1  have  never  heard  a  single  argument  or  seen  any  fact  to 
prove  that  man  ever  forms  his  opinions  by  the  decision  of  his  will, 
contrary  to  the  convictions  made  upon  his  mind  by  the  impressions 
which  he  has  received  from  external  circumstances,  or  subsequent 
intimate  reflection,  the  individual  not  knowing  what  would  be  the 
result  of  those  reflections  until  they  were  completed. 

My  friends,  the  next  great  law  of  human  nature  which  goes  to  prove 
the  gross  ignorance  in  which  human  nature  has  been  kept,  and  the  in¬ 
jurious  effects  of  all  religions,  is  the  seventh  in  my  arrangement.  It 
is — <<That  each  individual  must  like  that  which  creates  agreeable,  and 
dislike  that  which  produces  unpleasant  sensations  upon  his  nature, 
while  at  th3  same  time  he  cannot  discover  previously  to  experience, 
what  these  sensations  shall  be.”  .  When  our  minds  shall  have  been 
relieved  from  the  prejudices  of  a  vicious  education,  when  we  shall  be 
permitted,  without  prejudice,  to  examine  facts  as  they  really  are,  and 
to  infer  the  rational  deductions  from  those  facts,  we  shall  discover, 
that  all  the  governments  of  the  world,  all  the  religions,  all  the  codes 
of  laws,  and.  all  the  social  and  other  institutions  of  mankind  have 
been  founded  in  the  false  notion,  that  human  nature  w  as  so  organized, 
that  it  had  the  power  by  its  own  mere  volitions,  to  believe  conforma¬ 
bly  to  its  inclinations,  and  to  love  or  hate  according  to  its  will.  Now 
I  contend  that  no  human  being  has  the  power  of  his  own  will  to  like, 
be  indifferent  to,  or  dislike  any  person,  or  anv  thing  contrary  to  the 
sensations  which  they  produce  upon  him.  Who,  in  this  assembly, 
when  any  new  food  is  brought  before  him  can  determine  before  tasting 
it,  whether  it  is  insipid,  grateful,  or  distasteful  to  his  palate?  Will  not 
his  determination  upon  this  point  depend  entirely  upon  the  sensations 
{deduced  by  this  food  upon  his  palate  after  tasting  it?  If* a  stranger 
were  announced  as  being  about  to  come  intp  this  assembly,  where  is 
the  individual  amongst  von,  who  is  prepared  to  determine  before  he 
has  seen  this  stranger,  whether  he  shall  like,  be  indifferent  to,  cr  dis¬ 
like  him.  Would  not  one  and  all  of  you  be  compelled  to  receive  the 
impressions  which  the  countenance,  the  figure,  the  manner,  and  the 
address  of  this  stranger,  would  enforce  upon  your  individual  organiza¬ 
tions? 


Now, those  who  think  they  are  doing  good  service  to  the  world  by 
attempting  to  disprove  the  doctrine  which  1  advocate,  should  consid¬ 
er  well  these  two  fundamental  laws  of  our  nature.  I  rest  a  very  large 
portion  of  my  argument  t  o  prove  the  errors  of  all  religions,  and  of  the 


DEBATE. 


truth  of  the  principles  which  I  advocate,  on  a  thorough  conviction  from 
the  evidence  of  innumerable  facts,  that  human  nature  is  so  organized 
by  the  laws  of  its  creation,  as  to  be  passive  in  the  reception  of  its  sen¬ 
sations,  except  so  far  as  it  may  be  influenced  by  previous  sensations 
of  liking,  or  disliking.  You  have  been  taught  some  fanciful  notions 
of  what  you  have  heard  termed  God,  Deity,  or  First  Cause ;  and  you 
have  been  taught  other  fanciful  notions  of  a  being  who  has  been  intro¬ 
duced  to  you  by  the  name  of  the  Devil ,  who  was  created  by  an  infi¬ 
nitely  wise  and  good  power.  Then,  my  friends,  if  you  have  a  control 
over  your  likings  and  dislikings,  just  for  the  sake  of  the  experiment, 
endeavor  to  hate  the  first,  and  to  love  the  second,  £an  any  one  of 
you  so  far  control  his  will  as  to  do  this?  In  common  candor,  my 
friends,  you  must  be  compelled  to  acknowledge  that  you  cannot.  But 
you  will  be  pleased  to  observe,  that  I,  by^o  means,  admit  by  any  thing 
I  may  have  said,  that  any  intelligence  infinitely  wise,  good,  and  pow¬ 
erful,  ever  did  make  (knowing  what  it  was  about)  a  devil,  to  torment 
us.  No,  indeed,  I  cannot  believe  any  absurdity  so  monstrous  as  this^ 
But  to  return  to  our  subject.  We  are,  fortunately  for  us,  compelled  to 
like  that  which  produces  pleasant  sensations,  and  to  dislike  that  which 
produces  their  opposites.  Then  if  there  be  wisdom  in  the  command, 
that  we  should  love  one  another,  there  is  but  one  practical  course 
whereby  to  obey  it.  It  is  to  act  consistently  with  the  principle  i  have 
now  developed,  which  will  lead  you  to  train  your  children  to  acquire 
such  qualities  as  are  universally  lovely,  and  then  they  must  be  be* 
loved  for  possessing  those  qualities.  Our  nature  is  such,  that  when 
they  are  so  formed,  we  cannot  help  loving  them;  and  until  they  are  so 
formed,  it  is  not  in  human  nature  to  love  them.  But  we  shall  soon  be= 
come  acquainted  with  the  method  whereby  to  train  our  infants,  step 
by  step,  in  such  a  manner  that  they  shall  command  our  love.  And 
when  this  shall  be  the  case,  the  command  to  do  so  will  become  use¬ 
less.  What  utility  is  there  ill  commanding  me  to  love  that  which 
possesses  qualities  which  are  disagreeable  to  me?  And  what  neces¬ 
sity  is  there  for  such  a  command,  when  we  know  that  we  have  the 
]  power  to  create  the  best  dispositions,  manners  and  habits  in  the  whole 
human  race,  and  thus  give  such  qualities  as  will  always  insure  love 
or  affection  from  every  one  ?  How  often  have  uninstructed,  unenlight¬ 
ened  men  told  you  that  these  principles  lead  to  vice?  But  if  ever 
virtue  shall  be  known  and  practised  amongst  mankind,  it  will  only  bo 
through  the  knowledge  of  these  principles,  and  through  the  universality 
of  the  practice  which  they  demonstrate  to  be  the  best  for  man  to  adopt. 
There  never  was,  in  the  imagination  of  any  human  being,  a  collec¬ 
tion  of  facts  so  truly  valuable  to  the  whole  of  mankind  as  those  which 
are  contained  in  these  twelve  laws;  each  one  of  them  is  of  inyaluablo 
truth.  But  when  united  and  formed  into  a  system  for  reforming  the 
character  of  men  and  governing  them,  w  hat  a  glorious  change  will 
be  effected  for  the  w'ell  being  and  happiness  of  the  human  race  ?  When, 
this  shall  be  accomplished,  as  I  anticipate  will  be  the  case  in  a  few 
Vears,  how  very  different  will  our  residence  in  this  world  become  ?-- 
How  different  from  any  state  or  condition  ever  yet  witnessed  in  any 


DEBATE. 


70 

former  period,  or  in  the  present  times?  Th6re  will  be  then  no  strife 
nor  contention.  Then  all  will  savq^ifanyofmy  fellow-beings  do  not  love 
or  respect  me,  I  know  the  cause  is  in  myself;  and  therefore,  I  will, thus 
informed,  endeavor  to  remove  the  disagreeable  parts  of  my  chara  cter, 
and  set  about  the  correction  of  all  my  faults  and  failings,  if  the  superior 
knowledge  of  those  who  educated  me  have  left  any  of  them  to  be  now 
corrected;  but  I  could  not  be  displeased  with  my  fellow  being  for  ex¬ 
pressing  a  sensation  which  I  had  caused  him  to  feel ;  this  will  neces¬ 
sarily  remove  an  error  too  palpable  to  be  entertained.5’  That  we 
should  have  acted  so  long  upon  any  other  principle,  is  a  proof  of  the 
ignorance  and  darkness  in  which  the  errors  of  religion  have  surround¬ 
ed  us.  But  fortunately,  my  friends,  a  steady  attention  in  the  investi¬ 
gation  of  facts,  will  now  enable  us  to  discover  the  road  which  leads  un¬ 
erringly  to  certain  happiness;  and  the  means  by  which  to  secure  it 
permanently,  without  the  horrible  notion,  that  some  of  our  fellow -be¬ 
ings  must  suffer  eternal  torments. 

My  friends,  I  do  not  know  what  your  ideas  of  Deity  may  be ;  but 
having  attended  to  the  realises  of  human  life  and  human  nature,  I 
am  compelled  to  believe  that  if  I  knew  that  one  sentient  being  existed 
in  eternal  torment,  that  knowledge  alone  would  prevent  me  from 
being  perfectly  happy.  How,  therefore,  an  all-wise,  all-good,  and 
perfect  being,  should  make  human  beings  thus  to  suffer,  knowing 
what  he  was  doing  when  he  made  them,  is  too  inconsistent  to  make 
any  conviction  cf  its  truth  in  my  mind.  To  me  it  appears  an  extra-  \ 
ordinary  and  unaccountable  notion  of  error — one  really  too  absurd  to 
be  longer  taught  to  man,  woman,  or  child. 

We  now  come  to  the  8th  fundamental  law  of  human  nature,  viz. 
f‘that  each  person  is  so  created,  that  the  impressions  made  on  his 
organization,  although  pleasant  at  first,  yet,  if  continued  beyond  a 
certain  period,  without  change,  will  become  disagreeable ;  and  when 
this  change  is  too  rapid  it  impairs  our  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  powers  and  enjoyments.” 

ft  isx>f  no  use  for  the  human  mind  to  waste  its  powers  and  facul¬ 
ties  in  imagining  what  human  nature  ought  to  be  according  to  the 
whims  and  fancies  of  some  men.  True  knowledge  will  direct  us  at 
once  to  inquire  what  it  is.  Of  no  use  is  it  to  imagine  that  it  ought 
to  be,  according  to  our  ignorant  notions,  something  else  than  what 
it  is.  We  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  inquire,  what  human  nature  is, 
what  arc  its  organic  laws,  and  how  it  is  formed  from  infancy  to 
maturity? 

We  shall  discover  it  to  be  a  universal  law  that  human  nature 
requires  for  its  happiness,  health,  well-being,  and  a  change  of 
sensations.  If  any  one  sensation  were  to  be  continued  without 
change,  it  would,  after  a  certain  time,  become  as  painful  as  at  first 
it  was  agreeable.  We  are,  therefore,  beings  so  organized  as  to  re¬ 
quire  a  certain  change  of  our  sensations.  But  when  we  proceed 
beyond  a  certain  number  in  a  given  period,  these  sensations  will 


DEBATE. 


71 


gradually  become  disagreeable,  and  ultimately  produce  misery  in¬ 
stead  of  happiness.  This  is  another  admirable  law  of  our  organiza¬ 
tion.  It  teaches  us,  in  the  most  emphatic  manner,  that  to  preserve 
health,  spirits,  and  happiness,  we  must  proceed  in  all  our  exercises, 
in  all  our  enjoyments,  to  the  point  of  temperance,  and  not  beyond  it; 
or,  in  other  words,  that  the  highest  enjoyment  of  human  life  is  to  be 
attained  by  a  due  exercise  of  all  our  propensities  and  capacities  at 
the  point  of  temperance.  I  will  endeavor  to  develope  to  you  some  of 
the  miseries  arising  from  the  infraction  of  this  law.  Men  and  women, 
by  the  laws  of  many  countries,  are  made  solemnly  to  promise  that: 
they  will  love  each  other  to  the  termination  of  their  lives;  and  yet 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  can  know  that  it  will  be  in  their  power  to 
perform  the  promise  for  one  day.  They  commit  this  error  by  not 
attending  to  this  and  other  unchanging  laws  of  our  nature.  Where 
is  now  the  man  or  woman  who  has  committed  this  moral  perjury, 
who  knew  certainly  at  the  time  of  making  the  vow,  whether  they 
would  be  able  to  love  each  other  for  an  hour?  And  how  much  misery 
has  this  error  produced?  How  much  happiness  has  it  destroyed? 
Your  ignorance  on  the  subject  of  belief,  and  of  liking  and  disliking, 
have  produced  almost  all  the  evils  of  domestic  life,  as  well  as  almost 
all  the  dissections  between  nations.  Ignorance  of  this  law  of  our 
nature  has  divided  and  subdivided  the  world  into  various  classes 
greatly  to  the  injury  of  all.  One  class,  which  may  be  called  pro¬ 
ducers,  have  their  physical  powers  called  into  action  far  beyond  the 
point  of  temperance.  Another  class,  which  may  be  called  non- 
produeers,  have  their  memory  and  imagination  overstrained  far 
beyond  the  natural  limits.  The  former  class  are  subject  to  innumera¬ 
ble  evils  in  consequence  cf  their  physical  powers  being  over-exerted 
and  their  mental  powers  being  unexercised.  The  latter  class  has 
been,  perhaps,  still  more  unfortunate  in  having  their  physical  powers 
neglected  and  their  memory  and  imagination  too  much  exercised. 
And  the  world  is  generally  divided  into  these  two  classes  and  their 
subdivisions.  When  we  shall  come  to  the  knowledge  of  what  man¬ 
ner  of  beings  we  are,  these  errors  must  cease;  society  will  be  differ¬ 
ently  arranged,  and  there  will  be  but  one  class  trained  and  educated, 
and  placed  under  new7  circumstances  that  will  enable  all  to  enjoy  the 
full  extent  of  their  respective  capacities  at  the  point  of  experience ;  and 
that  class  will  have  their  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  faculties 
equally  cultivated,  and  duly  and  temperately  exercised.  We  shall, 
by  acquiring  an  accurate  knowledge  of  these  law  s  of  our  nature,  be¬ 
gin  to  discover  what  real  knowledge  is,  and  what  is  necessary  to 
constitute  our  true  and  substantial  happiness.  At  present  we  do  not 
know  what  plan,  system,  #r  practice  is  necessary  to  constitute  our 
happiness,  and  therefore  we  do  not  know  what  to  adopt  to  promote  it. 

Before  our  meeting  in  this  place  shall  terminate,  I  will  endeavor  to 
explain  what  are  those  things  which  are  necessary  for  our  happiness — - 
that  all  may  know7  what  it  is  that  we  should  endeavor  to  attain  - 
[Half  hour  cut .] 


DEBATE, 


Mr.  Campbell  rises — 

Mr.  Chairman — It  seems  a  very  hard  matter,  Indeed,  to  reason 
logically  when  we  have  nothing  to  reason  against.  We  require  not 
only  to  have  premises  established  from  which  to  reason,  but  we  must 
have  a  definite  object  for  which  to  reason.  There  is  scarcely  any 
tiling  tangible  or  pertinent  in  Mr.  Owen’s  last  address,  any  more 
than  in  his  preceding  ones.  He  ha3  not  put  himself  to  the  trouble 
to  investigate  or  to  discriminate  with  regard  to  the  difficulties  in- 
volved  in  our  argumentation,  if  such  it  may  be  called.  My  friend 
might  naturally  have  anticipated  to  have  been  met  in  the  course  of  this 
discussion,  with  “How  did  man  come  into  existence?”  Arc*  we  going 
to  extinguish  all  the  lights  we  have  upon  this  momentous  question 
without  presenting  a  single  spark  in  lieu  thereof?  If  man  did  not 
make  himself,  then,  I  ask,  how  came  lie  into  existence?  Again,  we. 
have  presented  some  (as  we  conceive)  insuperable  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  Mr.  Owen’s  views  of  irresponsibility.  We  have  urged  upon 
him  this  difficulty.  We  have  proved  that  his  theory  reduces  the  idiot 
and  the  sage  to  the  same  level  of  irresponsibility.  And  we  did  expect 
(reasonably  we  think)  that  he  would  have  adverted  to,  and  at  least 
attempted  to  remove  this  stumbling  block.  But  Mr.  Owen,  it  seems, 
has  found  it  convenient  to  pretermit  all  notice  of  this  part  of  our  re* 
marks.  He  has  favored  ue,  gratuitously  too,  with  some  very  good 
remarks  upon  temperance.  Assuredly  Mr.  Owen  knows  that  there  is 
no  controversy  about  temperance  between  us ;  that  1  have  no  objection 
to  men’s  enjoying  the  blessings  of  temperance,  and  of  a  sound  and 
healthy  action  of  mind  and  body.  But  what  has  this  to  do  with  the 
argument  before  us? 

I  presented  another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  my  unreserved  admis¬ 
sion  of  the  proposition  that  “our  will  has,  in  no  ca.sc,  any  power  over 
our  belief.”  I  have  contended  that  our  will  has  power  over  our  assent 
to  the  verity  of  a  matter  submitted  to  our  understandings  as  a  matter 
of  belief.  To  this  he  has  paid  no  regard,  in  his  last  speech.  Volition 
cannot  create  the  evidence  oh  which  belief  must  be  founded,  but  it 
can  give  stimulus  and  impulse  sufficient  to  put  us  upon  the  investiga¬ 
tion  of  the  character  of  that  evidence.  Suppose,  as  Mr.  Owen  states, 
that  it  was  my  interest  that  did  excite  me  to  investigate  the  testimony 
offered,  am  I  not  at  liberty  to  act  according  to  what  I  conceive  to  be 
my  true  interest  ?  And  if  I  so  act,  do  I  not  act  rationally  and  volun¬ 
tarily  ?  Seeing  my  interest,  havel  not  liberty  to  make  a  start  in  pursuit 
of  it?  Consequently  our  volitions  have  power  in  influencing  and 
^nducjng  our  belief.  In  some  instances  we  are  compelled  to  believe. 

I  might  not  wish  a  fact  to  be  true,  and  yet  might  be  unable  to  resist 
ihe  force  of  the  evidence;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  I  might  wish  it  to 
be  true,  and  yet  be  unabla  to  believe  it  for  want  of  satisfactory  evi¬ 
dence.  Thus  contradictory  to  our  volitions,  such  is  the  sovereignty 
of  evidence  to  compel  belief.  This  wc  admit  most  cheerfully ;  but 
from  such  particular  instances  to  infer  a  general  and  universal 
.'onelusion,  is  a  sophism  of  the  most  palpable  detection,  I  worth! 


DEBATE. 


*•  *  > 
i  O 

not  sacrifice  a  single  truth  that  might  appear  to  combat  a  favorite 
point  for  any  momentary  triumph. 

Philosophers  run  as  much  into  extremes  as  any  other  persons. 
Because  Mr.  Owen  finds  instances  where  belief  is  involuntary,  or,  at 
least,  not  dependent  upon  any  previous  determination,  he  asserts  uni¬ 
versally,  that,  in  no  case  whatever ,  does  our  belief  depend  upon  our 
will.  But  this  we  shall,  in  its  own  place,  still  farther  develope. 

Instead  of  adverting  to  the  difficulties  proposed  in  my  last  speech, 
Mr.  Owen  told  us  he  could  never  believe  that  a  good  and  wise  being 
could  create  a  Devil;  yet  he  could  believe  that  the  Devil  created  him¬ 
self,  or  that  a  wise  and  kind  Nature  created  evil.  Natural  evils  and 
moral  evils  do  exist  from  some  cause;  there  are  poisons,  pains,  and 
death.  Yet,  with  Mr.  Owen,  there  is  neither  a  God  nor  a  Devil  1  Every 
thing  made  itself,  or  all  things  together  made  each  separate  agent’! 

Nor  can  he  endure  the  idea  of  misery  existing  any  where.  The 
thought  of  any  sentient  being  suffering  hereafter,  would  convert  his 
heaven  into  a  place  of  torment.  He  has  high  conceptions  of  his  future 
sensibilities!  They  must  be  much  more  perfect  than  at  present:  for 
he  can  sleep  sound  and  enjoy  all  animal  and  social  comforts,  day  and 
night,  without  ever  thinking  or  feeling  unhappy  at  the  thought-  — 

“How  many  feel,  this  very  moment;;  death 
And  all  the  sad  variety  of  pain. 

How  many  sink  in  the  devouring  flood, 

Or  more  devouring  flame.  How  many  bleed. 

By  shameful  variance  betwixt  man  and  man. 

IIow  many  pine  in  want,  and  dungeon  glooms. 

Shut  from  the  common  air,  and  common  use 
Of  their  own  limbs.  How  many  drink  the  cup 
Of  baleful  grief,  or  eat  the  bitter  bread 
Of  misery.  Sore  pierc’d  by  wintry  winds. 

How  many  shrink  into  the  sordid  hut 
Of  cheerless  poverty.  How  many  shake 
With  all  the  fiercer  tortures  of  the  mind, 

Unbounded  passion,  madness,  guilt,  remorse; 

Whence  tumbled  headlong  from  the  height  of  life., 

They  furnish  matter  for  the  tragic  Muse.” 

He  seems  now  to  enjoy  himself,  unconscious  that  there  are  myriads 
suffering  all  the  fiercer  tortures  of  mind  and  body,  but  yet  fancies 
that  the  thought  of  any  human  being  suffering  hereafter,  would  make 
him  most  wretchedly  unhappy  !  His  sensibilities  are  very  fantastic. 

I  will  now,  for  the  sake  of  eliciting  investigation,  submit  an  outline 
cT  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  constituents  of  the  human  being.  Taking 
myself  for  one  of  the  species,  and  as  a  sample  of  the  race,  I  proceed 
to  examine  myself  with  a  view  to  discriminate  accurately  what  man¬ 
ner  of  being  I  am ;  I  look  at  my  exterior,  my  corporeal  powers,  and 
senses.  Of  the  latter  I  perceive  that  I  have  five.  Through  these 
communications  are  made  to  some  internal  power  or  principle  called 
the  mind.  The  mind  through  the  senses,  by  what  is  called  sensation, 
has  the  power  of  perception ,  by  which  I  become  acquainted  with  all 
‘kings  external.  By  memory  I  become  acquainted  with  all  things 

7 


oast;  by  consciousness  I  become  acquainted  with  all  things  internal. 
All  philosophers  agree  that  we  have  the  powers  of  perception,  memo¬ 
ry,  and  consciousness.  Now  sensation,  perception,  memory,  and 
consciousness  are  just  as  distinct  from  each  other  as  the  ear,  eye,  or 
hand.  But  these  constitute  the  mind  as  our  different  members  con¬ 
stitute  the  body.  These  faculties  are  as  distinct  in  their  operations 
as  are  the  different  members  and  organs  in  the  animal  part  of  man. — 

I  repeat  for  the  sake  of  perspicuity  and  emphasis,  that  by  perception 
we  become  acquainted  with  all  things  external.  By  memory  we  take 
cognizance  of  all  things  past.  By  consciousness  we  become  acquaint¬ 
ed  with  things  internal.  Such  of  these  as  are  active  powers  act  inde¬ 
pendently  of  volition.  But  I  ask,  Have  we  any  other  powers  or  facul¬ 
ties  capable  of  acting  independently  of  volition  ?  I  say  No.  We  have, 
however,  the  powers  of  recollecting,  reflecting,  imagining,  reasoning, 
ind  judging.  These  operations  of  the  human  mind  are  dependen  t  up¬ 
on  volition;  or,  in  other  words,  it  depends  upon  volition,  whether  I 
shall  or  shall  not  exercise  my  powers  of  recollecting,  reflecting,  im¬ 
agining,  reasoning,  or  judging.  Mr.  Owen,  it  appears  to  me,  con¬ 
founds  our  appetites  with  our  higher  powers.  These  I  would  desig¬ 
nate  by  the  term  instincts ,  But  our  appetites,  affections,  passions,  and 
judgment  affect  the  will,  and  determine  to  action.  I  hope  Mr.  Owen 
will  either  affirm  or  deny,  that  we  May  examine  our  mental  powers, 
for  he  seems  to  overlook  them  in  his  system.  I  beg  leave  to  submit 
this  analysis  of  our  mental  powers,  in  order  to  ascertain  what  is  the 
primitive  character  of  the  mind.  At  present  we  are  utterly  unable  to 
discover  whether  Mr.  Owen  recognizes  any  distinction  between  our 
perception,  memory,  and  consciousness,  and  our  appetites,  affections, 
and  passions. 

But  Mr.  Owen  has  gone  so  far  as  to  inform  us  that  our  ideas  of  a 
Deity,  Devil,  &c.  are  fanciful.  I  am  glad  to  hear  the  assertion,  be¬ 
cause  it  may  present  something  tangible.  Are  we  to  admit  the  as¬ 
sertion  that  the  idea  of  a  God  is  fanciful,  or  shall  we  join  issue  upon 
this  assertion?  I  have  no  objections  to  rest  the  whole  merits  of  the 
discussion  upon  this  assertion.  This  is  a  tangible  position  taken  by 
my  opponent. 

I  repeat,  that  if  my  opponent  can  make  that  assertion  good,  I  will 
give  up  the  cause  I  advocate.  If  he  will  join  issue  with  me  upon  this, 
assertion,  the  scope  and  compass  of  this  discussion  will  be  much  con¬ 
tracted.  I  conceive  that  the  whole  of  my  opponent’s  declamation  has 
been  entirely  irrelevant  to  the  premises  before  us,  and  that  it  has  no 
connexion  with  the  real  merits  of  the  questions  we  are  to  debate.  The 
question  whether  all  religions  are  founded  in  ignorance  is  a  question 
of  fact — of  plain,  simple,  tangible,  veritable,  demonstrable  fact.  A 
man  need  not  to  be  a  sage  before  he  can  become  a  Christian.  The 
truth  of  religion  depends  altogether  upon  facts- — facts  which  can  be 
apprehended  as  easily  by  the  unlearned  as  by  the  wise.  I  well  know, 
my  friends,  that  the  real  merits  of  this  question  do  not  rest  where,  for 
the  sake  of  an  issue,  I  have  proposed  to  rest  them;  but  I  repeat,  that  I 
will  rest  the  whole  merits  of  this  controversy  upon  my  opponent’s  be- 


DEBATE 


7i> 


mg  able  to  establish  the  assertion,  that  the  idea  of  God  is  a  fancy.  I 
know  very  well  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  render  a  clear  and  perspicu¬ 
ous  demonstration  of  an  abstract  and  metaphysical  hy  pothesis.  W  ei  e 
we  as  well  acquainted  with  the  extent  and  measure  of  our  intellectual 
as  we  are  of  our  physical  powers,  we  could  soon  settle  this  controver. 
s  v.  Were  I  to  tell  vou  that  I  had  seen  a  man  take  up  the  Andes  in  his 
hand  and  cast  them  into  the  ocean,  you  would  unhesitatingly  say  that 
it  was  false;  because  you  know,  by  experience,  and  the  most  extern 
sive  observation,  that  this  is  far  beyond  the  measure  of  any  human 
strength.  But  when  I  say  that  a  man  could  as  easily,  by  the  exercise 
of  his  own  native,  inherent,  unaided  human  strength,  take  up  tho 
mountains  and  cast  them  into  the  sea,  as  he  could  originate  the  idea  of 
a  God,  you  would  feel  a  great  deal  more  hesitancy  in  giving  a  plump 
negative  to  the  assertion— you  would  immediately  say  this  is  a  ques¬ 
tion  of  much  more  difficult  solution  than  the  former — it  is  abstract  and 
metaphysical :  it  is  de  rebus  spiritualibus ,  and  not  dc  rebus  naturalibics 

1  did  not  propose  those  questions  yesterday  with  a  view  to  puzzle 
my  opponent.  As  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  penetrate  these  subjects 
{  am  conscious  that  no  man  can  solve  these  questions,  but  by  an  ad¬ 
mission  of  the  principle  for  which  I  contend.  These  questions  were, 
therefore,  tendered  to  my  friend  in  order  to  bring  his  own  mind  to 
reason  upon  them,  and  thereby  enable  it  to  arrive  at  logical  conclu¬ 
sions,  But  I  cannot  consent  to  go  on  with  tire  discussion  in  this  wav, 
ham  willing  to  receive  and  examine  Mr.  Owen's  ablest  arguments  in 
support  of  his  cause.  And  I  do  wish  for  his  own  sake,  and  for  the  sake 
of  truth,  that  he  would  come  out  in  his  whole  argumentative  strength 
in  advocacy  of  his  proposition.  More  good  than  Mr.  Owen  has  ever 
dreamed  of  may  result  from  a  correct  and  fair  investigation  of  this  sub¬ 
ject.  I  should  like  to  be  told  why  we  should  not,  on  Mr.  Owen’s  prin¬ 
ciples,  love  stones  and  trees  as  well  as  men. 

Mr.  Owen  has  told  us,  moreover,  that  the  Millennium  is  coming,  when 
•we  shall  all  be  independent;  that  is,  in  his  acceptation,  we  shail  have 
like  sympathy  for  trees  and  stones  as  for  each  other  Am  I  not  war¬ 
ranted  in  calling  all  this  impertinent  declamation?  But,  I  must  re¬ 
sume  my  disquisition  upon  the  old  sceptics,  as  I  have  nothing  before 
me  in  Mr.  Owen’s  last  speech,  pertinent  to  our  discussion.  When 
my  last  half  hour  expired  I  was  going  on  to  show  how  the  sceptics  in¬ 
volve  every  thing  in  mysticism.  No  sceptics  ever  could  agree 
upon  any  system  of  human  nature. 

“Man  is  the  work  of  Nature,”  says  the  philosopher.  But  who,  or 
what,  is  nature?  Of  her  he  appears  as  ignorant  as  the  deist  of  his 
“God  of  Nature.”  lie  attempts  to  define  nature*  “Nature  in  its  most 
extended  signification,  is  the  great  whole  that  results  from  the  assem¬ 
blage  of  diderent  matter,  of  its  different  combinations,  and  of  their 
different  motion  which  the  Universe  presents  to  view  V  But  Nature, 
the  mother  of  us  all,  is  here  said  to  be  a  child  of  matter  and  motion.  The 
sage  defines  her  again : — 1 “Nature,  in  a  less  extended  sense,  or  con* 
siclered  in  each  being,  is  the  whole  that  results  from  its  essence;?,  e. 
nl  the  properties,  combinations,  motions,  or  different  modifications  by 


DEBATE. 


7ij 

which  it  is  distinguished  from  other  beings/*’  This  makes  th& nature 
of  each  being  the  result  of  its  own  essence ! !  But  we  shall  hear  his 
definition  of  one  being,  viz.  man : — “Man  is,  in  the  whole,  the  result 
of  the  combination  of  certain  matter,  endowed  with  peculiar  proper¬ 
ties,  of  which  the  arrangement  is  called  organization,  and  of  which 
the  essence  is  to  feel,  to  think,  to  act,  and,  in  short,  to  mofe  after  a 
manner  distinguished  from  other  beings  with  which  he  can  be  com¬ 
pared/’  Now  if  nature  be  something  different  from  matter,  motion, 
or  the  essence  of  particular  bodies,  can  these  be  called  nature,  or  can 
she  be  called  the  author  of  them!!  But  the  sage  feeling  the  darkness 
and  confusion  of  his  former  definitions,  gives  an  extra  definition  in 
the  way  of  an  admonition: — Whenever  I  make  use  of  the  expression 
“nature  produces  an  effect,”  I  have  no  intention  of  personifying  that 
nature  which  is  purely  an  abstract  being.” 

But  he  talks  of  the  laws  of  nature.  Is  she  a  lawgiver  ?  The 
laws  of  a  stone  are  just  as  puissant  as  the  laws  of  Nature.  Is  Nature 
the  governor,  and  the  governed — the  agent  and  the  patient - — or  is  the 
term  law  equivalent  to  the  term  natureV 

There  are  some  who  glory  in  being  rational .  and  contemn  others  as 
irrational.  The  rationals  censure  the  irrationals  for  their  ignorance 
of  the  system  of  religion  which  they  embrace,  or  rather  for  having 
any  system  which  they  do  not  fully  comprehend.  After  this,  who 
would  expect  to  hear  a  person  professing  to  teach  and  to  admire  what 
he  calls  the  system  of  nature,  confessing  in  piece-meal  his  ignor¬ 
ance  of  the  whole  of  it?  Yet  such  is  the  author  of  the  System  of  Na¬ 
ture.  ' 

We  shall  now  state  the  dogmas  and  mysteries  of  atheism : — - 

. 'First .  Of  the  dogmas. 

1 .  “The  Universe  presents  but  matter  and  motion.” 

2.  “From  the  action  and  reaction  of  the  beings  which  the  Universe 
contains,  result  a  series  of  causes  and  effects  /’ 

ft.  “Man  is  the  work  of  Nature.” 

4.  “Motion  is  guided  by  constantymd  invariable  law's.” 

Now  for  a  confession  of  ignorance  on  those  dogmas  and  topics  con¬ 
nected  with  them — - 

CONFESSED  IGNORANCE  OF  ATHEISTS. 

1.  “The  different  principles  of  each  of  these  motions  are  unknown 
to  us,  because  we  are  ignorant  of  what  originally  constitutes  the  es¬ 
sence  of  these  beings.  We  know  bodies  only  in  the  mass;  we  are  ig¬ 
norant  of  their  intimate  combinations,  and  the  proportions  of  those 
combinations.” 

2.  “If  we  have  a  mind  to  find  the  principle  of  action  in  matter  and 
the  origin  of  things;  it  is  forever  to  fall  back  into  difficulties,  and  to 
absolutely  abridge  the  examination  of  our  senses  which  only  can 
make  us  know  and  judge  of  the  causes  capable  of  acting  "upon  them, 
or  impressing  on  them  motion.” 

ft.  “W?  know  nothing  of  the  elements  of  bodies ” 


DEBATE 


77 


4:  “The  mind  most  practised  in  philosophical  observations,  has  fre- 
qifently  the  chagrin  to  find  that  the  most  simple  and  most  common 
effects  escape  all  his  researches  and  remain  inexplicable  to  him” 

5.  “We  are  ignorant  of  the  ways  of  nature,  or  of  the  essence  of  be* 
ino’s”- — “Let  us  therefore  content  ourselves  with  avowing  that  nature 
has  resources  which  w'E  know  not  of.” 

6.  If  they  ask  from  whence  man  has  come,  we  reply,  that  experi¬ 
ence  does  not  enable  us  to  resolve  this  question,  and  that  it  cannot 
really  interest  us.  It  suffices  for  us  to  know,  that  man  exists, 
and  that  he  is  constituted  in  a  manner  to  produce  the  effects  of  which 
we  see  him  capable.” 

7.  “Perhaps  this  earth  is  a  mass,  detatched  in  the  course  of  time, 
from  some  other  celestial  body — perhaps  it  is  the  result  of  those  spots, 
or  those  incrustations  which  astronomers  perceive  on  the  sun’s  disk; 
which  from  thence  have  been  able  to  diffuse  themselves  into  our  plan¬ 
etary ’system — perhaps  this  globe  is  an  extinguished,  or  displaced 
comet,  which  heretofore  occupied  some  other  place  in  the  regions  of 
space ;  and  which,  consequently,  was  then  in  a  state  to  produce  be¬ 
ings  very  different  from  those  which  we  find  in  it  now.” 

8.  “We  co?ljecture  that  the  human  species  is  a  production  pecu¬ 
liar  to  our  globe,  in  the  position  in  which  it  is  found,  and  when  this 
position  shall  happen  to  be  changed,  the  human  species  will  change, 
or  will  be  obliged  to  disappear.” 

9.  “It  is  probable  that  man  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
disentangling  ofour  globe,  or  one  of  the  results  of  the  qualities  or  pro¬ 
perties  of  the  energies  of  which  it  was  susceptible — that  he  was  bom 
male  and  female — that  his  existence  is  co-ordinate  with  that  of  the 
globe.” 

10.  “The  primitive  man  did  perhaps  differ  more  from  the  actual 
man,  than  the  quadrupeds  differ  from  the  insects.” 

11.  “It  is  impossible  for  us  to  know  what  they  will  become,  as  to 
know  what  they  have  been.” 

12.  “It  is  not  given  to  man  to  know  his  origin ;  to  know  the  essence 
of  things,  nor  to  know  their  first  principles;  but  we  may  conclude 
that  he  has  no  just  reason  to  believe  himself  a  privileged  being  in  na¬ 
ture.” 

13.  “We  know  not  the  nature  of  magnetism,  of  electricity,  of  elas,- 
licity,  of  attraction,  of  cohesion.” 

14.  “The  most  simple  motions,  the  most  ordinary  phenomena,  the 
most  common  modes  of  action,  are  inexplicable  mysteries ,  of  which 
we  shall  never  know  the  first  principles.” 

This,  which  is  but  a  sample,  we  must  give  as  a  specimen  of  the  ig¬ 
norance  confessed  by  those  who  pretend  to  believe  that  Christianity 
is  predicated  upon  the  ignorance  of  mankind,  I  have  extracted  these 
fourteen  assertions  in  their  own  vrords. 

natural  mysteries  of  atheism, 

1 .  The  origin  of  Matter. 

2.  The  principle  S  motion  in  Matter. 

3. -  The  specific  origin  of  the  Earth. 


DEBATE. 


78 

4.  The  origin  of  man. 

5.  The  elements  of  bodies. 

G.  The  nature  of  Magnetism. 

7.  The  nature  of  Attraction. 

8.  The  nature  of  Repulsion. 

9.  The  nature  of  Cohesion. 

10.  The  nature  of  Elasticity. 

1 1 .  The  nature  of  Electricity. 

12.  The  destiny  of  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  Universe. 

13.  Our  belief,  in  no  case,  depends  upon  our  will,  therefore,  f&itb^ 
or  belief,  is  necessary ;  consequently,  original  and  divine. 

14.  Knowledge,  belief,  and  opinion,  are  ail  involuntary.  The  de¬ 
sire  to  know,  a  natural  principle,  has  no  effect  upon  our  will;  out* 
consequent  volition  has  no  influence  upon  our  knowledge. 

The  materialist  has  to  confess  as  much  ignorance  and  to  believe 
hiore  mysteries  than  the  Christian.  And  this  is  neither  the  half  nor  the 
worst  of  it;  he  has  to  teach,  admit,  and  contend  for  a  number  of  ab¬ 
surd  mysteries,  besides  those  which  he  acknowledges,  w  hich,  in  fact, 
are  much  greater  than  any  taught  in  the  most  corrupt  schools  of  Chris¬ 
tian  priests.  But  they  are  of  another  kind,  and  therefore  are  not  to  be 
compared, 

1.  The  materialist  asserts,  “That  it  cannot  really  interest  man  it) 
'mow  his  origin This  is  contrary  to  universal  experience,  and  to  the 
ardent  desires  of  rational  nature. 

2.  The  materialist  asserts  that  “man  has  no  just  reason  to  believe 
himself  a  privileged  being  in  nature.’5’  This  is  also  contrary  to  expe- 
dence,  and  the  most  common  observation. 

3.  He  has,  in  any  attempt  to  account  for  the  origin  of  man,  to  sup¬ 
pose  an  absurdity ;  namely,  that  there  were  an  infant  male  and  female 
born  or  produced  co-ordinate  with  the  existence  of  the  earth,  and  that 
these  had  no  parent;  consequently,  could  not  possibly  arrive  at  ma¬ 
turity.  Experience  has  taught  us  that  the  first  pair  must  have  been 
adults  when  first  ushered  into  being. 

4.  He  has  to  suppose,  contrary  to  all  experience,  and  to  all  history, 
batman  was  not  originally  like  the  species  now. 

5.  That  there  w  as  first  an  acorn  or  a  seed  before  there  was  a  tree 
to  produce  it.  Doubtless  all  the  vegetable,  as  well  as  the  animal  king¬ 
dom  was  first  in  its  prime  before  there  >vas  a  seed  fell  into  the 
earth. 

6.  He  is  also  compelled  to  suppose  matter  and  motion  originally 
possessed  ofpow?ers  of  which  they  are  nowr  totally  divested,  and,  there¬ 
fore,  has  to  reason  against  all  experience.  Nature  cannot  now  pro¬ 
duce  a  new  genus  or  species  in  the  animal  or  vegetable  kingdom. 
By  what  rational  evidence  can  it  then  be  shown  that  ever  she  posses¬ 
sed  such  a  power? 

7.  He  cannot  give  any  rational  account  of  howr  the  idea  of  God  or 
a  Creator  so  universally  obtained  amongst  mankind, 

8.  He  carmot  show  one  single  instance  of  either  contingency  or  the 
blind  laws  of  pature  operating  to  produce  a  poem  like  Homer's  11  had* 


Debate  79' 

Qvt-  Milton’s  Paradise  Lost;  to  produce  a  house  like  this  one*  a  steam¬ 
boat;  a  ship;  a  watch;  a  human  eye;  a  hand;  or  a  picture.  Why 
then  assert  contrary  to  all  experience  and  observation,  that  nature  pro¬ 
duces  the  power  of  creating  any  thing? 

The  capital  sins  of  ignorance  confessed  by  the  materialist,  amount 
to  twice  seven.  The  natural  mysteries  of  their  creed  are  also  at  least 
twice  seven.  And  the  artificial  mysteries  which  they  have  recently 
superadded  amount  to  seven.  In  this  enumeration,  we  have  followed 
their  method i  we  have  not  gone  into  the  detail.  The  prominent  items 
1  have  given  in  their  own  words.  Bat  there  is  one  mystery  that  ought 
Co  be  added,  which  is  more  than  equal  to  that  of  transubstantiation  in  its 
worst  aspect.  It  is  this:  Motion ,  say  they,  is  a  property  of  matter, 
But  what  gives  regularity  to  motion?  Why  docs  it  choose  to  move  in 
order,  or  in  any  uniform  course? 

Motion  was  so  irregular  at  one  time,  as  to  form  out  of  two  vegetables 
a  man  and  a  woman — They  sprang  up  on  the  bank  of  a  river  in  Asia. 
They  grew  with  their  faces  towards  each  other,  and  when  they  were 
fully  ripe,  a  gentle  breeze  broke  them  off  the  stem,  and  so  put  them  in 
motion ;  and  thus  they  formed  an  early  attachment  for  each  other, 
and  have  kept  in  motion  ever  since.  But  why  motion  should  have 
acted  so  irregularly  at  that  time,  and  kept  so  regular  ever  since,  is 
the  great  mystery  of  mysteries  of  atheism. 

Before  I  sit  down,  I  will  give  you  the  testimony  of  Lord  Chesterfield, 
on  this  creed  of  the  materialists.  No  man  can  suppose  him  either  a 
Ihgot  or  an  enthusiast  in  rel  igion.  He  says — 

“I  have  read  some  of  Leed’s  sermons,  and  like  them  very  well.  But 
I  have  neither  read  nor  intend  to  read  those  which  are  meant  to  prove 
the  existence  of  God ;  because  it  seems  to  me  too  great  a  disparage¬ 
ment  of  that  reason  which  he  has  given  us,  to  require  any  other  proof 
of  his  existence  than  those  which  the  whole,  and  every  part,  of  the 
creation  afford  us.  If  1  believe  my  own  existence,  I  must  believe  his. 
It  cannot  be  proved  a  'priori ,  as  some  have  idly  attempted  to  do,  and 
cannot  be  doubted  of  a  posteriori — Cato  very  justly  says, — ‘And  that 
he  is,  all  mature  cries  aloud.’  ” — Elegant  epistle. — [Half  hour  outi\ 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — 1  expressed,  in  the  previous  part  of  the  debate,  my 
total  disbelief  in  the  notion  that  a  supreme  intelligence  would  create 
a  devil,  knowing  what  it  was  about.  I  asserted  nothing  about  the 
existence  or  non-existence  of  Deity,  <fcc.  Now,  my  friends,  1  am 
very  desirous  to  conform  to  the  suggestion  of  the  board  of  Modera¬ 
tors,  and  not  to  digress  from  the  point  of  discussion  immediately  be¬ 
fore  us,  except  for  the  purpose  cf  more  ample  illustration.  We  are 
now  endeavoring  to  prove  that,  all  religions  are  founded  in  ignorance. 
Mr.  Ci  impbell  has  stated  a  strong  practical  iact  concerning  the  sec¬ 
tarianism  of  the  sceptics.  But  I  do  not  conceive  myself  in  the 
least  bound  to  depend  upon  any  arguments  except  those  which  I  bring 
forward  myself.  I  have  not  once  quoted  a  Sceptic,  Deist,  or  Atheist 
tvproye  one  of  my  positions.  I  derive  my  information  from  a  close 


80 


DEBATE. 


observation  of  human  nature,  and  from  facts  which  every  one  can  ex  ¬ 
amine  for  himself.  I  have  no  occasion  for  any  other  authority,  nor 
do  I  wish  to  resort  to  any  other.  For,  in  my  opinion,  authority  is  but 
of*  little  use,  unless  it  be  to  give  sanction  to  falsehood  and  error.  It 
seems  that  the  sceptical  opinions  of  Mirabaud  and  Paine  were  at  war 
with  each  other.  Well  be  it  so;  for  my  part,  I  know  not  what  scepti¬ 
cism  means,  unless  it  signifies  a  difference  of  opinion  from  the  speaker. 
I  am  simply  a  searcher  after ,  and  a  lover  of  truth.  Mirabaud,  it 
seems,  has  stated  that  atheism  could  not  make  a  wicked  man  good ; 
right  enough,  according  to  his  notions  of  human  nature  and  society. — 
But  the  system  which  I  advocate,  is  derived  from  the  laws  of  natnre, 
which  will  prevent  bad  men  from  being  formed.  Are  there  not  now 
bad  men  and  women  of  all  religions  in  the  world.  Now,  I  propose  to 
you  a  principle  which  shall  prevent  the  formation  in  future  of  any 
bad  men  and  women,  and  surely  this  is  a  superior  principle  to  apply 
to  practice  than  either  religion  or  atheism,  both  of  which  are  mere 
words. 

The  ninth  great  law  of  our  nature  is,  “that  the  highest  health, 
depends  upon  the  cultivation  of  our  intellectual  and  other  faculties, 
npon  their  equal  and  full  developement,  and  upon  their  temperate  ex¬ 
ercise.'5’  It  is  this  law  of  our  nature,  that  demonstrates  that  temper¬ 
ance  in  all  things,  must  be  the  highest  point  of  human  enjoyment. — 
Consequently,  the  education  of  youth  ought  to  be  directed  to  give 
every  being  the  habit  of  temperance.  We  all  know  that  we  are  com¬ 
posed  of  physical  propensities,  of  intellectual  faculties,  and  of  moral 
feelings,  and  no  human  being  can  enjoy  the  happiness  that  of  right 
belongs  to  his  nature,  until  all  these  are  properly  cultivated  from  in¬ 
fancy  to  maturity.  We  have,  therefore,  my  friends,  not  a  metaphysi¬ 
cal  discussion  to  attend  to;  but  an  invaluable  law  of  nature  directing 
us  to  the  most  beneficial  practical  result,  and  declaring  to  us  in  the 
plainest  language,  that  we  ought  to  alter  our  whole  system  of  society 
as  it  is  carried  on  in  all  countries.  In  our  present  system  we  have, 
as  formerly  stated,  but  two  divisions  of  society,  the  producer,  and  the 
non-producer;  the  one  continually  attempting  to  deceive  and  to  prey 
upon  the  other,  and  both  having  their  faculties  partially  and  unnatu¬ 
rally  developed.  The  whole  system  of  the  world  is,  therefore,  bad 
from  its  foundation.  Had  we  been  all  trained  in  the  best  manner 
physically  and  intellectually,  what  different  beings  we  would  have 
been  from  what  we  now  are.  Why,  my  friends,  under  a  rational  state 
of  society,  the  expression  of  every  one  of  our  features  will  be  greatly 
superior  to  what  they  now  are.  I  should  be  sorry  to  say  any  thing 
offensive,  or  unnecessarily  to  wound  the  feelings  of  any  one ;  but  it  is 
my  duty  upon  this  occasion,  to  speak  the  truth  for  the  benefit  of  socie¬ 
ty  at  large,  who  will  either  read  or  hear  of  these  discussions,  and  to 
make  known  the  genuine  impressions  which  facts  have  made  upon  me ; 
and,  therefore,  my  friends,  I  tell  you  plainly,  and  I  hope  without  of¬ 
fence  to  any,  that  I  have  never  yet  seen,  since  I  had  the.  power  of 
observing,  with  my  present  knowledge  upon  die  subject,  any  feature 
in  the  countenance  of  any  human  being,  that  appeared  to  express  the 


DEBATE. 


81 


fall  character  of  rationality.  And  my  expectation  is, that  the  genera- 
tion  that,  shall  be  trained  to  be  rational,  will  be  in  all  respects  differ¬ 
ent,  and  greatly  superior  in  aspect  and  general  character,  from  the 
present.  More  different,  indeed,  than  in  your  present  state  of  mind, 
it  is  possible  lor  you  to  conceive.  When  we  shall  become  rational, 
j  f  I  am  not  greatly  deceived,  we  shall  see  no  feature  expressive  of  dis¬ 
like,  anger,  or  irritation ;  no  eye  that  will  express  want  of  confidence, 
or  a  consciousness  that  we  are  attempting  to  deceive  our  neighbor.— 
Our  faces  will  become  so  open  that  all  our  real  feelings  will  be  ex¬ 
pressed  in  them  without  the  slightest  shadow  of  disguise.  Every  inter¬ 
nal  movement  of  the  mind  will  be  distinctly  exhibited  in  the  finer  move¬ 
ments  of  the  countenance ;  no  uncharitable  expression  will  be  felt 
to  leave  its  impression  upon  any  feature,  not  one  unamiable  look, 
or  constrained  action,  or,  consequently,  one  unamiable  gesture 
in  our  deportment,  that  will  appear  ungraceful,  will  then  be  discover¬ 
able.  How  will  this  change  beautify  our  race  in  the  next  and  suc¬ 
ceeding  generations!  And  all  this,  my  friends,  is  neither  visionary 
or  very  difficult  of  practice.  All  that  is  necessary  in  order  to  bring 
about  these  desirable  results,  is  to  discover  and  understand  what  man¬ 
ner  of  beings  we  are.  Our  nature,  at  birth,  is  a  beautiful  compound., 
which  can  be  moulded  into  the  most  elegant  or  misshapen  form ;  but 
which  of  these  it  shall  be,  depends  entirely  upon  the  knowledge  that 
may  be  speedily  acquired  by  the  respective  American  and  European 
governments.  Heretofore,  governments  and  priesthoods  have  had  the 
forming  of  you,  and  how  very  inferior  in  person  and  mind  have  your 
priests  and  rulers  made  you !  Nevertheless,  we  cannot  be  rational, 
and  complain  of  those  who  have  thus  formed  us,  because  they  were 
made  to  be  as  ignorant  of  the  right  method  of  training  human  nature  to 
become  rational,  as  you  are  now,  without  additional  knowledge  upon 
the  subject.  This  law,  my  friends,  like  the  other  laws,  points  out  to 
us  the  importance  of  infant  schools.  I  do  not  know  whether  any  of 
the  parties  present,  have  ever  seen  any  of  those  in  practice  in  the 
eastern  cities,  imperfect  as  they  yet  are.  There  are  some,  I  believe, 
in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston.  But  these  infant  schools 
have  not  been  introduced  into  this  country,  or  latterly  into  Great 
Britain,  on  the  principles  on  which  they  were  originally  founded.-!— 
These  infant  schools,  as  first  introduced  by  myself  at  New  Lanark, 
-five  years  before  they  were  introduced  elsewhere,  I  believe  to  be  the 
first  practical  step  that  has  been  taken  towards  forming  the  human 
race  to  become  rational.  But  the  priesthood,  through  their  influence, 
have  been  enabled  to  lay  hold  upon  these  institutions,  and  are  now 
moulding  the  children  within  them,  to  their  own  purposes.  But  this 
mode  of  proceeding  will  not  do  much  longer.  The  spread  of  know¬ 
ledge  is  opposed  to  it,  and  too  much  light  will  speedily  appear  upon 
the  subject  of  education,  to  permit  of  so  much  injury  being  inflicted 
upon  the  rising  generation.  My  friends,  when  these  infant  schools 
shall  be  properly  directed,  they  are  capable  of  forming,  by  comparison 
with  the  poor  neglected  infants  of  the  present  day,  little  angels;  for, 
in  these  schools,  under  a  rational  management,  they  may  be  trained 


debate. 


82 

to  acquire,  without  any  failure*  the  best  dispositions,  liabits,  and  man¬ 
ners,  and  the  most  useful  and  valuable  knowledge.  Such  qualifica¬ 
tions  as  these,  will  make  angels  of  any  children,  except  their  wings; 
but  these  I  cannot  promise,  for  they  have  not  yet  been  invented  for 
them.  But  to  be  again  serious,  it  is  certainly  most  true,  that  hereto¬ 
fore,  men  have  been  quite  unconscious  of  the  extent  of  the  infantile 
powers,  and  of  the  effect  which,  when  human  nature  comes  to  be 
known,  and  well  understood,  may  be  produced  at  a  very  early  period. 
1  have  seen  several  hundred  little  children  assembled  together,  who 
were  angels  in  every  thing  except  the  wings ;  there  was  no  fighting, 
no  quarrelling,  no  crying;  all  was  peaceful ;  so  that  cue  young  female; 
not  more  than  eighteen  years  of  age,  of  ordinary  acquirements,  but 
having  a  good  disposition,  and  being  fond  of  children,  could  with  plea¬ 
sure  superintend  for  several  hours  through  every  day,  almost  from 
morning  to  night,  130  of  them,  from  the  age  of  eighteen  months  up 
to  six  years.  The  infant  schools,  when  well  understood,  will  be  disv 
covered  to  be  a  moral  improvement  of  far  greater  value  to  society  than 
the  steam  engine,  or  any  other  ancient  or  modern  physical  improve¬ 
ment.  But,  my  friends,  I  would  not  have  you  to  introduce  these 
schools  until  you  understand  the  principles  on  which  they  were  found¬ 
ed,  and  upon  which  only  they  ought  to  be  established  and  managed. 
Had  you  commenced  before  this  time,  you  would  ha  ve  commenced  in 
terror.  But  I  hope  the  time  is  rapidly  approaching,  when  you  shall 
have  no  error  to  contend  against ;  when  no  part  of  the  population  will 
be  longer  taught  to  contend  against  its  own  happiness.  If,  as  Mr. 
Campbell,  admits,  human  beings  are  influenced  by  the  circumstances 
surrounding  them,  ought  we  not  to  begin  at  once  to  study  the  quality 
of  circumsta  nces  around  us,  in  order  to  ascertain  if  it  be  possible  to 
withdraw  those  which  produce  a  bad  effect,  and  to  replace  them  with 
others  of  a  superior  description.  Is  there  any  other  practical  wisdom 
in  the  world?  If  we  be  in  all  cases,  to  a  very  great  degree,  the 
creatures  of  circumstances,  does  it  not  behove  those  who  undertake 
to  govern  and  instruct  us,  to  make  themselves  well  acquainted  with 
the  nature  and  character  of  those  circumstances?  I  have  read  much 
of  history,  I  have  travelled  in  many  countries,  I  have  endeavored  to 
bring  before  me  all  the  present  and  past  transactions  of  mankind ;  but 
I  cannot  bring  to  my  recollection  the  government,  or  the  priesthood, 
which  has  not  entirely  neglected  this  high  duty — while  this  is  by  far 
the  most  important  duty  of  both,  it  is,  in  all  cases,  the  first  business 
to  which  they  ought  to  attend.  While  they  remain  ignorant  of  this 
department,  every  active  measure  they  adopt  will  tend  only  to  increase 
the  evils  of  society ;  for  society  is  very  different  now  from  what  it  was 
only  a  few  years  ago.  It  could  be  governed  by  ignorance,  in  igno¬ 
rance;  it  must  be  now  governed  by  intelligence,  and  made  to  be  in¬ 
telligent. 

It  is  of  no  use  for  different  parties  to  contend  any  longer  against 
each  in  the  field  of  ignorance,  opposing  one  erroneous  system  against 
another.  A  large  mass  of  the  people  in  many  count  ries  has  becom^ 
too  well  informed  to  admit  much  longer  of  a  continuance  of  these 


DEBATE. 


83> 

measures.  They  have  discovered  the  true  sources  of  knowledge  and 
of  wealth,  and  (hat  they  are  sufficient,  under  a  good  and  intelligent 
direction,  amply  to  supply  the  human  race. 

As  men  receive  all  their  knowledge  from  without,  they  can  be 
made  intelligent  and  well  disposed  to  all  their  fellows,  by  a  rational 
education  from  infancy  to  maturity.  They  can  be  made  wealthy 
through  the  knowledge  and  habits  which  they  may  be  taught  by  a 
rational  education  directing  them  to  what  they  require  for  their  hap¬ 
piness,  and  hew  to  obtain  it  in  the  best  and  most  easy  manner  by  a 
right  application  of  the  enormous  mechanical  and  chemical  power 
for  the  creation  of  wealth,  now  at  the  disposal  of  society,  and  which 
admits  of  unlimited  increase. 

But  these  invaluable  sources  of  knowledge  and  wealth  cannot  be 
applied  with  advantage  for  the  general  benefit  of  society  under  the 
influence  of  any  known  religion.  Useful,  valuable,  practical  knowl¬ 
edge  can  proceed  only  from  an  accurate  knowledge  of  human  nature; 
and  to  me  it  appears  that  these  religions  and  that  knowledge  are  at 
variance  with  each  other;  that  all  religions  are  founded  in  mys¬ 
teries  beyond  human  comprehension;  that  all  knowledge  is  derived 
from  an  accurate  observation  of  facts,  and  just  deductions  from  them, 
and  proved  to  be  so  by  their  unvarying  consistency.  It  may  be  also 
taught  by  proper  methods  to  be  understood  by  all  men. 

The  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature,  explain  what  hu¬ 
man  nature  really  is,  and  the  principal  by  which  it  ought  to  be  train¬ 
ed  and  instructed  from  infancy  to  maturity,  to  secure,  to  every  one., 
superior  dispositions,  habits  and  knowledge. 

But  each  of  these  laws,  when  followed  out  to  all  their  legitimate 
consequences,  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world 
have  been  founded  in  ignorance  of  human  nature,  and  therefore  they 
never  have  or  can  make  man  intelligent,  good  and  happy.  They 
all  continually  endeavor  to  pursue  a  course  opposite  to  the  nature  of 
man,  and,  in  consequence,  both  are  perpetually  violently  opposed  to 
each  other.  And  as  these  religions  give  an  erroneous  direction  to 
men’s  thoughts  and  feelings,  I  have  been  long  deeply  impressed  with 
the  conviction,  which  has  been  more  confirmed  by  all  I  have  heard 
in  this  debate,  “that  all  religions  are  not  only  founded  in  ignorance 
of  human  nature,  but  they  have  been  and  are  the  real  source,  through 
that  error,  of  vice,  disunion  and  misery  of  every  description ;  that 
they  are  now  the  only  real  bar  to  the  formation  of  a  society  of  virtue., 
of  intelligence,  of  charity  in  its  most  extended  sense  and  of  sincerity4 
and  kindness  among  the  whole  human  family :  and  that  they  can  be 
no  longer  maintained  except  through  the  ignorance  of  the  mass  of 
the  people,  and  the  tyranny  of  the  few  over  that  mass.” 

The  world  cannot  be  benefited  by  the  continuance  of  errors  which, 
affect  the  well  being  and  happiness  of  every  individual,  whatever  may 
be  his  rank  or  condition.  All  are  therefore  deeply  interested  in  tins 
question  between  Mr.  Campbell  and  myself.  One  or  both  of  us  must 
be  in  error,  and  the  intelligent  of  all  parties,  ought,  for  their  own 
sakes,  and  for  the  benefit  of  their  less  informed  fellow-beings,  to  in* 


84 


DEBATE, 


vestigate,  without  partizan  feelings,  calmly  and  patiently  the  princi 
pies  which  each  conscientiously  believes  to  be  so  true  that  he  is  lost 
in  conjectures  how  the  other  can  believe  as  he  says  he  does  believe, 
and  wonders  that  he  has  not  by  his  arguments  already  convinced  his 
opponent  of  his  errors. 

To  me  it  apears  that  there  are  two  most  important  measures  which 
require  the  whole  attention,  and  the  application  of  all  the  best  facul¬ 
ties  of  those  who  attempt  to  govern  and  to  instruct  the  populations  of 
different  countries. 

The  one  is  to  introduce  a  rational  system  of  education  by  which 
the  character  of  every  one  shall  be  well  formed,  physically  and  men¬ 
tally,  from  infancy  to  maturity.  The  other  to  give  aright  direction  to 
tire  new  scientific  powers  of  production ;  that  an  independence,  relative 
to  the  means  of  a  comfortable  and  happy  existence,  may  be  secured 
to  every  individual. 

Upon  every  view  that  I  can  give  to  the  subject,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  condition  of  the  population  of  most  countries  now  calls  loudly  for 
the  adoption  of  these  measures;  that  they  may  be  immediately  intro¬ 
duced  info  practice  w  ith  great  benefit  to  the  governors  and  governed, 
to  the  instructers  and  instructed,  and  that  to  secure  success  both  mea¬ 
sures  should  be  intimately  united  and  one  made  to  aid  the  other — in¬ 
deed  it  is  only  by  their  union;  by  being  so  blended  together  that  they 
shall  mutually  act  and  re-act  upon  each  other,  that  either  of  them  can 
become  practicable.  For  it  is  useless  and  dangerous  to  enlighten 
men  before  they  attain  the  means  of  securing  a  happy  existence ;  and 
it  is  equally  useless  and  dangerous  to  give  them  the  means  of  super¬ 
fluous  abundance  without  forming  them  at  the  same  time  to  become 
intelligent  and  virtuous  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  or,  in  other 
words,  well  disposed  in  all  sincerity  to  promote  the  real  happiness  of 
all  their  fellow-beings,  not  merely  in  words  but  in  their  daily  conduct. 

Happy  w  ill  it  be  for  the  government  and  people  that  shall  first  in¬ 
troduce  this  change  into  practice! 

By  such  examples  they  will  shew  the  means,  most  delightful  too  in 
practice,  by  which  “peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men51  may  be  es¬ 
tablished  probably  in  less  than  one  generation.  X  could  enter  into  ex¬ 
tensive  detail  upon  these  very  interesting  subjects. 

[Here  the  honorable  Chairman  remarked  (without  wishing  to  inter* 
nipt  Mr.  Owen)  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Moderators,  Mr..  Owen,  in 
his  last  address,  had  wandered  from  the  point  of  discussion  immedi¬ 
ately  before  the  disputants  and  the  public.  The  Board  of  Moderators 
suppose  that  you  ought  to  prove  the  falsehood  of  the  existing  religions 
before  you  proceed  to  the  discussion  and  explanation  of  your  substi¬ 
tute] 

Mr.  Owen  replies- — That  he  has  intimately  studied  man,  and  finds 
him  entirely  different  in  his  nature  from  what  all  religions  suppose 
him  to  be.  if  X  prove  this  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  audience,  I 
apprehend  it.  is  entirely  unnecessary  to  inyolve  myself  in  all  the 
subtleties  of  the  unlimited  amount  of  fables  and  metaphysics  with 
which  the  world  has  been  inundated  If  I.  am  oermitted  tp  prove 


DEBATE. 


m 


these  five  positions  in  the  way  I  conceive  to  be  consistent  with  right 
reason,  then  I  shall  be  ready  to  enter  into  any  metaphysical  disqui¬ 
sitions  that  may  be  necessary  to  elucidate  any  other  truth. 

Mr.  Chairman  said  in  reply  to  Mr.  Owen— It  is  not  the  wish  of  the 
Moderators  to  dictate  to  you  the  course  which  you  ought  to  pursue. 
The  Moderators  are  perfectly  willing  that  you  should  rely  upon  any 
course  of  argument  which  you  may  think  best  calculated  to  sustain 
your  proposition,  viz.  *‘that  all  religions  in  the  world  are  inconsistent 
with  human  nature,  as  you  find  it.”  The  Moderators  only  meant  to 
say,,  that  while  you  are  discussing  the  proposition  that  all  religions 
are  false,  it  would  be  improper  to  introduce  the  substitute  which  you 
propose. 

Here  Mr.  Owen  remarked  that  he  had  touched  upon  the  subject 
of  infant  schools,  and  the  creation  of  wealth,  simply  to  illustrate  that 
the  population  of  the  world  were  yet  ignorant;  that  they  had  not  even 
taken  the  first  step  towards  training  their  children  to  become  rational 
from  infancy,  or  independent  in  their  condition. 


Mr.  Campbell  then  said- — 

Not  having  heard  any  argument  whatever  adduced  in  the  last  ad¬ 
dress,  pertinent  to  the  subject  at  issue,  and  Mr.  Owen  having  dealt 
•only  in  general  assertions  concerning  human  nature;  having  rejected 
"the  validity  of  all  authority,  and  having  admitted  that  his  system  is 
so  different  from  the  existing  state  of  tilings,  that  we  cannot  reason 
from  the  one  to  the  other-— -I  now  feci  nay  self  com  pelled  to  adopt  some 
other  course, 

Mr.  Owen  places  me  in  a  very  singular  predicament.  Had  I 
selected  a  certain  proposition  and  pledged  myself  to  prove  it,  1 
should  have  felt  myself  bound,  by  all  controversial  rules,  to  keep  to 
that  proposition,  until  1  had  either  established  it,  or  failed  in  the  at¬ 
tempt.  And  if,  on  the  other  hand,  my  opponent  had  taken  up  an  af¬ 
firmative  proposition,  and  confined  himself  to  the  proof  of  it,  I  should 
have  felt  myself  bound  to  attend  to  every  fact,  argument,  and  demon¬ 
stration  adduced  in  its  support,  and  either  have  rebutted  them,  c-r  ac¬ 
knowledged  my  inability  so  to  do.  But  in  the  singular  predicament  in 
which  I  am  placed  by  Mr.  Owen’s  course,  unless  I  were  to  speak  of 
angelic  infants,  with,  or  without  wings;  unless  I  should  speak  of  sub¬ 
jects  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  this  discussion,  I  see  not  how  I  can 
take  any  notice  of  my  opponent’s  last  address.  It  is  necessary  that 
we  should  reciprocally  reach  some  tangible  point  of  disputation,  I 
trust  that  Mr.  Owen  is  only  keeping  back  his  strong  arguments  all 
this  while.  But  if  any  stronger  argument  is  yet  to  be  offered,  for  the 
sake  of  the  audience',  as  well  as  for  my  own  sake,  I  should  really  be 
obliged  to  Mr.  Owen  if  he  would  soon  adduce  it. 

If  Mr.  Owen  possesses  that  moral  courage  or  boldness  for  which  his 
friends  so  much  admire  him,  he  ought  to  avow  at  once  that  all 
ideas  of  Deity,  and  all  other  spiritual  existences,  are  entirely  at 
variance  with  the  beneficent  objects  which  he  has  in  contemplation  to 
consummate.  Let  us  suppose  that  Mr  Owen  thinks  and  assumes 

8 


&(i 


DEBATE. 


that  the  idea  of  the  providence  of  God,  and  all  the  ideas  inseparably 
connected  with  a  belief  in  the  Christian  religion,  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  consummation  of  his  beneficent  objects.  Assuming 
this  to  be  Mr.  Owen’s  real  opinion,  then  it  behoves  him  to  give  us 
some  sort  of  argument,  proof,  or  illustration,  calculated  to  eradicate 
such  ideas  from  our  minds.  If  Mr.  Owen  thinks  that  our  religious 
(superstitious)  ideas,  and  his  social  ideas  can  never  exist  together  in 
the  same  mind,  this  ought  to  he  his  course.  If  he  has  no  objection 
to  the  ideas  which  v/e  entertain  of  spiritual  existences,  and  of  our 
relation  to  a  spiritual  world,  he  ought  to  concede  to  us  the  right  of 
making  deductions  from  them.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  con¬ 
ceives  mat  these  ideas  interpose  an  impassable  barrier  to  the  admis¬ 
sion  of  his  principles  into  our  minds,  he  ought  to  use  his  best  exertions 
to  banish  these  hostile  ideas.  But  Mr.  Owen  not  only  eludes  the 
onus  probemdi,  which  every  advocate  of  an  affirmative  proposition 
tacitly  and  impliedly  undertakes,  but  he  cautiously  avoids  advancing 
any  thing  for  his  opponent  to  disprove. 

Now  I  am  at  a  loss  to  reconcile  this-  equivocal  course  with  what  I 
must  think  is  the  honesty,  frankness,  and  candor  of  my  friend’s 
character  and  disposition.  I  have  advanced  certain  propositions 
predicated  on  all  the  popular  systems  of  philosophy.  I  have  inquired 
of  my  opponent  whether  he  would  admit  the  philosophy  of  Locke, 
or  Hume,  or  of  any  of  the  philosophers  of  ancient  or  modern  times, 
on  the  subject  of  man’s  intellectual  and  moral  powers.  To  these 
requests  I  have  not  been  able  to  elicit  either  assent  or  negation.  1 
am  still  willing  on  these  topics  to  join  issue  with  Mr.  Owen  upon  the 
doctrines,  of  any  sceptical  philosopher  of  any  school.  But  as  yet  he 
lias  not  asserted  one  single  first  principle,  except  that  “we  are  the 
creatures  of  circumstances.”  I  reasonably  expected  that  he  would 
admit,  or  except  to  my  analysis  of  the  powers  of  the  human  mind; 
but  Mr.  Owen,  according  to  his  modus  cperar.di ,  pretermits  all  notice 
of  that  analysis.  Does  my  opponent  approbate  my  analysis?  Does  he 
assent  to  its  correctness?  If  so,  his  conclusions  are  at  variance  with 
his  premises.  I  am  apprehensive  that  it  will  be  necessary  for  me  to 
do  one  of  two  things — either,  to  institute  a  regular  argument  de¬ 
monstrative  cf  this  position,  viz,  -‘that  it  is  impossible  for  man  to 
originate  any  of  those  supernatural  ideas  which  arc  developed  in  the 
Christian  religion that  is  to  say,  I  shall  have  to  undertake  to  prove 
‘philosophically  that  man  could  not  invent,  or  originate  the  idea  of  a 
God,  a  Spirit,  a  future  state,  or  any  of  the  positive  institutions  of 
religion ;  that  he  never  could  have  invented  or  originated  the  ideas 
inseparably  connected  with  the  word  priest ,  altar,  sacrifice ,  &c. 
ergo,  that  these  ideas  and  the  words  used  to  express  them,  are  de¬ 
rivable  only  from  an  immediate  and  direct  revelation;  man  having 
no  power,  according  to  any  philosophic  analysis  of  his  intellectual 
powers,  to  originate  any  such  ideas.  This  I  must  do,  or  take  up  the 
great  question,  “  Whether  we  have  reasonable  grounds  to  believe  the 
truth  and  certainty  of  the  apostolic  testimony .”  To  one  or  other  of 
those  tsnics  I  shall  be  compelled  local!  your  attention,  ifmy  opponent 


DEBATE. 


will  hat  adopt  some  systematic  logical  course  sf  argumentation,  bear* 
mg  directly  upon  the  points  at  issue.  One  or  other  of  these  topics,  if 
permitted,  I  intend  to  take  up  in  the  afternoon. 

We  have  taken  a.  peep  into  the  different  systems  of  the  Free 
Thinkers  (as  they  glory  in  the  name)  of  the  ancient  and  modern 
schools.  And  now  let  me  ask,  What  have  the  sceptics  to  propose  us 
in  room  of  the  Bible?  Can  they  concur  in  any  substitute?  Can  they 
offer  any  system  of  Nature,  or  of  human  nature?  If  they  recommend 
theism ,  they  cannot  find  any  two  of  themselves  to  concur  in  defining 
that  system.  If  they  would  have  us  become  atheists ,  they  cannot 
harmonize  in  any  one  scheme,  on  which  men  can  .reason.  Indeed, 
Mr.  Owen  seems  to  think  that  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  pull  down 
Christianity  by  reiterated  assertions,  that  it  is  .predicated  on  principles 
at  variance  with  the  nature  of  man.  And  having  demolished  this 
palladium  of  all  refined  social  enjoyment,  and  having  extinguished 
all  the  lights  of  immortality,  man  rrfhst  not  dare  to  think  of  his 
origin,  because  it  does  not  “interest  him  to  "know  any  thing  about  it  f’ 
nor  must  he  think  of  his  destiny ,  as  that  cannot  afford  him  any  relish 
for  the  animal  en  joyments  of  his  system.  He  must  not  act  either  the 
philosopher,  or  the  Christian.  If  he  were  to  reason  from  effect  to 
eause,  he  might  be  confounded  with  some  insoluble  difficulty  upon 
such  a  question  as,  Whether  the  first  man  was  an  infant  or  an  adult; 
or,  Whether  there  was  an  acorn  or  an  oak  first.  Such  questions  as 
these  might  lead  him  to  others  more  unanswerable  still;  as,  Whether 
the  first  man  invented  language  himself,  and  taught  it  to  his  offspring; 
or  whether  there  was  a  convention  of  men -co-existent,  who  agreed 
upon  names  for  every  thing,  before  any  of  them  could  speak?  But  it 
will  be  best,  under  the  new  economy,  to  teach,  that  it  is  a  sin,  or  some¬ 
thing  worse,  for  persons  to  have,  or  to  indulge,  any  curiosity  upon 
such  topics. 

Although  the  sceptic  may,  in  argument,  be  constrained  to  admit 
that  no  innate  appetite  or  desire  in  man  is  so  strong  as  the  desire  of 
knowledge;  yet  under  the  new  system,  he  must  be  taught  to  view 
the  gratification  of  this  desire  as  a  sin  against  Ills  own  happiness  if 
ever  it  transcends  the  properties  of  matter.  Every  thing  about  spirit 
and  a  spiritual  system  must  be  the  forbidden  fruit  in  the  gardens  of 
sensual  pleasure,  which  are  to  be  cultivated  under  the  new  social 
system . 


i 


These  systems  of  Nature  and  human  nature,  framed  by  physical 
men,  who  have  just  their  five  senses  to  guide  them,  teach  man  to 
consider  himself  by  no  means  a  privileged  being  amidst  the  animals 
around  him.  He  must  not  consider  himself  superior  to  the  horse  on 
which  he  rides;  for  if  he  should  think  about  superiority,  this  might 
involve  him  in  great  difficulties,  and  cause  him  to  inquire  to  whom  he 
might  be  indebted  for  the  high  rank  he  occupies  in  the  scale  of  being. 
And  whether  he  be  superior  or  inferior,  is  a  problem  with  them  which 
has  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  solved.  And  should  it  ever  occur  to 
him  that  there  is  a  real  difference  in  animals,  not  only  in  figure  and 
size,  but  also  in  sagacity,  in  genius,  taste,  imagination,  reason,  <&c. 


DEBATE. 


8& 


he  must  never  inquire  why  or  how  the  earth  once  threw  up  a  small 
crop  of  each,  and  never  attempted  to  do  it  a  second  time :  and  by  what 
peculiar  concourse  of  chemical  agents  and  atoms,  the  first  crop  were 
men;  and  the  last,  apes  or  insects. 

Nothing  astonishes  me  more  than  the  impotcncy  of  philosophy  in 
all  matters  and  things  pertaining  to  a  spiritual  system:  to  the  origin 
and  nature  of  all  those  relations  in  which  mankind  stand  to.the  Creator, 
and  towards  one'  another  as  immortal  beings.  And  how  men,  reared 
-and  educated  within  the  precincts  of  revelation,  can  exhibit  so  many 
raw  and  undisciplined  ideas  of  human  nature,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
future  and  unseen  world,  is  still  more  astonishing.  To  hear  all  the 
sceptics,  too,  in  one  conclave  assembled,  declare  their  perfect  igno¬ 
rance  of  the  fundamental  springs  and  principles  of  all  their  own  laws 
of  nature}  and,  indeed,  of  the  origin  of  all  things  and  their  destiny  : 
to  see  them  predicate  all  their  systems  of  infidelity  upon  such  acknow¬ 
ledged  ignorance — -and  then  'upbraid  Christianity,  as  if  predicated 
upon  ignorance  of  God  and  man,  is  a  contradiction,  or  inconsistency, 
for  which  lean  find  no  parallel  ir.  the  whole  range  of  my  acquaintance 
with  men  and  things.  If,  as  they  confess,  they  neither  know,  nor 
can  know,  the  origin  of  this  earth  and  all  things  upon  it,  how  or 
why  do  they  presume  to  deny  the  Mosaic  account  of  it !!  They  pro¬ 
fess  not  to  know  any  thing  about  it;  why,  i her, ,  attempt  to  deny,  or 
oppose  the  only  account  of  it  in  the  world,  which,  without  philosophy, 
but  with  the  authority  of  a  sacred  historian,  presents  a -credible  histo¬ 
ry  of  it. 

And  here  it  is  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that  all  the  traditionary 
accounts  of  the  origin  of  the  universe  extant  in  all  nations,  evi¬ 
dently,  however,  stolen  from  the  Mosaic,  pretend  not  to  offer  their 
account  as  a  theory,  but  as  a  narrative  derived  from  the  original 
inhabitants  of  the  world,  who  had  it  first  of  all  from  the  Creator 
himself.  I  presume  the  world  was  more  than  three  thousand 
years  old  before  there  was  a  single  theory  offered,  or  a  specula¬ 
tion  upon  its  origin.  All  the  ancient  accounts  are  narratives ,  either 
in  prose  or  verse.  No  explanations  are  offered — no  speculations 
presented.  •  They  were  not  the  conclusions  of  reasoners,  or  philoso¬ 
phers,  but  the  declarations  of  a  witness,  and  of  a  super-human 
one — not  a  single  traditionary  account  v.  b.ich  does  not  presuppose  an 
original  witness  of  the  creation,  and  imply  the  necessity  of  a  superna¬ 
tural  revelation  upon  the  origin  of  things.  The  first  philosophers  who 
presumed  to  theorize  upon  this  subject,  if  they  demonstrated  any  thing, 
clearly  demonstrated  this,  that  their  conclusions  were  iriscr  than  their 
premises.  In  ether  words,  that  they  were  in  possession  of  previous 
information  upon  the  subject  which  they  did  not  derive  from  reason; 
and,  in  defiance  of  the  rules  of  logic,  they  had  more  truth  in  the  de¬ 
ductions  than  in  the  data  which  they  assumed.  They  always  remind 
me  of  a  lad  at  school  who  had  stolen  a  penknife,  and  when  pushed  by 
his  examiners  to  account  for  the  knife  found  in  his  pocket,  in  answer 
to  the  question  How  he  came  by  the  knife,  answered,  that  lie  “ found  it 
growing  on  a  treed'1  As  just  mid  logical  is  the  reason  giv  en  fbr  many 


DEBATE, 


8# 


ef  those  ideas  declared  by  philosophers  to  have  been  derived  from 
their  own  reasonings,  but  evidently  stolen  from  other  sources,  either 
from  the  volume  of  Revelation  itself,  or  from  streams  flowing  from  it. 

What  an  honor  does  the  philosopher  Mirabaud  bestow  on  the 
savages,  who,  he  says,  invented  all  the  religions  in  the  world  1  vol.  2. 
p.  13. 14.  “In  short,  it  is  upon  these  rude  foundations,  that  are  built 
all  the  religious  systems  of  the  world:  although  invented  originally 
by  savages,  they  have  yet  the  power  of  regulating  the  fate  of  the 
most  civilized  nations.  These  systems,  so  ruinous  in  their  principles, 
have  been  variously  modified  by  the  human' mind,  of  which  the  es¬ 
sence  is  to  labor  incessantly  upon  unknown  objects;  it  always 
commences  by  attaching  to  them  a  very  great  importance,  which 
afterwards  it  never  dares  examine  coolly.” 

Priests  and  savages ,  with  him,  are  the  most  puissant  characters. 
In  spite  of  all  the  philosophers,  from  Epicurus  down  to  Mr.  Owen, 
the  priests  and  the  savages  give  laws  and  customs,  religious  and 
moral,  to  the  most  civilized  nations  of  the  globe.  One  would  ex¬ 
pect,  upon  this  theory,  to  find  that  the  nearer  man  approached  the 
savage  state  the  more  exact  his  views  of  all  religious  relations,  duties, 
and  obligations!  And  if  this  be  true,  the  converse  must;  the  greater 
the  philosopher,  the  less  the  saint;  the  more  civilized,  the  less  religi¬ 
ous  is  man.  I  must  here  give  Hobbes  credit  for  one  truism*  “If  men,” 
says  he,  “found  their  interest  in  it,  they  would  doubt  the  truth  of 
Euclid’s  Elements.”  I  would  add,  they  will,  for  the  same  reason  too, 
believe  almost  anv  thing — even  that  savages  civilized  the  ivorldl 

•T  O 


As  the  hour  of  adjournment  has  almost  arrived,  I  will  only  add 
another  proof  of  Bacon’s  maxim,  viz.  ulhat  the  worst  of  all  things  is 
deified  error  f  taken  from  the  materialist  Mirabaud.  It  is  his  deifi¬ 
cation  of  Nature : — 

“We  cannot  doubt  the  power  of  nature;  she  produces  all  the  animals 
we  see,  by  the  aid  of  the  combination  of  matter  which  is  in  continual 
action;  the  harmony  that  subsists  between  the  parts  of  these  animals 
is  a  consequence  of  the  necessary  laws  of  their  nature  and  of  their 
combination ;  as  soon  as  this  accord  ceases,  the  animal  is  necessarily 
destroyed.  What  becomes  then  of  the  wisdom,  of  the  intelligence,  or 
the  goodness  of  the  pretended  cause  to  whom  they  ascribe  the  honor 
of  this  so  much  boasted  harmony?  These  animals,  so  marvellous, 
which  are  said  to  be  the  work  of  an  immutable  God,  are  they  not  con¬ 
tinually  changing,  and  do  they  not  always  finish  by  decaying?  Where 
is  the  wisdom,  the  goodness,  the  foresight,  and  the  immutability  of  a 
workman  who  appears  only  to  be  occupied  with  deranging  and  break¬ 
ing  the  springs  of  those  machines  which  are  announced  to  us  as  the 
chefs  d?mtvres  of  his  power  and  of  his  ability?  If  this  God  cannot  do 
otherwise,  he  is  neither  free  nor  omnipotent.  If  lie  changes  his  w  ill, 
he  is  not  immutable.  If  he  permits  those  machines,  w  hich  he  has 
rendered  sensible,  to  experience  pain,  he  wants  goodness.  If  lie  has 
not  been  able  to  render  iiis  works  more  solid,  it  is  that  he  wants  the 
ability.  In  seeing  that  animals,  as  well  as  all  the  other  works  of  the 
divinity  decay,  we  cannot  prevent  ourselves  from  concluding  there 


8* 


DEBATE 


00 

from,  either  that  every  tiling  Nature  does  is  necessary,  and  is  only  a 
consequence  of  its  laws,  or  that  the  workman  who  made  it  is  destitute 
of  plan,  of  power,  of  stability,  of  ability,  of  goodness.” — p.  144.  v,  2. 

“Nature  is  the  cause  of  every  thing;  she  is  self  existent ;  she  will 
always  exist:  she  is  her  own  cause;  her  motion  is  a  necessary  conse¬ 
quence  of  her  necessary  existence;  without  motion,  we  could  have  no 
conception  of  nature;  under  this  collective  name  we  designate  the 
assemblage  of  matter  acting  in  virtue- of  its  own  peculiar  energies  ” 
— -p„  176.  vol,  2. 

“Let  us  keep  ourselves  to  the  nature  which  we  see,  which  we  feel, 
which  acts  upon  us,  of  which,  at.  least,  we  know  the  general  laws, 
if  we  are  ignorant  of  her  detail,  and  the  secret  principles  winch  she 
employs  in  her  complicated  works,  nevertheless,  let  us  be  certain '  hat 
site  acts  in  a  permanent,  uniform,  analogous,  and  necessary  manner. 
Let  us,  then,  observe  this  nature ;  let  us  never  quit  the  routine  which 
she  describes  for  us;  if  we  do,  wo  shall  infallibly  be  punished  with 
numberless  errors,  with  which  our  mind  would  find  itself  blinded, 
and  of  which  numberless  sorrows  would  be  the  necessary  conse¬ 
quence.  Let  us  not  adore,  let  us  not  flatter  after  the  manner  of  men, 
a  Nature  who  is  deaf,  and  who  acts  necessarily,  and  of  which  nothing 
can  derange  the  course.  Do  not  let  us  implore  a  whole  which  can 
only  maintain  itself  by  the  discord  of  elements,  from  whence  the 
universal  harmony  and  the  stability  of  the  whole  has  birth.  Let  us 
consider  that  we  are  sensible  parts  of  a  whole  destitute  of  feeling,  in 
which  all  the  forms  and  the  combinations  are  destroyed  after  they  are 
born,  and  have  subsisted  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time.  Let  us  look 
upon  nature  as  an  immense  elaboratory  which  contains  every  thing 
necessary  for  her  to  act,  and  to  produce  all  those  works  which  are 
displayed  to  our  eyes.  Let  us  acknowledge  her  power  to  be  inherent 
m  her  essence.  Do  not  let  us  attribute  her  works  to  an  imaginary 
cause,  which  has  no  other  existence  than  in  our  brain.  Rather  let  us 
forever  banish  from  our  mind  a  phantom  calculated  to  disturb  it,  and 
to  prevent  our  pursuing  the  simple,  natural,  and  certain  means  which 
can  conduct  us  to  happiness.  Let  us,  then,  re-establish  this  nature, 
so  long  mistaken  in  her  legitimate  rights;  let  us  listen  to  her  voice, 
of  which  reason  is  the  faithful  interpreter;  let  us  impose  silence  on 
that  enthusiasm  and  imposture  which,  to  our  misfortune,  have  drawn 
us  aside  from  the  only  worship  suitable  to  intelligent  beings.” — Page 
178.  vol.  2. 

Who  preaches  implicit  faith  and  blind  adoration  now  ?  The  infatu¬ 
ated  sage  tells  you  that  you  must  believe  without  evidence;  that 
Nature  never  errs — even  when  mysteries  impenetrable  hide  her 
operations!  And  you  must  worship  and  adore  his  goddess,  just  be¬ 
cause  she  is  blind  and  cannot  see  you — because  she  is  deaf,  and  can¬ 
not  hear  you!  But  to  suppose  that  Nature  is  either  rational,  good,  or 
kind,  would  he  most  abhorrent  to  all  his  philosophy.  Blind  Fate  and 
inexorable  Necessity  is  all  that  is  to  be  feared,  loved,  adored,  hated,  or 
what  you  please.  You  owe  her  nothing;  and,  after  ail,  she  is  a  Upurc 
xhsiro.ci  being  f  who  has  no  existence  save  in  the  brain  of  such  crazed 


DEBATE, 


01' 

philosophers  l  Sic  transit  gloria  philosophies  !  But,  if  permitted,  this 
afternoon,  we  will  see  what  right  reason  or  true  philosophy  teaches  on 
this  subject.  [Adjourned  till  3  o'clock.] 

Tuesday ,  14it/t  April,  3  o'’ clock,  P.  M. 

Mr.  Ow'en  rises. 

My  Friends— In  furtherance  of  our  object,  which  is  to  prove  that  ah 
religions  have  been  founded  in  error,  I  proceed  to  expound  the  tenth 
law  of  our  nature,  which  is,  “That  the  individual  is  made  to  possess 
and  acquire  the  worst  character,  when  his  organization  at  birth  has 
been  compounded  of  the  most  inferior  propensities,  faculties,  and 
qualities  of  our  common  nature,  and  when  so  organized,  he  has  been 
placed  from  birth  to  death,  amidst  the  most  vicious  or  worst  circum¬ 
stances.”  This,  my  friends,  is  the  law  of  nature  that  teaches  the  origin  of 
evil  in  man.  Man  becomes  an  evil  being  when  his  original  organiza¬ 
tion  is  imperfect;  and  when,  in  addition  thereto,  he  is  placed  amidst 
vicious  or  unfavorable  circumstances?  But  can  the  individual  justly 
or  rationally  be  blamed,  because  his,  organization  has  been  thus  im¬ 
perfectly  formed?  Can  he  be  rationally  censured  because,  with  this 
imperfect  organization,  he  has  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  cast  into 
the  vortex  of  the  most  vicious  and  deteriorating  circumstances?  And 
against  poor  human  nature  thus  unfortunately  organized,  and  thus 
unhappily  circumstanced,  what  has  the  ignorance  ofihe  world  done  ? 
Why,  it  has  called  these  objects  of  a  just  and  rational  commiseration 
and  sympathy,  all  manner  of  hard  names,  and  inflicted  upon  them 
all  manner  of  injustice.  In  addition  to  the  disadvantage  of  their  mal- 
organhation ;  in  addition  to  the  utter  impossibility  of  their  resisting 
the  vicious  impressions  which  these  unfortunate  circumstances  have 
imposed,  the  laws  and  the  ignorance  of  all  countries  heap  upon  these 
poor  unfortunates,  pains,  penalties,  and  every  kind  of  evil.  Whereas, 
had  we  but  known  what  manner  of  beings  we  are,  immediately  on  dis¬ 
covering  a  fellow-being  thus  unfortunate  in  his  organization,  instead 
of  visiting  him  with  penalties  and  persecution,  we  should  become  four¬ 
fold  more  kind  and  attentive  to  him* endeavoring  to  make  amends  bv 
our  experience  and  knowledge  for  his  mal -organization.  But  instead 
of  this  rational  course  of  conduct,  the  ignorance  of  man  has  done  every¬ 
thing  in  its  power  to  make  bad  worse.  There  has  been  no  eye  to 
pity,  there  has  been  none  to  say,  We  know  that  you  had  no  control 
over  the  formation  of  this  inferior  organization;  we  will  therefore,  not 
call  you  hard  names,  but  will  endeavor  to  remove  from  you  every  de¬ 
teriorating  circumstance.  W"e  will  place  you  in  circumstances  cal¬ 
culated  to  remedy  the  evils  of  mal- organization.  Had  we  been  wise 
and  enlightened,  had  we  possessed  a  true  knowledge  of  the  constitu¬ 
tion  of  human  nature,  this  would  ever  have  been  the  only  practice  of 
the  world  in  these  cases.  But,  do  any  of  the  religions  of  the  world 
speak  in  this  language,  or  spirit,  to  such  unfortunates?  Do  they  not, 
On  the  other  hand,  denounce  the  punishment  cf hell-fire  upon  them? 

My  friends,  if  there  had  existed  a  spark  of  true  light  in  the  world, 
such  premises,  such  conclusions,  and  such  practices  would  never have 


92 


DEBATE. 


been  dreamed  of.  Now,  where  is  their  demoralizing  influence  to  be 
found?  How,  or  wherein,  do  these  laws  of  our  nature  lead  to  one  in- 
convenienc  in  practice?  On  the  contrary,  might  I  not  boldly  ask, 
Where  is  the  code  of  laws,  ever  invented  by  ignorant  man  to  be  found, 
that  is  at  all  comparable  to  them?  I  call  these  Divine  laws.  And 
whenever  we  shall  have  the  wisdom  to  form  our  municipal  codes  of 
law  upon  them,  they  will  be  framed  not  for  the  punishment,  but  for  the 
prevention  of  crime.  They  will  not  be  written  in  blood,  as  all  laws 
now  are.  And  how  much  easier  and  how  much  better  is  prevention 
than  cure?  Under  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  all  the  bad  passions, 
and  all  the  inferior  feelings  of  our  nature,  have  been  arrayed  in  arms 
against  that  portion  of  our  fellow-beings  who  are  the  most  legitimate 
and  rational  objects  of  extraordinary  care  and  tenderness,  sympathy 
and  compassion.  Under  every  rational  subject,  it  is  plain  that  these 
badly  organized  and  unhappily  circumstanced  individuals,  instead  of 
being  persecuted  and  tortured,  ought  to  have  been  most  commiserated 
and  attended  to.  Whether  would  it  bo  better,  think  you,  to  nip  bad 
habits,  propensities  and  dispositions  in  the  bud,  or  allow  them  uncheck¬ 
ed  to  grow  up  into  full  vigor  and  maturity,  and  then  employ  a  legion 
of  officers  of  justice, so  called,  (I  call  them  officers  of  injustice)  to  im¬ 
prison,  scourge,  and  sacrifice  these  unfortunates.  I  say  unhesitating¬ 
ly,  that  there  is  not  a  particle  of  justice,  rationality,  or  common  sense, 
in  such  proceedings.  ' 

We  will  proceed  now  to  the  eleventh  law  of  our  nature,  “That  an 
individual  is  made  to  possess  and  to  acquire  a  medium  character  when 
his  individual  organization  has  been  created  superior ,  and  when  the 
circumstances  which  surround  him  from  birth  to  death  produce  con¬ 
tinued  vicious  or  unfavorable  impressions.  Or  when  his  organization 
has  been  formed  of  inferior  materials,  and  the  circumstances  in  which 
he  has  been  placed  from  birth  to  death,  are  of  a  character  to  produce 
superior  impressions  only.  Or  when  there  has  been  some  mixture  of 
g'oodand  bad  qualities  in  the  original  organization,  and  when  it  has 
also  been  placed  through  life,  in  varied  circumstances  of  good  and  evil. 
This  last  compound  has  been  hitherto  the  common  lot  of  mankind.” — 
Now,  my  friends,  when  we  look  calmly  and  without  prejudice  at  all 
the  past  proceedings  of  our  race,  and  investigate  the  practical  results 
produced  by  all  the  religionsof  the  world,  we  find  that  the  utmost  they 
have  ever  attained  to  in  practice,  is  to  form  a  very  mixed,  and  very 
inferior  character.  And  why?  Because  the  authors  of  theso religions 
were  totally  unacquainted  with  human  nature;  they  knew  not  what  it 
was,  nor  how  to  act  upon  or  influence  it,  except  by  and  through  its 
most  inferior  qualities. 

If  the  inventors  of  these  religions  had  possessed  any  true  knowledge 
they  would  have  devised  a  very  different  combination  of  circumstan¬ 
ces  from  those  now  found  to  exist  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Having 
been  born  in  a  Christian  country  you  must  necessarily  believe  the 
Christian  system  is  superior  to  any  other.  But  the  circumstances  which 
the  Christian  system  has  permitted  to  grow  up  for  two  thousand  years, 
have  been  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  only  vicious  and  deteriorating  cir- 


DEBATE. 


93 


cumstances  for  human  nature.  Those,  whose  leading  you  have  Ijollow- 
ed,have  been  blind;  they  have  not  known  one  step  of  the  way  to  true 
knowledge  and  happiness.  And  you  are  ail  at  this  moment  in  conse¬ 
quence,  surrounded  with  a  large  portion  of  the  most  vicious  circum¬ 
stances.  But  I  rejoice  to  say,  that  no  very  formidable  obstacle  new 
interposes  to  prevent  these  degrading  circumstances  from  being  with¬ 
drawn,  and  replaced  by  others  of  the  most  delightful  and  beneficial 
character.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  another  generation  will  not  be  al¬ 
lowed  to  pass  away  in  the  midst  of  such  circumstances  as  those  in 
which  we  have  been  trained,  and  in  which  we  all  now  live.  As 
soon  as  this  knowledge  which  we  are  now  endeavoring  to  develope 
shall  be  received  into  enlightened  minds,  they  must  discover  the  errors 
in  which  they  have  been  trained. 

And  that  discovery  will  operate  upon  them  so  powerfully  that  they 
will  he  unable  to  submit  a  ny  longer  to  the  degradation  of  their  present 
circumstances.  If  indeed  we  can  discover  the  means  of  disseminating 
this  light  rapidly  and  extensively  over  the  world,  these  changes  must 
happen  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  you  suppose.  But  I  cannot  pro¬ 
mise  the  adults  of  this  generation,  that  it  will  be  practicable  for  them 
so  far  as  to  unlearn  that  which  they  have  been  taught,  or  to  unassc- 
ciate  preconceived  ideas,  as  to  enable  them  to  enjoy  the  full  benefit  of 
this  change.  But  if  circumstances  shall  prove  favorable  to  my  plans, 
I  do  think  our  children,  whose  characters  are  yet  to  be  formed,  may 
be  placed  in  circumstances  which  cannot  fail  to  make  them  happy, 
and  compel  them  to  receive  the  best  dispositions,  manners,  and  hab¬ 
its.  But  to  effect  this  important  change,  you  must  learn  to  know  what 
manner  of  beings  you  are — to  know  yourselves,  and  that  thoroughly 
too.  Then  all  that  is  false  in  all  religions  will  vanish  ;  wars  will 
cease  all  over  the  world;  commerce,  for  a  profit,  or  individual  gain* 
from  others,  will  no  longer  exist;  disunion,  on  account  of  opinions,  or 
of  any  thing  else ,  will  no  longer  be  known,  'then  every  child  bom 
into  the  world,  will  be  so  educated  that,  wherever  we  go,  we  shall  be 
sure  to  find  a  good  and  intelligent  being.  Who  would  not  desire  to 
witness  this  delightful  change?  Do  I  propose  by  the  introduction 
of  these  principles  to  rob  you  of  any  thing  you  have  a  value  for?— 
Surely  the  state  of  society,  which  I  have  described,  will  be  of  far 
greater  practical  benefit  and  utility  than  any  of  you  or  your  ancestors 
ever  enjoyed .  Who  has  any  interest  in  opposing  this  change  ?  Have 
the  governors,  have  the  clergy,  the  lawyers,  physicians,  merchants, 
the  army,  or  the  navy?  I  say  No.  As  men ,  they  have  a  hundred 
fold  greater  interest  in  promoting  this  change,  than  as  members  ofany 
class,  sect,  or  party,  they  can  have  in  opposing  it.  I,  therefore,  do  not 
come  among  you  for  the  purpose  of  injuring  or  robbing  any  one. — - 
All  I  desire  is  that  you  should  adopt  arrangements  through  which  ev¬ 
ery  individual  rnay  be  placed  in  a  situation  greatly  to  be  envied  by 
the  most  prosperous  individual  under  the  present  system  of  things. 
When  we  shall  thus  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  ourselves,  where 
will  there  be  any  foundation  for  dsunion  or  difference  of  any  kind? 
Who,  or  what  can  then  prevent  us  all  from  becoming  members  of  one 


DEBATE. 


1*4 

and  the  same  harmonious,  enlightened,  happy  family?  Then  we 
shall  not  require  any  of  those  artificial  and  inequitable  distinctions 
which  now  exist  to  keep  man  apart  from  his  fellow.  Then  we  shall 
have  millions  of  friends  in  whom  there  is  no  guile,  instead  of  a  few 
in  whom  w©  can  place  but  a  partial  confidence.  When  this  change 
shall  be  consummated,  we  shall  be  at  home,  and  have  friends  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  And  what  is  to  prevent  this  change  from  taking 
place  almost  immediately?  You  have  all  the  necessary  materials  for 
it  this  moment  in  your  possession — you  have  every  tiling  that  can  be 
desired  to  enable  you  to  effect  this  change — you  have  powers  of  pro¬ 
duction  at  your  control,  a  hundred  fold  beyond  your  utmost  wants  for 
this  purpose;  and  yet,  in  consequence  of  our  ignorance  of  ourselves, 
and  every  thing  around  us,  we  are  contending  against  each  other  for 
our  daily  bread.  All  our  best  faculties  are  at  this  moment  employed 
in  all  the  professions  and  businesses  of  life  in  vain  attempts  to  buy 
cheap  and  sell  dear.  What  an  employment  for  such  beings  as  we  are ! 
Beings  who  are  taught  to  look  forward  to  an  immortality  in  heaven. 
And  yet  how  many  now  desirious  to  attend  this  discussion,  cannot 
leave  their  occupations,  for  the  fear  of  losing  the  means  by  which  to 
obtain  a  subsistence  for  themselves  and  families! 

My  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  does  not  at  present  perceive  how  these 
arguments  apply  to  the  subject  before  us,  but  to  me  they  appear  to 
bear  directly  upon  it;  and  moreover  that  there  is  no  other  way  to  un¬ 
derstand  the  argument,  except  in  this  mode  of  treating  it.  And  Mr. 
Campbell  will  discover  in  the  sequel,  that  I  have  not  deviated  at  all 
from  the  object  before  us,  but  he  (doubtless  from  the  purest  motives, 
and  unconsciously  to  himself)  has  endeavored  to  lead  me  astray  from 
the  main  object,  and  to  induce  me  to  embark  with  him  into  the  ocean 
of  metaphorical  disquisitions,  where  we  might  be  tossed  about  for  ten 
thousand  years,  and  then  be  no  nearer  the  port  than  we  are  now. 

I  wish  to  keep  your  attention  to  facts,  and  not  to  advance  one  step 
beyond  their  plain  and  obvious  or  legitimate  conclusions.  While  we 
thus  act,  certain  knowledge  lies  directly  in  our  path,  and  the  best 
practical  results  must  follow.  I  have  directed  my  mind  day  by  day, 
and  hour  by  hour,  to  unravel  the  mysteries  of  ignorance  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  present  the  lights  of  true  knowledge  plainly  before  my 
fellow-beings.  I  have  endeavored  to  sift  and  re-sift  all  these  princi¬ 
ples  for  which  I  now  contend;  I  have  brought  them  before  the  most 
acute  and  comprehensive  minds ;  1  have  urged  them  to. try  them  through 
the  fire,  and  to  detect,  if  they  possibly  could,  any  error  which  they 
contained.  For  1  well  know  that  if  they  contained  one  error  or  one 
inconsistency,  they  must  fall  to  the  ground.  My  friends,  you  should 
always  bear  in  mind,  that  truth  and  inconsistency  cannot  exist  togeth¬ 
er.  But  I  have  travelled  many  countries,  and  have  come  into  collision 
with  minds  of  the  first  calibre  in  the  world,  but  never  yet  met  with 
that  mind  which  coukl  detect  error,  fallacy,  or  inconsistency,  in  one 
of  these  principles.  If  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  can  detect  error  in 
them,  and  demonstrate  that  error  to  me,  I  will  frankly  acknowledge 
that  I  have  been  deceived,  and  I  will  most  willingly  pledge  myself 


DEBATE. 


both  to  Mr.  Campbell,  and  to  you,  my  friends,  that  from  the  moment 
I  am  convinced  of  the  existence  of  a  single  error  or  inconsistency  in 
these  principles,  I  will  do  as  much  to  promulgate  the  truth  which  shall 
be  demonstrated  to  me,  and  to  expose  the  error  into  which  I  have  fal¬ 
len,  as  I  have  done  to  bring  forward  the  system  containing  that  er¬ 
ror.  And  Mr.  Campbell  need  not  fear  that  there  remains  on  my  mind 
any  early  impression  which  can  operate  to  prevent  iny  declaring  the 
whole  truth  to  any  assembly  in  the  world. 

After  proceeding  with  this  subject  in  the  manner  I  have  proposed 
it,  Mr.  Campbell  will  discover  that  fhe  points  which  he  wishes  to  seize 
upon,  will  be  presented  in  a  manner  well  suited  to  his  own  objects  and 
purposes;  but  I  wish  to  bring  forward  my  subject  in  such  a  connex¬ 
ion,  that  all  who  are  capable  of  reasoning  accurately  may  compre* 
bend  it. — [Half  hour  out.'] 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — We  have  heard  a  great  deal  on  the  subject  of  Mr, 
Owen’s  experience,  and  the  pains  he  has  taken  to  test  the  soundness 
and  practical  utility  of  his  principles.  But,  as  he  will  not  admit  the 
legitimacy  of  any  authority,  wc  cannot  admit  the  experience  of  Mr. 
Owen  as  authority.  We  must  examine  the  question  on  its  own  merits. 
If  Mr.  Owen  had  travelled  all  over  the  world,  fraught  with  the  com¬ 
bined  intelligence  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  this  ought  not  to  in¬ 
fluence  our  minds  in  the  least.  We  are  here  assembled,  to  examine 
truth  coolly  and  deliberately  on  its  own  evidences.  Mr.  Owen  thinks 
that  I  desire  to  lead  him  from  his  object,  into  the  mazes  of  metaphysics ; 
but  a  single  retrospective  glance,  at  the  course  this  discussion  has  ta¬ 
ken,  is  sufficient  to  show  us  that  the  first  metaphysical  proposition 
was  introduced  by  Mr.  Owen  himself.  There  cannot  be  a  more  meta¬ 
physical  question  than  “whether  volition  lias  power  over  belief.”  I 
have  no  penchant  for  metaphysics  in  the  discussion  of  questions  of  this 
sort ;  nor  have  I  introduced  metaphysics  into  this  discussion  any  fur¬ 
ther  than  the  nature  of  the  argument  itself  requires.  He  lias  inform 
cd  us,  that  the  origin,  of  natural  evil  is  to  be  found  in  the  elements  of 
the  human  constitution.  Now  if  this  be  true,  every  plan  of  ameliora¬ 
tion  must  be  impracticable,  unless  it  be  a  plan  to  make  man  over 
again.  Perhaps  Mr.  Owen  has  discovered  some  new  elements,  or 
some  way  of  effecting  a  new  combination  of  elements,  in  the  human 
constitution.  Perhaps  he  means  the  four  elements  of  the  old  school, 
and  that  it  is  the  exact  apportionment  of  these  which  makes  man 
good  or  evil.  If  this  be  the  meaning  of  Mr.  Owen,  it  is  obviously 
impossible  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  man,  unless  we  can  change 
the  elements  of  his  nature.  Unless  he  can  apportion  the  elements  of 
fire,  air,  earth,  and  water,  he  cannot  improve  our  race.  If  lhave  mis¬ 
taken  Mr.  Owen,  I  shall  he  glad  to  be  corrected.  But  I  affirm  that  if 
natural  evil  is  to  be  referred  to  the  quantum  of  the  four  elements  of 
the  old,  or  the  forty  elements  of  the  new  school,  or  to  the  modification 
of  these  elements  in  the  human  system,  all  improvements  are  impractU 


96 


DEBATE. 


chble;  unless  perhaps,  a  change  of  circumstances  might  have  the 
effect  of  graduating  these  elements  in  other  proportions,  in  the  human 
constitution. 

We  have  been  tokl  of  the  mal-adaptation  of  Christianity  to  the 
happiness  of  man;  but  I  hope  to  be  able  to  show  that  religion  is  as 
admirably  adapted  to  the  constitution  of  human  nature,  as  the  eye  is 
to  light,  or  the  ear  to  sound,  And  I  will  further  attempt  to  prove  that 
the  Author  of  the  Universe  must  also  be  the  author  of  religion,  because 
both  are  predicated  on  the  same  fundamental  principles;  or,  in  other 
words,  that  the  Almighty  predicated  religion  and  the  universe  on  the 
same  principles.  I  presume  that  if  Mr.  Owen  did  understand  the 
Christian  religion,  he  would  not  have  a  solitary  objection  to  it.  He 
may  have  called  popery  Christianity ,  and  identified  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion  with  papal  enormities.*  But  let  the  Christian  religion  be  taught 
in  its  purity,  and  cordially  embraced,  and  it  will  exalt  man  higher, 
and  render  him  incomparably  more  happy  than  Mr.  Owen  has  ever 
conceived  of. 

The  gnothe  seauton  of  Solon,  or  “Know  thyself  j”  is  what  I  de¬ 
sire  as  cordially  as  Mr.  Owen.  I  am  desirous  to  analyse  the  mind 
and  the  senses,  and  thus  to  develope  man.  Has  Mr.  Owen  exhibited 
in  his  plan  any  thing  like  a  design,  or  desire,  to  investigate  the  physi¬ 
cal  and  intellectual  man?  Has  he  taken  hold  of  my  analysis  of  his 
powers,  submitted  with  the  hope  of  eliciting  such  investigation?  I  am 
willing,  yea,  desirous  to  take  up  the  creature  man,  and  analyse  him 
corporeally  and  mentally;  and  thus  obey  the  mandate  of  the  philoso¬ 
pher  and  the  apostle — ‘‘Know  thyself, 1” 

*  The  following  note  from  Mirabaud  will  prove,  if  proof  be  wanted,  that  the 
atheists  or  materialists  are  most  grossly  ignorant  of  what  Christianity  is.  They 
have  called  antichrist  and  the  papal  apostacy  by  the  name  of  Christianity;  and 
suppose  that,  in  attacking  and  opposing  this,  they  prove  Christianity  a  fable. 
As  well  might  they  ascribe  darkness  to  the  sun,  or  death  to  life.  This  material¬ 
ist  says.- — “The  religion  of  Abraham  appears  to  have  originally  been  a  theism 
imagined  to  reform  the  superstition  of  the  Chaldeans;  the  theism  of  Abraham 
was  corrupted  by  Moses,  who  availed  himself  of  it  to  form  the  judaical  super¬ 
stition.  Socrates  was  a  theist,  who,  like  Abraham,  believed  in  divine  inspira¬ 
tions;  his  disciple,  Plato,  embellished  the  theism  of  his  master  with  the  mystical 
colors  which  he  borrowed  from  the  Egyptian  and  Chaldean  priests,  and  which 
he  modified  himself  in  his  poetical  brain.  1  he  disciples  of  Plato,  such  as 
Proclus,  Jamb  fichus,  Plotinus,  Porphyrius,  &c.  were  true  fanatics,  plunged 
in  the  motifr  gross  super stitution.  In  short,  the  first  doctors  of  the  Christians 
were  Platonists;  who  combined  the  Judaical  superstition,  reformed  by  the 
Apostles  or  by  Jesus,  with  Platonism.  Many  people  have  looked  upon  Jesus 
as  a  true  theist,  of  whom  the  religion  has  been  by  degrees  corrupted.  Indeed, 
in  the  books  which  contain  the  law  which  is  attributed  to  him,  there  is  no  men¬ 
tion  either  of  worship,  or  of  priests,  nor  of  sacrifices,  nor  of  offerings,  nor  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  doctrines  of  actual  Christianity,  become  the  most  prejudicial 
of  all  the  superstitions  of  the  earth.  Mahomet,  in  combatting  the  polytheism 
of  his  country,  was  only  desirous  of  bringing  back  the  Arabs  to  the  primitive 
theism  of  Abraham  and  of  his  son  Ishmael,  and  nevertheless  Mahometanism  is  ’ 
divided  into  seventy-tiue  sects.  All  this  proves  to  us  that  theism  is  always 
more  or  lest  mingled  with  fanaticism,  which  sooner  or  later  finishes  by  pro¬ 
ducing  ravages. 


DEBATE 


He  has  asked  you,  my  friends,  of  what  he  would  rob  you  !  His 
motives  are  doubtless  pure.  But  of  what  would  he  rob  you?  Why, 
my  friends,  all  the  attacks  that  were  ever  made  upon  man’s  dearest 
rights,  and  most  valued  treasures,  are  mere  petty  larcenies,  compared 
to  the  robbery  he  would  commit?  OP  what  would  he  rob  ps?  Why, 
of  the  hope  of  immortality !-— of  that  alone, 

“Amid  life’s  pains,  abasements,  emptiness, 

“The  soul  can  comfort,  elevate,  and  fill!” 

Now,  are  thrones,  principalities,  and  powers— is  the  empire  of  the 
world,  and  the  fame  of  all  ages — equivalent  to  the  mere  hope  of  living 
forever?  The  materialist  takes  us  out  of  the  earth,  and  thither  he 
consigns  us  back  again.  But  where  is  the  man  of  unperverted,  un¬ 
sophisticated  rationality,  who  would  not  give  up  all  the  world  tor  the 
hope  of  an  immortality  in  heaven? 

— - ““Rich  hope  of  boundless  bliss! 

Bliss  past  man’s  power  to  paint  it,  Time’s  to  close  ! 

— This  hope  is  earth’s  most  estimable  prize; 

This  is  man’s  portion,  while  no  more  than  man  a 
Hope,  of  all  passions,  most  befriends  us  here; 

Passions  of  prouder  name  befriend  us  less. 

Joy  has  her  tears,  and  transport  has  her  death  a 
Hope,  like  a  cordial,  innocent  though  strong, 

Man’s  heart,  at  once,  inspirits  and  serenes. 

Nor  makes  him  pay  his  wisdom  for  his  joys; 

’Tis  all  our  present  state  can  safely  bear, 

Health  to  the  frame!  and  vigor  to  the  mind! 

A  joy  attemper’d!  a  chastised  delight ! 

Like  the  fair  summer  evening,  mild  and  sweet? 

8 1'is  man’s  full  cup,  his  paradise  below ! 

— A  bless’d  hereafter,  then,  or  hoped  or  gain’d. 

Is  all, — our  hope  of  happiness!” 

1  have  now  adverted  to  all  the  matter  offered  by  Mr.  Owen,  that, 
■$t  this  time,  appears  to  require  my  notice.  I  should  now  proceed  a-s 
proposed  this  forenoon,  but  from  some  hints  I  fmd  it  expedient  not 
yet  to  dismiss  the  mysteries  of  atheism,  particularly  with  a  reference 
to  one  point  on  which  sceptics  of  all  schools  declaim  so  much.  They 
will  make  experience  the  standard,  law7,  and  measure  of  their  belief. 
I  will,  in  part,  traverse  the  area  of  mysteries  a  second  time. 

We  have  been  discussing  the  mysteries  of  atheism.  They  are 
either  natural  or  artificial.  In  the  original  the  term  [mysierion]  means 
nothing  but  a  secret ,  and  when  divulged  it  loses  the  name  of  mystery . 
By  natural  mysteries  we  mean  natural  secrets.  These  mysteries  are 
not  of  my  creation;  they  have  been  collated  from  the  speculations  of 
the  atheists,  from  their  own  confessions.  The  secrets,  atheists  are 
ignorant  of,  are; — the  origin  of  matter.  This  they  declare  to  be  in 
explicable.  The  natural  principle  of  mobility  with  which  they  ac¬ 
knowledge  matter  to  be  endowed;  the  specific  origin  of  the  earth; — - 
here  they  acknowledge  themselves  at  fault.  I  have  given  you  already 
three  perhapses  of  Mirabaud,  They  say  they  “cannot  comprehend 
ihe  natural  mysteries  of  any  bodies.’5  While  they  acknowledge  the 
of  the  magnetic  power,  they  confess  ignorance  of  the  nature 


98 


DEBATE. 


of  it.  The  principle  of  attraction,  the  most  pervading  law  of  matter, 
they  say  they  know  not.  They  know  nothing  of  the  great  law  of 
repulsion,  nqr  of  the  law  of  cohesion,  by  which  particles  of  matter 
adhere  in  defiance  of  the  general  law  of  attraction.  They  confess 
their  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  the  law  of  elasticity,  and  so  of  the 
law  of  electricity.  The  destiny  of  the  whole,  or  any  part  of  the 
universe,  is  to  them  unknown.  Atheists  make  all  these  concessions. 

When  we  take  a  view  of  these  items,  we  discover  that  all  the  opera¬ 
tions  of  nature  are  embraced  by  these  physical  principles,  and  athe¬ 
ists  declare  that  they  know  nothing  about  it.  Now  to  these  Mr. 
Owen  has  added  that  our  belief  in  no  case  depends  upon  our  will— 
the  consequence  of  'which  law  is,  that  faith  is  as  necessary  as  the  law 
of  attraction,  and  must  therefore  be  divine;  faith  must  be  with  him  a 
divine  law  of  nature.  Does  not  this  truth  follow  out  most  legitimately  ? 
He  affirms  that  faith  is  as  necessary  as  the  action  of  a  mill-wheel; 
therefore  it  is  a  “ divine  principle,”  and  on  the  same  principle  the 
*  ‘violences  on  which  faith  is  founded,  must  be  divine.  But  knowledge, 
•belief,  and  opinion  are  all  involuntary! 

Now  is  this  desire  of  knowledge  a  natural  principle,  and  has  it  no 
effect  upon  the  will?-— And  has  our  consent  or  volition  no  influence 
upon  our  knowledge  ?  These  are  two  artificial  mysteries. 

Now  what  is  the  conclusion  from  these  premises?  Is  it  not  that 
ihe  materialist  has  to  confess  as  much  ignorance  of  his  own  system, 
and  believe  more  mysteries  than  the  Christian?  He  has  also  to  con¬ 
tend  for  artificial  mysteries,  each  of  w  hich  is  absurd — artificial  mys¬ 
teries  w7hieh  are  greater  than  any  that  ever  have  been  taught  in  the 
most  corrupt  schools  of  Christianity, 

The  materialist  affirms  that  “it  cannot  really  interest  man  to  discover 
bis  specific  origin I  have  no  doubt  that  this  dogma  was  adopted  to 
avoid  a  difficulty  which  they  knew  was  invincible.  It  is  conceded 
i  hat  if  the  materialist’s  system  be  true,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  account 
for  our  origin— that  it  is  a  question  beyond  the  utmost  reach  of  human 
intellect.  Therefore  to  suit  the  exigency  of  their  speculative  scheme. 
:hey  have  had  the  temerity  to  assume  that  it  cannot  rationally  inter¬ 
est  mankind  to  know  aught  about  their  specific  origin — that  the  stream 
of  human  vitality  was  not  worth  tracing  to  its  source.  Now  wre  are 
often  obliged  to  appeal  to  the  experience  of  man;  it  is  the  grand  argu>- 
mention  ad  hominem.  I  will,  therefore  ask  the  w  hole  world,  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  it,  if  the  principle  of  curiosity  he  so  intensely 
active  upon  any  other  point  of  human  inquiry,  or  human  investigation, 
as  it  is  in  tracing  up  this  stream  of  vitality  to  its  fountain,  in  order  to 
ascertain  the  specific  origin  of  the  species?  It  is  a  point  which  elicits 
some  of  the  earliest  developements  of  infantile  curiosity,  or  love  of 
knowledge.  “Who  made  me?”  “Whence  came  I?'1  are  amongst  the 
first  questions  put  by  the  infant  catechist  to  his  seniors.  This  mon  ¬ 
strous  atheistical  assumption  opposes  itself  to  the  most  ardent  passions 
of  the  rational  man.  There  is  no  animal  appetite  in  man  more  opera¬ 
tive  than  his  moral  eagerness  in  pursuit  of  knowledge.  It  make* 


debate; 


99 


man  a  keen  hunter — it  causes  him  to  neglect  his  food,  his  sleep,  his 
case,  and  even  to  forget  fatigue,  in  pursuit  of  his  object.  “Mens  agi- 
tat  molem — et  toto  sc cor pore  miscet A  If  my  opponent  so  ardently  de^ 
sire  that  we  should  know  ourselves,  let  him  come  out  from  a  school 
which  declares  that  the  unde  derivator  of  man,  or  the  whence  came  Ij, 
is  matter  of  no  concernment  to  him.  Let  him  set  his  face  like  a  flint 
against  a  dictum  like  this,  “In  pursuit  of  self  knowledge  you  must  not 
begin  at  the  beginning/’  Let  Mr.  Owen’s  principles  be  admitted,  and 
there  is  a  total  blank  in  this  first  and  most  intensely  interesting  chapi¬ 
ter  of  man’s  history.  It  is  all  obliterated  as  unworthy  of  a  place  in 
the  volume.  “It  cannot  really  interest  man  to  know  any  thing  eon, 
cerning  his  primitive  specific  origin,*'’  is  the  first  artificial  mystery ; 
and  this  is  the  way  that  the  school  to  which  Mr.  Owen  belongs,  eu¬ 
logizes  the  oracular  precept  of  “ Gnothi  scauton.r>  This,  I  say,  is  the 
first,  artificial  mystery,  and  this  has  been  invented  after  the  manner  of 
mysteries  of  the  church  of  Rome.  The  second  artificial  mystery  is, 
that  man  has  no  just  reason  to  believe  himself  a  privileged  being  in 
the  scale  of  creation,  over  the  bee*  the  bat  ,  the  beaver,  the  butterfly, 
or  the  elephant.  Does  this  compoit  with  your  experience?  Let  the 
word  experience  be  received  and  interpreted  according  to  its  usual, 
most  known,  and  legitimate  acceptation;  and  I  am  not  afraid  to  abide 
by  its  test.  Well,  then,  I  ask  you,  if  it  comports  with  your  experi¬ 
ence  to  admit  that  man  has  no  reason  to  imagine  himself  a  superior 
being  to  a  butterfly?  But  why  was  this  asserted  by  the  atheists? — 
Merely  from  the  necessity  of  the  case.  The  materialists  would  never 
have  agitated  these  mysteries,  but  for  the  hard  fate  which  attends  their 
system.  They  discovered  that  unsophisticated  reason  would  lead 
man  to  discover  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  creation;  that  -  here  he 
stands  pre-eminently  chief;  that  he  is  lord  paramount  over  all  the  irra¬ 
tional  papt  of  creation ;  that  all  was  made  for  him.  and  subordinate  to 
him.  But  of  this  noted  dignity  we  must  be  divested  to  make  room  for  a. 
speculative  phantom,  which  exterminates  the  germ  of  all  feeling,  save 
that  ofj pity;  if  indeed  it  leaves  that  branch  of  human  sympathy  unscath¬ 
ed.  For  in  the  doctri  ne  of  materialism,  where  ca  n  pity  find  an  object  ? 
Can  I  pity  a  tree  when  I  see  it  growing  crooked,  or  a  stone  for  the 
angularities  of  its  shape,  or  a  house  for  its  rude  architecture  ? 


But  there  is  a  third  artificial  mystery  of  the  materialists:  In  any 
attempt  to  account  for  man’s  origin  he  has  to  suppose  that  there  were  an 
infant  male  and  female  produced  without  parents,  who  consequently 
must  have  perished  in  infancy.  Some  materialists  have  actually 
supposed  that  the  first  pair  grew  up  like  two  plants,  as  I  have  before- 
stated.  And  when  these  were  developed  and  began  to  expand,  the 
leaves  became  arms,  Ac.  Ac.  until  at  length  some  favorable  zephyrs 
wafted  them  into  each  other’s  arms.  They  mutually  embraced,  and 
thus  originated  the  human  family.  But  in  any  attempt  to  account  for 
the  origin  ot  man,  the  modern  materialist  has  to  suppose  his  first  ances¬ 
tors  to  have  been  an  infant  male  and  female;  and  if  so,  incapable  of 
arriving  at  maturity! — [Half  hour  out,] 


Mr,  Owen  rises,- 

My  friends,  1  perceived,  during  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbells  last  ad* 
dress,  that  none  of  you  would  like  to  be  deprived  of  heaven.  I  do  not 
recollect  that  I  expressed  any  intention  of  taking  away  any  well  foun¬ 
ded  hopes  of  heaven  from  you*  Nor  do  I  know  that  my  assertion  de 
nying  the  existence  of,  or  my  opinion  that  there  was  a  heaven,  would 
make  the  least  difference  in  the  fact.  You  have  therefore,  notwith¬ 
standing  ail  I  may  have  said  on  the  subject,  just  as  good  a  chance  for 
enjoying  heaven  as  you  ever  had. 

We  come  now,  my  friends,  to  the  twelfth  and  last  fundamental  law  of 
human  nature,  viz.  “That  the  individual  is  made  most  superior  of  his 
species,  when  his  original  organization  has  been  compounded  of -the 
best  properties,  of  the  best  ingredients  of  which  human  nature  is  form¬ 
ed,  and  when  the  circumstances  which  surround  him  from  birth  to 
death  are  of  a  character  to  produce  only  superior  impressions ;  or  in 
other  words,  when  the  circumstances  or  laws,  institutions,  and  cus¬ 
toms  in  which  he  is  placed,  are  all  in  unison  with  his  nature.”  Now 
Mr.  Campbell  misunderstood  me  about  the  ingredients  of  human  na¬ 
ture  being  the  origin  of  natural  evil.  I  stated  that  some  of  the  peculi¬ 
ar  errors  of  some  men  arose  from  their  individual  organization.  And 
i  only  applied  the  remark  to  human  nature.  And  surely  we  cannot 
derive  the  natural  evil  of  human  nature  from  any  other  source  than  its 
defective  organization. 

It  is  common  to  say,  that  such  a  one  is  bad  by  nature;  this  only 
means  that  the  individual  has  not  the  same  compound  as  others.  But 
whenever  we  shall  understand  this  subject  fully,  and  discover  that  the 
most  superior  character  is  produced  by  a  combination  of  the  best  or¬ 
ganization  and  circumstances,  we  then  have  a  very  important  practi¬ 
cal  object  presented  for  our  attainment.  The  inquiry  then  becomes, 
Mo  we  possess,  or  can  we  obtain  through  this  knowledge  any  influ¬ 
ence  over  the  future  formation  of  individuals?  I  say  that  we  can ;  and 
I  speak  from  a  knowledge  of  facts  with  which  all  who  are  in  any  de¬ 
cree  connected  with  agricultural  pursuits  are  familiar.  It  is  known 
to  such,  that  there  have  been  vast  improvements  in  the  breed  of  various 
kinds  cf  animals ;  that  there  is  a  science  by  which  any  animal  whether 
human  or  irrational,  is  capable  of  receiving  great  improvement  at 
birth.  But  most  unfortunately,  in  consequence  of  the  general  pre¬ 
valence  of  ignorance  on  the  subject  of  the  animal  man,  almost  every 
thing  that  has  been  done  in  this  matter  has  had  an  immediate  and  di¬ 
rect  tendency  to  deteriorate  the  infant  man  at  birth.  But  the  know¬ 
ledge  of  this  science,  as  soon  as  we  acquire  it,  will  instruct  us  in  the 
unerring  method  of  obtaining  the  best  raw  material  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  man.  It  is  an  object  of  the  highest  importance  to  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  man,  that  every  child  should  be  born 
with  the  best  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  organization  of 
which  his'nature  is  susceptible.  There  is  a  science  by  which  all 
these  may  be  improved  before  birth.  But.  the  time  is  coming  when 
we  shall  have  very  distinct  and  accurate  knowledge  upon  these 


DEBATE, 


10  i 

particulars;  when  we  shall  know  how  to  cultivate  the  human  being  in 
such  manner  as  to  present  him  greatly  improved  in  his  organization 
at  birth.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  we  have  at  present  the  power  of  with- 
drawing  the  most  unfavorable  circumstances  from  around  all  human 

o 

beings  from  birth,  and  these  circumstances  acting  upon  our  infinitely 
diversified  organizations  create  nine-tenths  of  the  whole  character  of 
individuals. 

My' friends,  you  have  seen  many  of  the  society  of  Friends  in  this 
country;  you  have  seen  Jews,  and  you  have  seen  Indians.  Now  the 
difference  observable  between  the  Quaker,  Jew,  and  Indian  arises 
solely  from  the  difference  of  their  external  circumstances,  in  their 
mode  of_acting,  or  their  respective  original  organizations.  For  were 
we  to  take  the  infants  of  the  Quakers  and  give  them  to  be  brought  up 
by  the  Jews,  they  would  unquestionably  make  good  Jews,  and  vice 
versa.  We  shall,  therefore,  I  repeat,  have  the  power  as  soon  as  we 
acquire  the  requisite  knowledge,  to  influence  the  character  of  every 
child  that  is  born  to  a  greater  extent  than  nine-tenths  of  its  whole  char¬ 
acter. 

And  if  we  of  the  present  generation  will  not  exert  ourselves  to  rt> 
move  the  unfavorable  circumstances  "which  now  exist,  the  corning 
generation  ought  not  to  be  blamed  for  their  characters  being  ill-form¬ 
ed.  If  we  love  our  offspring,  if  we  have  any  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
future  generations,  we  can  no  longer  remain  indifferent  about  ascer¬ 
taining  the  true  method  of  forming  and  educating  them ;  we  can  no 
longer  supinely  leave  them  to  be  the  sport  of  such  circumstances,  as 
now  pervade  the  world.  No !  we  shall  rather  devote  our  whole  heart 
rind  soul  to  the  investigating  and  maturing  of  this  all  important  sub¬ 
ject,  which  embraces  within  its  scope,  all  that  can  be  done  by  man 
for  the  improvement  of  his  fellow-beings.  My  friends,  I  never  con¬ 
sider  this  subject  without  feeling  that  any  language  which  I  can  com¬ 
mand  is  too  feeble  to  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  its  importance. — 
Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  the  path  you  have  to  pursue ;  you  have  no¬ 
thing  to  do  but  to  make  yourselves  acquainted  with  the  influence  of  the 
circumstances,  beneficial  or  injurious  around  you,  and  to  withdraw 
all  those  which  experience  shall  prove  to  be  detrimental  to  our  nature. 
This  is  the  whole  duty  of  man;  let  him  perform  this  duty  well,  with 
knowledge  and  with  judgment,  and  every  beneficial  result  will  follow, 
of  course.  The  performance  of  this  duty  is  plain  and  simple ;  there  is 
no  complexity  about  it,  and  it  will  soon  be  understood  by  everyone. 
But  what  has  been  done  for  the  species  upon  these  rational  principles? 
Why  scarcely  any  thing;  and  nothing  at  all  has  been  done  with  a  cor¬ 
rect  understanding  of  the  subject.  And  yet  can  we  advance  a  single 
step  toward  the  attainment  of  this  grand  object,  until  we  have  acqui¬ 
red  an  accurate  knowledge  of  ourselves? 

Now,  my  friends,  you  have  heard  from  me  very  different  doctrines 
from  those  which  are  taught  by  all  the  religions  of  the  world.  You 
Will,  of  course,  institute  a  comparison  between  my  developements 
and  those  which  you  have  received  from  your  public  and  appointed 
instructers— from  your  spiritual  pastors.  Well,  compare  them  in 


10.2 


DEBATE, 


their  practice.  You  have  already  seen  and  experienced  wliat  a  state 
of  society  the  different  religions  of  the  world  have  produced.  A  little 
trial  will  convince  you  of  what  can  be  effected  for  the  good  of  man¬ 
kind  by  the  course  which  I  recommend,  by  attending  to  facts  instead 
of  imagination.  Bely  upon  it,  my  friends,  that  if  we  allow  ourselves 
to  be  governed  by  any  thing  but  experience,  we  shall  inevitably  be 
led  into  the  mazes  of  error.  When  once  we  diverge  from  the  straight 
forward  path  which  facts  point  out,  we  launch  into  the  wilds  of  imagi¬ 
nation  and  every  thing  becomes  a  labyrinth  of  obscurity,  which  be* 
wilder  the  human  faculties.  Under  the  old  arrangements  of  society 
1  have  never  yet  met  with  an  individual  whose  mind  was  not  confu¬ 
sed,  and  whose  ideas  were  not  in  contradiction  with  each  other.— 
But  ever  since  I  was  compelled  by  circumstancos  to  unassociate  my 
early  erroneous  ideas,  since  my  mind  has  been  regenerated  by  the  re¬ 
moval  of  these  first  impressions  to  their  very  foundations,  and  filled 
with  ideas  only  consistent  with  these  twelve  laws  of  our  nature,  I  have 
experienced  no  jarring  elements  within  me;  all  has  been  tranquil  and 
harmonious ;  there  has  been  nothing  to  wear  out  my  constitution,  or 
create  feelings  in  my  bosom  except  those  unavoidably  created  by  be- 
holding  my  fellow-beings  around  me  existing  in  a  state  of  misery,  for 
which  I  know  there  exists  no  other  cause  but  the  lamentable  ignorance 
in  which  they  have  been  trained.  Now,  my  friends,  I  have  endeav¬ 
ored  to  show  you  how  those  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature 
are  in  direct  opposition  to  the  doctrines  inculcated  and  always  impli¬ 
ed  by  all  the  religions  of  the  world.  My  object  is  to  ‘show  you  that 
the  two  systems  are  perfect  antipodes  to  each  other,  that  they  cannot 
exist  together;  that  either  these  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human 
nature  are  utterly  false,  or  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  are 
founded  in  ignorance  and  error.  It  is  just  as  impossible  to  effect  & 
union  between  these  twelve  laws  and  any  system  of  religion  extant, 
as  it  is  to  effect  an  amalgamation  between  oil  and  water;  there  is  as 
little  of  moral  affinity  in  the  one  case  ns  there  is  of  chemical  affinity 
in  the  other.  The  one  is  all  fact  derived  from  what  human  nature  was 
yesterday,  is  to-day,  and  is  likely  ever  to  be.  The  systems  of  religion* 
on  the  other  hand  are  derived  from  the  wildest  vagaries  of  fancy ;  they 
are  but  the  air-built  fabrics  of  imagination.  I  call  them  air-built,  for 
they  have  nothing  but  imagination  opposed  to  natural  laws  to  res$ 
Xipon,  and  they  have  been,  in  consequence,  in  a  perpetual  state  of 
change,  and  they  are  still  hourly  changing  in  men’s  minds.  And 
jnost  fortunate  it  is  for  you,  my  friends,  that  they  have  no  other  foun¬ 
dation;  for  neither  in  their  origin,  their  tendency,  their  errors,  contra¬ 
dictions,  or  absurdities,  are  they  at  all  calculated  to  produce  good 
conduct  in  man,  or  happiness  for  his  race.  The  greatest  blessing  that- 
can  accrue  to  man  is  to  demonstrate  the  ignorance  on  which  all  these 
systems  have  been  predicated,  so  palpably,  that  with  one  accord, 
mankind  should  agree  to  dismiss  them  from  their  consideration,  as 
unworthy  of  the  attention  of  rational  beings.  But  in  doing  this  X 
would  gu&t'd  you  against  one  danger  which  may  and  must  a  ruse  from  ' 


DEBATE.  m 

fiie  coarse  which  must  be  taken  to  relieve  yourselves  from  error.  My 
friends,  there  are  three  distinct  states  of  society.  The  first  is  the  com¬ 
mon  one  all  over  the  world,  in  which  human  nature  has  been  compel- 
led  to  believe  or  profess  a  belief  in  some  district  religion  or  other,  and 
in  this  state  of  society,  the  characters  of  individuals  have  been  form* 
cd  upon  the  principles  of  this  district  religion.  Knowing  these  prim 
ciples,  we  can,  to  a  certain  extent,  judge  what  the  characters  of  the 
individuals  composing  this  society  are.  But  when  we  advance  one 
step  toward  real  knowledge  and  we  can  no  longer  believe  these  prin¬ 
ciples,  we  at  the  same  time  withdraw  all  foundation  from  the  former 
character  formed  for  usfby  religious  belief;  we  become  like  vessels 
on  the  ocean  without  a  helm,  chart,  or  compass  to  steer  by,  and  this 
is  the  worst  state  in  which  human  nature  can  be  placed.  But  this  is 
the  gulph  through  which  we  must  pass,  if  the  condition  of  society  is 
to  be  improved.  All  we  can  do  is  to  adopt  measures  to  shorten  this 
Critical  period  as  much  as  possible.  And  whilst  we  are  doing  this, 
we  are  in  the  second  state  of  society.  The  third  and  the  superior 
state  of  existence  will  be  that  in  which  the  individual  having  been 
disabused  of  the  errors  implanted  by  his  former  religious  and  other 
vicious  external  circumstances,  has  been  taught  the  correct  princi¬ 
ples  of  his  nature,  when  he  has  been  fully  and  fairly  taught  what  man¬ 
ner  of  being  he  is,  and  his  relation  to  his  fellows;  then,  instead  of  be¬ 
ing  worse  than  the  present  religious  characters  of  the  day,  he  will 
rise  incomparably  above  them  all;  they  cannot  help  sinking  almost 
below  estimate  in  the  comparison.  In  the  two  first  states  we  shall  be 
irrational.  In  the  third  state,  every  thing  that  savors  of  irrationality 
will  he  withdrawn;  in  this  state  there  will  be,  there  can  be,  none  who 
are  irrational  in  their  thoughts,  feelings,  and  conduct.  Fear  not,  my 
friends,  that  this  change  in  your  minds  will  produce  vice  instead  of 
virtub. 

This  change  is  absolutely  necessary,  before  you  can  be  bornagaiih 
This  is  the  regeneration  which  you  and  past  generations  have  been 
looking  for;  and  this  change  can  be  wrought  simply  by  acquiring  a 
knowledge 'of  these  eternal  and  immutable  facts.  These  twelve  fun¬ 
damental  laws  of  human  nature  (divine  in  every  sense  of  the  word)r 
demonstrate  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  have  been  founded  in 
ignorance^  and  are  opposed  to  our  nature,  when  that  nature  shall  be 
fully  understood.  Now,  my  friends,  I  think  I  may  proceed  one  step 
further,  and. state  that  these  religions  are  now  the  only  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  forming  a  society  over  the  earth,  of  kindness,  intelligence, 
sincerity,  and  prosperity  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term;  and  now'  I 
think  I  may  advance  another  step,  and  declare  that  the  light  is  come 
among  us,  and  that  this  knowledge  can  no  longer  be  withheld  from 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  but  by  the  increased  tyranny  of  the  few 
over  the  many.  But  the  few  can  no  longer  tyrannize  over  the  many,/ 
Knowledge  is  power;  and  knowledge  is  passing  from  mind  to  mind, 
from  country  to  country  like  a  flood.  And  this  knowledge  shall 
spread  from  one  point  as  from  a  centre  over  every  portion  of  the  world, 
Unjil  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  or,  in  scripture  language,  ofthe  Lord,- 


DEBATE. 


104 

shall  cove*  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  seas.  This  is  the  know* 
ledge  of  the  Lord,  for  truth  alone  is  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord.  It  is 
a  knowledge  derived  from  those  facts  which  ever  have  existed  and 
which  exist  to  this  day,  as  the  universal  word  of  the  universal  cause 
from  whence  ail  effects  proceed.  When  we  use  the  terms  Lord,  God, 
or  Deity,  we  use  a  term  without  annexing  to  it  any  definite  idea. — * 
Whenever  we  use  this  term  we  annex  to  it  our  own  peculiar  notions-, 
and  in  many  cases  they  are  strange  and  wild  in  the  extreme.  But, 
my  friends,  we  do  know  that  it  is  a  law  of  our  nature  that  we  have 
been  so  formed  that  we  must  acquire  all  our  real  knowledge  by  expe¬ 
rience:  and  all  experience  declares  that  man  is  what  he  has  been  de¬ 
monstrated  to  be  by  the  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  his  nature.— 
'[ Half  hour  owL] 

Mr.  Campbell  rises, 

Mr.  Chairman — I  should  be  led  to  conclude  from  the  argument,  (if 
such  it  maybe  called)  that  the  error  into  which  my  friend  has  fallen 
xn  his  whole  process  of  deduction,  is  exhibited  in  one  assertion  in  his 
last  address.  His  mind  has  dwelt  so  long  on  the  influence  of  circum¬ 
stances  that  he  supposes  that  if  a  child  of  a  Quaker  were  to  be  removed 
into  the  family  of  a  Jew,  and  vice  versa ,  that  in  process  of  time,  the 
two  children  must  inevitably  imbibe  the  faith  of  the  families  in  which 
they  were  respectively  reared.  Now,  I  have  no  doubt  this  would  be 
the  case  in  very  many  instances,  but  not  universally.  And  so  it  is 
with  most  of  his  facts.  They  are  true  in  very  many  instances,  but 
are  false  in  his  universal  application  of  them.  It  is  illogical  to  argue 
from  particulars,  howrever  comprehensive,  to  such  general  and  univer¬ 
sal  conclusions.  This  proposition  of  my  friend’s  is  not  a  mathemati¬ 
cal  proposition,  which,  if  true  in  itself,  must  be  true  in  its  most  exten¬ 
ded  or  contracted  sense.  That  children  may  be  powerfully  impressed 
by  circumstances,  is  true ;  but  must  we  therefore  conclude  this  to 
be  an  invariable  law  of  our  nature,  that  they  are  forever  doomed  to  the 
control  of  the  circumstances  which  surround  them  at  birth  ?  Mr. 
Owen  was  himself  educated  in  a  family  of  Episcopalians;  is  he  now 
tin  Episcopalian?  We  see  that  the  circumstances  of  his  education 
could  not  shackle  his  active  mind.  We  see  that  he  has  broken 
his  chains,  and  that  his  emancipated  mind  now  wralks  abroad,  as  if 
it  had  never  known  a  fetter.  'This  shows  that  there  are  some  geniuses 
formed  to  overcome  all  disadvantages,  to  grasp  a  whole  system,  as  it 
were,  by  intuition;  that  in  some  minds  there  is  a  renovating  and 
regenerating  power,  paramount  even  to  the  influence  of  circum¬ 
stances,  omnipotent  as  my  friend  represents  them  to  be.  Now  if  this 
be  true,  in  Mr.  Owen’s  regard,  why  may  it  not  be  equally  so  wfith 
respect  to  countless  other  persons? 

Mr.  Owen  has  attained  to  the  knowledge  of  certain  facts.  But  orf 
the  foundation  of  a  few  facts,  he  has  proceeded  to  erect  the  superstruc¬ 
ture  of  a  whole  code  of*  fundamental  laws  of  nature;  a  divine  system 
of  legislation.  In  fact  to  place  mankind  under  a  modern  Theocracy.- 


DEBATE,  10& 

But  none  of  his  laws  is  more  immutable,  than  the  one  to  which  we 
have  just  referred. 

At  one  time,  I  would  think  he  was  preaching  to  us  concerning  the 
millennium ;  that  he  was  the  herald  of  a  better  day.  Sceptical  as  my 
friend  is,  I  must  infer  that  he  is  a  believer  in  the  millennium;  and,  for 
aught  I  know,  he  may  be  doing  as  much  as  a  thousand  missionaries 
to  induce  it.  Cyrus  knew  not  the  God  of  Jacob;  he  had  no  desire  to 
emancipate  the  Jews.  In  like  manner,  Mr.  Owen  may  possibly  be  an 
unconscious  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Providence.  He  is  consoling 
himself  with  the  anticipation  of  a  better  day,  and  earnestly  persua¬ 
ding  us  to  cherish  the  same  anticipation.  And  from  his  own  premi¬ 
ses,  I  would  undertake  to  prove  the  certainty  of  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecies  of  the  New  Testament,  even,  I  was  about  to  say,  by  a  math¬ 
ematical  demonstration.  Mr.  Owen  tells  us,  that  wars  shall  cease; 
(hat  plenty  shall  follow  us  superabundantly  as  the  waters  of  the  Ohio; 
that  there  shall  be  no  more  need  for  accumulating  property  to  answer 
our  future  exigencies,  than  there  now  exists  for  bottling  up  the  waters 
of  the  Ohio?  Now  all  this  tends  to  encourage  bright  anticipations  of 
future  glory  and  happiness  to  man.  Mr.  Owen’s  millennium ,  we  will 
suppose,  has  arrived ;  how  long  is  it  to  continue?  A  millennium  is  a 
thousand  years : — 

What  now  if  we  should  attempt  to  prove  arithmetically ,  the  certainty 
of  the  prophecies  concerning  the  final  consummation  of  all  things? 
The  expectation  of  Christendom  is  notorious.  It  is  this :  that  sometime 
soon,  perhaps  in  the  present  century,  a  new  order  of  things,  in  the 
political  and  religious  relations  of  society  will  commence.  That  it 
will  pervade  the  whole  human  family;  that  after  its  full  introduction* 
it  will  continue  a  thousand  years ;  and  that  soon  after  its  completion, 
the  present  state  of  things  will  terminate,  and  the  multiplication  of 
human  beings  cease  forever. 

Without  going  minutely  into  the  detail,  such  is  the  general  expec¬ 
tation  of  Christendom  built  upon  those  writings  called  prophecies. — 
Well  now  should  we  prove  by  an  arithmetical  calculation,  the  cer¬ 
tainty  of  such  conclusions  relative  to  the  final  consummation,  what  will 
the  sceptics  say  ?  I  do  not  know,  whether  ever  they  have  been  tested 
upon  this  point.  We  shall  hear  Mr.  Ow’en,  when  I  submit  the  prob¬ 
lem.  The  premises  or  data  are  these :  The  present  population  of  the 
earth  is  estimated  say,  at  one  ikotisand  millions.  Now  I  will  leave  it 
to  them,  to  furnish  the  data,  or  to  state  what  the  population  was  two, 
three,  or  four  thousand  years  ago.  They  may  even  furnish  me  data 
from  the  census  of  any  nation  of  Europe  for  two,  three,  four  or  five 
hundred  years  back.  It  will  give  the  same  result.  We  shall  take 
the  Bible  data  until  they  furnish  another.  But  I  again  repeat,  the 
population  of  any  country,  or  of  the  earth,  two*  three  or  five  hundred 
years  ago,  will  give  the  same  result.  According  to  the  Bible  data., 
the  whole  human  family,  about  four  thousand  years  ago,  was  compo¬ 
sed  of  eight  individuals ,  four  males  and  four  females.  And  to  keep  our 
calculation  in  whole  numbers,  we  shall  evacuate  Europe  and  Amerh 
/:a  of  all  their  population,  and  place  thenvin  Asia  and  Africa, on  the  pop- 


106 


DEBATE. 


ulation  there,  which  will  fill  that  hulf  of  the  earth  as  full  of  human 
beings  as  can  subsist  upon  its  surface.  We  have  now  got,  sav,  the 
half  of  our  globe  empty  and  the  other  half  full.  Now  the  question  is, 
If  eight  persons  in  four  thousand  years  fill  the  one  half  of  the  earth 
as  full  as  it  can  subsist;  how  long  Will  one  thousand  millions  be  in 
filling  the  other  half?  If  in  despite  of  ivars,  famines,  pestilences,  and 
all  the  waste  of  human  life,  under  the  corruptions  of  the  last  four  thous¬ 
and  years,  such  has  been  the  increase  of  human  beings  *  what  would 
be  the  ratio  of  increase  were  all  these  to  cease,  and  peace,  health  and 
competence  to  be  the  order  of  the  day  for  one  thousand  years?  Why* 
my  friends,  there  would  not  be  one  half  acre  of  land  and  water  upon 
the  face  of  the  globe  for  every  human  being  which  would  live  at  the 
completion  of  the  millennium,  or  the  seven-thousandth  year  from  the 
creation;  what  I  contemplate,  from  these  oracles  to  be  about  the 
end  of  the  present  state  of  human  existence.  Either,  then,  some  des¬ 
olation  must  empty  the  earth  of  its  inhabitants,  or  the  human  race 
must  be  extinguished.  Logic  and  arithmetic,  compels  us  to  the  form¬ 
er  conclusion;  but  when  we  add  to  logic  and  arithmetic,  the  proph¬ 
ecies  of  holy  scripture,  we  are  compelled  to  embrace  the  latter.  I 
think  no  prophecy  ever  admitted  of  so  certain  a  calculation,  or 
exact  and  definite  a  computaton;  in  fact,  no  other  oracle  in  the  annals 
of  the  world  is  proved  by  arithmetic  so  inevitably  and  unanswerably 
as  I  conceive  this  to  be.  If  an)/  flaw  be  in  my  data,  or  statement  of 
this  question,  I  hope  Mr.  Owen  will  detect  it,  and  give  me  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  illustrate  and  corroborate  it  still  more  fully. 

Mr.  Owen’s  notion  seems  to  be  this:  that  his  twelve  laws  once  pro¬ 
ved,  the  Christian  scriptures  must  tumble  to  the  ground !  I  have  very 
little  scruple  or  hesitancy  in  admitting  all  his  facts  save  one,  so  far 
as  they  apply  to  the  physical  constitution  of  the  animal  man;  and  yet 
I  cannot  percei  v  e  how  they  contravene  any  part  of  Christianity .  How 
are  we  to  account  for  his  hallucinations!  He  supposes  that  the  ad¬ 
mission  of  his  twelve  facts  would  prove  his  five  propositions.  This  is 
most  manifestly  a  logical  error,  unless  these  are  identical  propositions. 
Suppose  that  by  the  aid  of  his  fact  he  had  made  out  the  proof  of  his 
first  proposition,  will  he  repeat,  the  same  fact  to  prove  the  second  pro¬ 
position.  Without  the  most  perfect  paralellism  and  identity  in  the 
whole  five  propositions,  how  can  he  expect  the  same  facts  which  prove 
one  of  the  five  propositions,  to  prove  them  all  ? 

There  is  more  couched  in  this  speculation  concerning  the  adoles-’- 
cence  or  infancy  of  the  primitive  stock  from  which  man  is  derived, 
than  a  superficial  thinker  is  perhaps  aware  of.  On  the  hypothesis 
that  the  first  pair  came  into  existence  in  a  state  of  adolescence,  when 
they  first  saw  light  they  must  have  had  some  information  concerning 
their  origin.  Infants  or  adults  they  must  have  been.  If  infants,  they 
could  never  have  reached  maturity;  they  roust  have  perished  for  lack 
of  nurture  ?  They  must,  therefore,  have  been  adults.  And  when  they, 
saw  the  creation  around  them,  they  must  have  had  some  knowledge, 
of  their  origin,  of  the  source  from  whence  they  derived  their  principle 
c>f  vitali  ty,  and  their  control  of  the  animal  tribes  around  them. 


DEBATE, 


m 

lam  now  pretermitting  the  biblical  narrative  of  the  primitive  origin 
of  man,  altogether;  and  assuming  for  the  sake  of  argument  a  hypo¬ 
thesis.  Isay  then,  that  on  the  hypothesis  of  adolescence,  the  prime¬ 
val  pair  must  have  possessed  a  consciousness  of  their  origin.  They 
must  have  remembered  when  they  first  saw  the  sun  and  inhaled  the 
air,  and  the  first  time  they  ate. 

Upon  the  atheistical  premises  before  us,  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove 
that  our  first  ancestors  would  have  known  what  or  how  to  eat.  The 
philosopher  is  not  aware  of  the  consequences  attendant  upon  the  ex¬ 
tinction  of  the  lights  of  revelation.  To  these  he  owes  many  an  idea 
Which,  without  them,  he  would  never  have  conceived.  Without  the 
light  of  revelation  I  do  not  see  how  the  first  pair  of  human  beings 
would  have  known  how,  or  what,  to  eat.  Upon  what  principles  would 
they  have  set  about  the  process?  They  might  have  felt  the  pain  of 
hunger  without  knowing  either  the  cause  or  the  cure.  And  if  they 
could  have  learned  to  eat  from  observation,  or  from  feeling,  they  might 
not  have  Known  what  to  eat.  The  scriptures  without  speculating 
upon  any  of  the  causes  of  things,  state  facts  which  lead  us  to  think 
correctly,  if  we  think  at  all.  Hence  we  find  the  revelation  was  imme¬ 
diate  and  direct  upon  this  point.  God  said,  “of  the  fruit  of  these  trees 
you  may  eat/'  There  is  no  system  of  philosophy  except  the  Chris¬ 
tian  which,  without  professing  to  philosophize,  inducts  us  into  the  rea¬ 
son  of  things,  and  that  generally  by  telling  us  only  what  was  done  or 
said. 

But  we  have  now  before  us  this  proposition  that  the  first  manmust  hare 
remembered  the  first  time  he  saw  the  sun ,  ate,  drank ,  and  slept .  This 
lie  could  narrate,  and  would  be  most  apt  to  relate  to  his  own  off¬ 
spring,'  for  no  information  is  more  gratefully  tendered,  nor  more  ardent¬ 
ly  received,  than  that  which  respects  the  beginning  of  things.  Hence 
we  infer  that  nothing  is  more  reasonable  than  that  the  origin  of  things 
would  be  the  first  and  most  important  of  all  traditions;  and  so  we  do 
not  find  an  ancient  nation  whose  history  has  come  down  to  us  that, 
has  not  some  account  of  its  <pw  n  origin,  and  most  of  them  some  account 
of  the  origin  of  all  things.  But  it  is  scarcely  conceivable,  that  the 
first  pair  remembering  and  being  conscious  of  the  first  time  they  saw 
the  sun,  could  be  ignorant  of  the  author  of  their  existence. 

That  man  was,  in  his  first  estate,  designed  to  converse  familiarly 
with  his  Creator,  the  scriptures  teach  us;  and  not  until  he  became  a 
transgressor,  was  this  familiarity  interrupted.  Man  is  inferior  to  ail 
other  animals  in  instinctive  powers — and  this  truth  goes  far  to  con-, 
vince  us  that  he  was  not  constituted  to  be  governed  by  instinct  but  by 
reason.  His  being  now  more  imbecile  and  helpless  in  his  infancy 
lhan  other  creatures,  only  corroborates  the  account  of  his  fall.  For 
had  he  been  designed  to  be  governed  by  instinct,  he  would  have  ex¬ 
hibited  it,  in,  at  least,  as  much  perfection  as  other  animals..  Hence  if; 
is,  that,  until  reason  is  developed,  the  infant  man  is  worse  calculated 
to  provide  for  himself  than  any  other  creature. 

None  of  the  steps  in  this  argument  are  long.  The  first  man  was  a  a 
acjiilt.  \V  hen  first  he  opened  his  eyes,  hil  reason  and  his  senses  were 
-i  -A  . 

■  .-ff  7  v 

m A : .  -  ■  .  my  '  .-..a  . 


DEBATE, 


“both  in  meridian  strength.  He  could  not  but  be  sensible  of  his  Maker, 
He  must  always  remember  the  first  time  he  saw  the  sun,  ate,  drank, 
slept  and  awoke.  He  must  have  often  reflected  upon  these  first  acts 
|  of  his  existence.  He  would  delight  to  tell  them,  and  his  offspring 
would  be  most  curious  to  hpar  them.  Traditionary  information  upon 
these  subjects  is  as  natural  as  walking,  talking,  eating,  or  the  most 
|  ordinary  acts  of  any  animal.  Man  is,  therefore,  so  created  and  cir¬ 
cumstanced  now  as  to  be  naturally  and  necessarily  credulous .  Credu¬ 
lity  ,  for  I  know  no  term  more  expressive  of  the  native  bias  to  receive 
truth  upon  testimony — I  say,  credulity  is  as  natural  to  man  as  breath¬ 
ing.  This  is  a  wise  provision  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind, 
that  it  must,  and,  with  the  utmost  ease,  does,  assent  to  testimony :  for, 
without  it,  there  could  be  no  improveability  in  man.  He  would  cease 
to  be  a  progressive  being.  No  child  could  be  educated  without  it. 
Without  it,  the  art  of  the  linguist,  the  logician,  the  rhetorician  would 
be  unavailing.  Human  nature  would  be  a  metal ,  (if  I  may  be  allowed 
the  figure)  that  would  not  polish.  But  it  is  a  law  of  human  nature,  as 
self-evident,  and  as  interesting,  as  any  one  of  Mr.  Owen’s  code,  and 
much  more  worthy  of  being  called  a  “law  of  human  nature”  than  any 
one  of  the  twelve,  that  it  is  natural  to  man  to  be  assured  of  truth,  or 
to  believe  upon  testimony.  This,  more  than  any  one  of  his  twelve 
laws,  distinguishes  and  elevates  man  above  tho  brutes.  If  I  did  not 
think  it  more  worthy  of  being  one  of  the  first,  I  would  adopt  the  lofty 
style  of  my  opponent,  and  call  it  the  thirteenth  fundamental  law  of 
human  nature.  Being  first  infants,  and  dependent  on  our  parents  and 
seniors  for  information,  we  are,  from  a  necessity  of  nature,  suscepti¬ 
ble  of  progressive  improvement— -but  almost  exclusively  through 
l  faith. 

Mr.  Owen  himself  walks  by  faith  in  human  testimony.  And 
-although  he  may  not  bo  conscious  of  it,  he  has  believed  as  firmly, 
and  acted  as  implicitly ,  as  any  Christian  ever  was  required  to  dp. 
While  in  Scotland  he  heard  that  there  was  one  quarter  of  the  world 
called  America,  and  he  heard  a  great  many  reports  concerning  it. 
Now,  although  there  are  many  falsehoods  told,  and  many  impositions 
practised,  and  thereby  faith  rendered  more  precarious  and  fallible^ 
yet  Mr.  Owen  was  able  to  discriminate  the  truth,  and  to  rely  upon  the 
credible  evidence  which  was  presented  to  him.  He  had  no  experi¬ 
ence  of  the  climate,  soil,  products,  government,  and  all  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  country.  But  so  strong  was  his  faith  in  testimony*, 
and  even  on  that  sort  of  testimony  which  is  often  fallacious,  that  he 
is  moved  by  his  faith  to  leave  his  country,  friends,  relatives,  and  ac¬ 
quaintance,  and  trust  his  property  and  person  upon  the  mighty  ocean — 
encounter  all  the  dangers  of  the  sea,  and  deny  himself  of  many 
comforts  for  the  time  being,  in  quest  of  that  in  which  he  believed. 
This  is  as  much  faith  as  ever  was  required  of  a  Christian  to  translate 
him  out  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness  into  the  kingdom  of  God’s  own 
Son.  As  much  faith,  as  much  self-denial,  as  much  perseverance, 
would  have  led  Mr,  Owen  into  a  kingdom  and  country  imcomparably 
pxyte  desirable  than  Edeu  was  in  all  its  virgin  beauties,  in  all  .its 


DEBATE. 


primitive  excellence,  had  that  faith  reposed  upon  truth  supernatural- 
truth  as  certain,  and  better  documented,  than  was  the  testimony  of 
those  upon  whose  credibility  Mr.  Owen  started  from  Lanark  for  New 
Harmony.. 

Before  1  sit  down,  may  I  ask  my  opponent,  tor  the  sake  ofliis  owe 
reputation  as  a  logician,  and  a  challenger  of  the  world,  ,  to  pay  some 
attention  to  these  arguments  and  topics;  that  the  public  may  not  rear! 
them  without  the  form  of  a  reply,  or  the  semblance  of  a  refutation : 
£ Half  hour  outi] 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

1  shall  now  proceed,  my  friends,  to  another  view  of  this  subject 
in  order  to  prove  all  these  facts  in  another  direction — to  show  that 
there  is  no  kind  of  inconsistency  or  contradiction  between  one  purr 
of  the  system  and  a  nother.  In  the  developement  of  one  entire  nex 
state  of  things,  it  will  appear  that  my  arguments  will  apply  with  still 
greater  force  and  minuteness. 

O 

[ Here  Mr.  Oxen  commences  reading  “an  attempt  to  derelope  the  out¬ 
lines  of  an  entire  new  state  of  existence,  founded  solely  on  the  di-due 
laws  of  human  nature :”] 

All  past  and  present  societies  of  men  have  been  founded  in  direct 
opposition  to  these  divine  laws,  and,  in  consequence,  virtue  has  geu 
.erally  been  made  to  consist  in  acting  contrary  to  them,  and  vice  in 
being  obedient  to  them. 

We  now  propose  for  universal  adoption,  another  state  of  society, 
in  which  virtue  shall  consist  in  being  obedient  to  these  laws,  and  vice 
in  opposing  them. 

These  divine  laws  are — 

1.  'iliat  man,  at  his  birth,  has  been  made  ignorant  of  every  thing 
relative  to  his  own  organization,  and  lie  has  not  been  permitted  to 
create  any  part  of  the  propensities,  faculties,  and  qualities,  physical 
or  mental,  which  have  been  given  to  him,  or  which  he  possesses. 

2.  That  no  two  infants  have  yet  been  known  to  possess  precisely 
the  same  organization  at  birth,  and  the  differences  between  all  infant's 
are  formed  by  a  power  unknown  to  them. 

2.  That  each  individual  is  placed,  at  birth,  without  his  consent  or 
knowledge,  within  circumstances,  which,  acting  upon  his  peculiar 
organization,  impress  the  general  character  of  those  circumstances 
upon  the  infant,  child,  and  man ;  tho  influence  of  those  circumstances, 
.being  modified,  in  some  degree,  by  the  peculiar  natural  organization 
of  each  individual. 

4.  That  no  individual  has  had  the  power  of  deciding  at  what  peri¬ 
od  of  time,  or  in  what  part  of  the  world,  he  shall  come  into  existence ; 
of  whom  he  shall  be  born,  what  district  religion  he  shall  be  trained  to 
believe,  or  by  what  other  circumstances  he  shall  be  surrrounded  from 
birth  to  death. 

5.  That  each  individual  is  so  organized,  that,  w  hen  young,  he  may 
be  made  to  receive  impressions  from  those  around  him,  which  dhorll 

10 


no 


DEBATE. 


produce  either  true  ideas  or  false  notions,  and  beneficial  or  injurious 
habits,  and  to  retain  them  with  great  tenacity. 

6.  That  each  individual  is  so  organized,  that  he  must  believe  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  strongest  impressions  that  shall  be  made  on  his  feelings; 
while  his  belief  in  no  case  depends  upon  his  will. 

7.  That  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  he  must  like  that  which 
is  pleasant  to  him,  or  that  which  produces  agreeable  sensations  on  his 
individual  organization;  and  he  must  dislike  that  which  creates  in. 
him  unpleasant  or  disagreeable  sensations;  while  he  cannot  discover 
previous  to  experience  what  these  sensations  shall  be. 

8.  That  each  individual  is  so  created,  that,  the  sensations  made 
upon  his  organization,  although  pleasant  or  delightful  at  their  com¬ 
mencement,  become,  when  continued  without  intermission  beyond  a 
certain  period,  disagreeable  and  painful ;  wrhile,  on  the  contrary,  when 
a  too  rapid  change  of  sensations  is  made  on  his  organization,  it  dissi¬ 
pates,  weakens,  and  otherwise  injures  his  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  powers  and  enjoyments. 

9.  That  the  highest  health,  the  greatest  progressive  improvement, 
and  most  permanent  happiness  of  each  individual  depend,  in  a  great 
degree,  upon  the  proper  cultivation  of  all  his  faculties,  physical  and 
mental,  from  infancy  to  maturity,  and  upon  all  these  parts  of  his  na¬ 
ture  being  duly  called  into  action,  at  their  proper  period,  and  temper¬ 
ately  exercised  according  to  the  strength  and  capacity  of  the  individ  ¬ 
ual. 

10.  That  the  individual  is  made  to  possess  and  acquire  the  worst 
character,  when  his  organization  at  birth  has  been  composed  of  the 
most  inferior  ingredients,  or  natural  qualities  of  our  common  nature, 
and,  when  he  has  been  so  organized,  that  he  has  been  placed  from 
birth  to  death  amidst  the  most  vicious  or  tcorst  circumstances. 

11.  That  the  individual  is  made  to  possess  and  acquire  a  medium 
character,  when  his  original  organization  has  been  created  supe¬ 
rior,  but  the  circumstances  which  surround  him  from  birth  to  death 
produce  continued  unfavorable  impressions.  Or  when  his  organi¬ 
zation  has  been  formed  of  inferior  propensities,  faculties,  and  qualities, 
and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  has  been  placed  from  birth  to 
death  are  of  a  character  to  produce  superior  impressions  only.  Or 
when  there  has  been  some  mixture  pf  superior  and  inferior  qualities 
in  the  original  organization,  when  it  has  been  placed  through  life  in 
various  circumstances  of  good  and  evil.  Hitherto  this  has  been  the 
common  lot,  of  mankind. 

12.  That  the  individual  is  made  the  most  superior  of  his  species 
when  his  original  organization  has  been  compounded  of  the  best  pro¬ 
portions,  of  the  best  ingredients  of  which  human  nature  is  formed,  and 
when  the  circumstances  which  surround  him  during  life  produce  only 
superior  impressions.  In  other  words,  whan  his  organization  is  the 
most  perfect,  and  the  laws,  institutions,  and  practices  which  surround 
him  are  all  in  unison  with  his  nature. 

These  twelve  fundamental  laws  will  be  found,  on  examination,  to  * 
be  m  strict  accordance  with  all  existing  facts,  and  in  a  rational  state 


DEBATE.  Hi 

orsociety,  all  the  laws  and  institutions  will  be  founded  upon  them 
and  they  will  govern  the  actions  of  all  men. 

These  laws,  in  the  aggregate,  demonstrate,  that  man  does  not  form 
his  own  physical,  intellectual,  or  moral  nature;  that,  consequently, 
he  can  have  no  merit  or  demerit  for  his  particular  organization  in 
his  person,  and  that  all  pride  or  assumed  distinction,  arising  from 
the  possession  of  them,  under  the  most  favored  combinations  in  which 
they  may  exist,  are  irrational  feelings  arising  solely  from  ignorance. 

These  laws  also  demonstrate  that  man  is  compelled  to  believe  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  strongest  conviction  that  can  be  made  upon  his  mind, 
and  to  fed  according  to  the  most  powerful  impressions  of  pain  or 
pleasure  which  can  be  made  upon  his  organization.  Consequently 
that  he  is  a  being  irresponsible  for  his  thoughts  raid  feelings — irre¬ 
sponsible,  whether  he  has  been  compelled  by  the  circumstances  around 
him,  to  believe  in  accordance  with  facts,  or  in  opposition  to  them,  or, 
whether  he  has  been  formed  to  love  what  others  hate,  or  dislike  what 
others  approve.  All  institutions,  therefore,  formed  in  opposition  to 
these  divine  laws  of  human  nature  must  he  irrational.  All  the  insti¬ 
tutions  of  men  have,  been  formed  in  opposition  to  them. 

These  laws  also  demonstrate  that  man  is  a  two-fold  being,  whose 
character  and  conduct  are  formed,  in  part,  by  the  peculiar  organiza¬ 
tion  which  he  possesses  at  birth,*  and  in  part,  by  the  impressions 
which  influence  that  organization  through  life. 

That  the  organization  ofeach  individual  at  birth  and  the  circumstan¬ 
ces  which  influence  it  afterwards,  although  generally  similar,  are  in 
many  particulars  dissimilar;  yet  that  the  difference,  whatever  may 
be  the  extent,  dees  not  proceed  from  the  will  of  the  individuals.  Con¬ 
sequently  all  uncharitableness,  all  anger  and  irritation,  and  all  pride, 
for  possessing  particular  feelings,  proceed  solely  from  ignorance  of 
the  divine  laws  of  human  nature,  and  are  therefore  irrational. 

Again,  these  laws  demonstrate  that  the  character!  and  conduct  of 
every  human  being,  are  essentially  formed  by  tire  external  circum¬ 
stances  which  are  allowed  to  exist  around  them  from  birth  to  death, 
although  their  character  and  conduct  are  in  some  degree  modified  by 
the  particular  organization  given  to  each  individual  at  birth. 

Consequently  no  man  can  be  justly  made  responsible  for  what  he 
is,  or  for  any  thing  he  may  say  or  do,  he  cannot  possess  merit  or  de¬ 
merit  for  his  thoughts  or  feelings,  for  he  is  a  being  wholly  formed  by 
circumstances,  all  of  which,  when  traced  to  their  source,  are,  in  real¬ 
ity,  beyond  his  control. 

He  is  a  being,  however,  who  is  evidently  organized  to  desire  happi¬ 
ness  above  all  things,  and  that  desire,  united  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
divine  laws  of  human  nature,  will  form  a  new  train  of  circumstances, 
which  will  enable  the  men  of  one  generation  to  adopt  practical  meas¬ 
ures  to  insure  the  happiness  of  their  successors. 

For  these  divine  laws  direct  the  certain  way  to  happiness,  “such 
as  it  has  not  yet  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive.15  For  a 
knowledge  of  ^iese  laws  will  create  the  inclination  and  power  to  live 


* 


1  ll 

u*.  *..•*/ 


DEBATE 


in  obedience  to  them,  and  “perfect  obedience”  will  produce  the  highr 
est  happiness  that  man  can  enjoy. 


religion. 

In  this  new  state  of  existence,  all  that  is  contrary  to  these  divine 
laws  of  human  nature,  in  all  the  religions  in  the  world,  will  be  with  - 
drawn,  and  then  true  religion,  or  truth,  pure  and  undefiled,  without 
useless  and  senseless  rites,  forms,  or  ceremonies,  will  alone  remain-r 
For  many  of  these  rites  and  ceremonies  in  all  countries,  are  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  divine-laws  of  human  nature. 


Some  of  these  rites  and  ceremonies  are  weak  and  childish,  others  j 
are  absurd  and  cruel,  and  some  are  horrid  and  monstrous.  These  1 
errors  were  engendered  in  the  imaginations  of  men,  when  they  “knew  j 
not  what  manner  of  beings  they  were,’'  when  they  were  “babes  and  I 
sucklings”  in  real  knowledge,  when  “they  did  those  things  which^x 
they  ought  not  to  have  done  for  their  happiness.” 

The  time  is  now  near  at  hand,  when  these  worse  than  childish  pnv 
feedings  must  give  place  to  the  plain  and  simple  “law  of  obedience,” 
ro  one  uniform  practice  in  accordance  to  the  divine  will  or  to  the  dir 
vine  laws  of  human  nature,  and  thus  shall  the  “knowledge  of  the 
ihorci”  or  of  divine  trutli  “cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the 
*eas,”  and  therefore  mythology,  fables,  dogmas,  forms,  and  mysteries, 
founded  in  ignorance  of  these  divine  laws,  will  soon  be  banished  from 
the  earth.  Then  men  will  no  longer  look  through  these  for  better 
■things  as  “through  a  glass  darkly,”  but  they  will  know  themselves, 
and  all  motive  to  deception  of  every  kind  being  removed  “they  will 
know  each  other  even  as  they  are  known.”  And  when  these  false 
dogmas,  fables,  and  mysteries,  and  the  fundamental  errors  from  which 
they  spring,  shall  be  removed  from  society,  and  when  they  shall  be 
replaced  by  a  knowledge  of  the  simple  and  beautiful  divine  laws  of 
human  nature,  then,  and  not  till  then,  “shall  the  mind  be  born  again.” 
And  when  this  change  shall  take  place  there  shall  be  no  perplexity 
or  confusion  of  ideas;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  feelings,  thoughts,  lan¬ 
guage,  and  conduct  of  all  men  shall  be  consistent,  and  they  will  al¬ 
ways  harmonize  together. 

What  is  the  amount  of  man’s  knowledge,  at  this  day,  of  those  sub' 
iects,  which  he  has  been  trained  to  call  divine? 


He  knows,  through  the  medium  of  his  senses,  that  the  Universe'ex- 
ists,  and  that  those  parts  of  it  which  he  can  perceive  and  understand, 
appear  to  him  to  be  in  constant  motion.  That  decompositions,  of  the 
materials  of  the  universe,  continually  take  place,  and  new  composi¬ 
tions  with  or  without  life,  are  again  formed.  That  these  compos i- 
rions,  decompositions,  and  recompositions,  in  endless  succession,  pro¬ 
ceed  from  a  power  to  him  unknown  and  therefore  mysterious.  And 
of  those  things  which  man  has  called  divine  this  is  the  whole  amount 
of  the  knowledge  which  he  has  yet  acquired.  He  may,  perhaps,  learn 
more  when  lie  shall  be  taught  to  “know  himself”  and  obey*  the  laws  of. 
his  nature,  by  investigating  fact  after  fact* to  the  extent  that  the  facul¬ 
ties  with  which  he  has  been  furnished  will  permit. 


DEBATE. 


na 


At  ait  events  tie  will  be  thus  trained  to  acquire  a  manly  and  cheer¬ 
ful  confidence  in  the  unknown  power  that  every  where  surrounds  him,: 
and  in  which  he  lives,  moves,  and  has  his  being. 

,  But  he  will  discover  no  motive  to  be  afraid  of  its  extent,  or  to  dis*  ) 
f  trust  its  ultimate  results,  and  much  less  to  flatter  it  by  ceremonies  and 
forms  which  are  degrading  to  created  beings. 

Instead  of  errors  like  these  being  made  to  engage  ths  attention  of 
our  offspring,  let  us  henceforward  direct  them  to  contemplate  the  beau¬ 
tiful  expanse  around  us;  to  observe  the  mighty  movements  within  it, 
to  study  those  unchanging  laws  by  which  the  germs  of  organization 
exist  upon  the  earth  and  become  gradually  perfected,  each  according 
to  its  kind,  and  again  slowly  or  more  rapidly  declining,  until  they 
are  redissolved  into  the  original  elements  of  the  universe ;  commencing 
again  their  ceaseless  round  of  new  compositions;  then  let  them  be 
taught  to  reflect  how  all  these  movements  and  laws  harmonise  to- 
gether.  They  will  be  delighted  with  the  knowledge  they  will  thus  ac¬ 
quire;  and  the  more  they  know,  the  more  they. will  desire  to  act  in 
obedience  to  these  divine  law’s. 

Let  us  therefore ,  now,  remove,  far  away,  from  succeeding  genera¬ 
tions,  all  these  useless  and  degrading  abominations,  which  serve  only 
to  debase  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  and  to  lay  their  intellectual  fac¬ 
ulties  prostrate  before  a  few  of  their  fellow’s,  who  in  no  respect  are 
made  superior  to  themselves,  except  by  a  peculiar  education.  And 
a  much  better  education,  than  any  of  them  have  yet  received,  may 
now  be  given  to  every  individual  of  the  human  race. 

But  with  the  knowledge  now  acquired  of  these  divine  law’s  we  can* 
not  be  angry  or  displeased  with  any  of  them,  even  with  those  w’ho  Iikve 
been  thus  trained  to  be  the  most  irrational  and  crue’,  no  not  to  those 
w’ho  have  tortured  their  fellow’s,  or  sacrificed  them  on  the  altar  of  their 


gods. 

Do  any  of  these  yet  remain  on  the  earth,  we  must  pity  them,  have 
charity  for  them ;  speak  kindly  to  them,  and  endeavor  by  all  the  means 
in  our  power  to  do  them  good. 

ARTIFICIAL  LAWS. 

All  human  laws  as  they  now  exist,  are  as  we  have  stated,  in  oppq- 
sition  to  the  divine  laws  of  human  nature  ;  they  presuppose  that  man 
has  been  so  organized  as  to  possess  the  power  to  compel  himself  to 
think  as  he  pleases,  and  to  feel  as  he  likes.  All  human  governments 
are  founded  on  these  notions,  and  they  must  lead  men  altogether 
astray  from  truth  and  happiness;  they  are  therefore,  not  only  useless, 
but  highly  injurious  in  every  light  in  which  they  can  be  viewed. 

Written  laws  of  human  invention  are  necessary,  only,  while  at- 
tempts  shall  be  made  to  govern  men  in  opposition  to.  their  nature  and 


contrary  to  reason.  7  - 

Ali  the  artificial  laws  and  institutions  of  man  Is  devising,  in  opposi¬ 
tion  to  his  nature,  have  ever  been  a  curse  to  <he  human  race,  and  they 
rnav  be  safely  superceded  as  soon  as  the  rising  generation  shall  be¬ 
come  familiar  with  the  laws  of  their  nature,  and  shall  be  placed  within 
circumstances  m  which  they  may  act  in  obedience  to  them. 


10* 


DEBATE. 


114 

When  this  shall  be  done,  all  motive  to  disunion,  or  to  create  any  un¬ 
pleasant  difference  of  opinion  or  feeling  will  cease,  and  whatever  may 
require  adjustment  between  individuals  or  communities,  will  be  speed  - 
liy  and  satisfactorily  arranged  by  the  persons  appointed  to  govern  the 
interests  of  all  equally 

PRIVATE  PROPERTY. 

In  this  new  state  of  existence  all  private  property  in  persons  and 
things,  that  is  in  opposition  to  the  fixed  laws  of  human  nature  will 
cease,  and  in  consequence,  selfishness,  poverty  and  jealousy  will  ter¬ 
minate. 

Instead  of  submitting  to  the  innumerable  evils  arising  from  private 
property, arrangements  will  be  formed  to  secure,  for  every  one,  from 
birth  to  dea  th,  a  full  supply  of  every  thing  that  is  the  best  for  human 
nature,  taking  also  into  consideration  the  minor  differences  formed  by 
nature,  in  the  organization  of  each  individual. 

As  soon  as  all  unnecessary  private  property  shall  be  abolished,  it 
will  no  longer  be  or  appear  to  be,  for  the  interest  ofany  one,  that  any 
thing  inferior  in  quality  shall  be  produced  for  the  use  of  man. 

There  will  be  no  inferior  cultivation ;  no  inferior  houses  or  buildings 
ofany  kind;  no  inferior  roads,  bridges,  canals,  aqueducts,  vessels  lor 
navigation  or  machinery  for  any  purpose;  all  of  them  will  be  con¬ 
structed  of  the  best  materials  that  can  be  procured,  and  they  will  be 
planned  and  executed  under  the  direction  of  those  who  shall  be  found 
to  possess  the  best  knowledge  and  the  most  valuable  experience  upon 
each  subject  respectively.  In  short  whatever  is  to  be  done  will  be  ex¬ 
ecuted  in  the  neatest  manner  known  at  the  time,  in  any  part  of  socie¬ 
ty;  for  the  talents  of  each  will  be  applied  the  most  advantageously 
for  the  benefit  of  all. 

WAR. 

Ill  this  new  state  of  existence  wars  will  terminate,  as  rapidly,  as 
a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  human  nature  shall  be  made  to  extend 
over  the  earth. 

For  war  is  opposed  to  the  happiness  of  the  human  race.  It  is  ben¬ 
eficial  for  all  that  there  should  be  a  full  supply  of  the  best  of  every 
thing  for  every  human  being,  and  that  all  should  be  more  or  less  en¬ 
gaged  in  its  production,  preservation  or  distribution. 

But  war  withdraws  the  efficient  part  of  the  population  from  produ¬ 
cing,  preserving  or  distributing,  and  forms  it  into  a  most  effective 
power  to  consume  wastefully ;  to  destroy  upon  a  large  scale  and  to 
prevent  production. 

It  is  the  interest  of  all  men,  without  any  exception,  that  all  their 
powers  should  be  applied  to  aid  in  producing  the  best  of  every  thing 
tor  every  one,  or  to  be  employed  in  some  way  that  shall  promote  the 
greatest  benefit. 

In  the  preseat  irrational  state  of  existence,  it  is  often,  amongjhe 
wealthy  indeed,  generally  deemed  more  honorable  to  be  employed 
inoccupations  useless  or  injurious,  rather  than  to  be  seen  making  or 
producing  any  thing  useful  or  ngCQsaary  for  the  existence  or  enjoy-  • 
ment  of  rational  beings, 


DEBATE. 


U5 

This  war,  through  all  its  ramifications,  is  destructive  of  happiness, 
and  of  the  rational  faculties  of  the  human  race,  and  yet  it  has  been 
deemed  the  most  honorable  of  all  employments. 

For  those  men  who  have  been  the  most  successful  in  destroying 
the  productions  of  their  fellow  men;  in.  killing  and  wounding  ths 
greatest  number  of  them;  in  burning  their  habitations  and  property; 
in  creating  thereby  the  greatest  extent  of  famine,  and  the  largest 
amount  of  individual  suffering  and  misery  with  the  most  wide  spread 
destruction  of  human  industry  and  comfort,  have  been  through  all. 
past  ages  the  most  honored  and  rewarded. 

In  the  new  state  of  existence,  all  these  proceedings  will  be  deemed 
irrational,  and  will  never  be  practised  except  by  those  w  ho  are  insane. 

As  soon,  therefore,  as  a  generation  shall  be  trained  from  infancy 
in  a  knowledge  of  the  divine  laws  of  human  nature,  all  contention 
will  cease,  and  charity  and  peace  will  every  where  prevail.  [Half 
JiGiir  out.] 

■  ",  .  V  ,  -  •* 

Me.  Campbell  rises — 

Mr.  Chairman — It  is  surely  a  novel  species  of  logic  to  argue,  that, 
because  we  shall  have  better  houses,  and  better  schools,  and  must 
have  new  bridges,  &c.  therefore  the  Christian  religion  must  be  false „ 
To  resume  the  subject  of  materialism,  which  is  the  system  of  mv 
friend,  Mr.  Owen,  it  will  be  necessary  to  observo,  that  all  the  artifi¬ 
cial  mysteries  of  atheism  have  not  emanated  from  the  same  brain, 
but  from  different  intellects.  In  order  to  make  out  a  system  contrary 
to  all  experience  and  history ,  some  materialists  have  been  constrained 
to  suppose,  (finding  themselves  perplexed  to  account  for  man’s  origin, 
either  on  the  hypothesis  of  his  coming  into  existence  as  an  adult  or  an 
infant)  that  man  wras  originally  a  being  very  different  from  what  he 
now  is.  But  whether  he  has  degenerated,  or  improved,  they  do  not 
testify.  They  also  suppose  another  absurdity — viz.  that  there  must 
have  been  an  oak  before  an  acorn;  or,  in  other  words,  that  vegetables 
must  have  existed  before  their  seeds.  This  w7ould  be  no  absurdity, 
if  we  admit  a  Creator  who  produced  by  one  almighty  fiat,  eveiy 
vegetable  in  full  vigor,  But,  .on  any  other  hypothesis,  it  is  an  ab¬ 
surdity.  This  necessarily  follow’s  from  their  own  premises.  They 
also  suppose  that  matter  and  motion  originally  possessed  powers 
w  hich  they  do  not  now.  That  because  matter  and  motion  cannot  now 
produce  new  genera  and  species ,  therefore  they  have  not  all  the 
powers  they  once  had.  This  is  first  to  assume  a  fact,  and  then  to. 
invent,  or  bribe,  or  suborn  the  testimony  to  prove  it.  That  once  they 
had  the  power  of  detaching  themselves  from  other  parts  of  the  uni¬ 
verse,  and  forming  themselves  into  organized  bedies,  but  that  now 
they  have  grown  old  and  feeble,  and  lost  their  power. 

When  they  asserted  that  the  material  universe  had  no  relation  to 
•an  intelligent  First  Cause ,  but  w  as  the  production  of  blind  chance, 
or  nature  operating  according  to  the  laws  of  matter  and  motion,  they 
were  impelled  to  the  above  conclusion.  Inasmuch  as  they  do  not 
Ihid  nature  competent  to  the  production  of  a  now  species  or  genus  nf 


116 


DEBATE, 


vegetable  or  animal  matter,  they  endeavor  to  excuse  their  system  by 
asserting  that  she  once  possessed  powers  which  she  does ‘not  now 
possess.  But  this  monstrous  assumption  must  be  taken  for  fact  to 
account  for  any  thing  on  their  premises.  Yet  these  persons  tell  us 
they  cannot  believe  a  miracle  because  it  is  contrary  to  all  experi¬ 
ence..  But  they  can  believe  their  own  mysteries  contrary  to  all  the- 
experience  and  information  of  mankind ! _ 

f5Deny  God — all  is  mystery  besides; 

Millions  of  mysteries!  each  darker  far 

I  han  that  thy  wisdom  would  unwisely  shun. 

If  weak  thy  faith,  why  choose  the  harder  side! 

We  nothing  know  but  what  is  marvellous; 

Yet  wliat  is  marvellous  we  can’t  believe !”  * 

But  the  system  is  liable  to  another  exception.  It  can  give  n<5 
account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  idea  of  a  God  became  so  univer- 
sady  prevalent,  while  they  admit  that  the  idea  did  obtain  universality 
I  recoHect  that  I  once  pressed  this  difficulty  upon  the  infidel  editors 
Gi  the  New  Harmony  Gazette. 

[Here  Mr  Campbell  reads  from  the  “Christian  Baptist ”  a  problem 
addressed  to  the  editors  of  the  u]Yew  Harmony  Gazette 

“a  proslem 

“To  the  Editors  of  the  New  Harmonv  Gazette 
ou  think  that  reason  cannot  originate  the  idea  of  an  Eternal  First 
Cause,  or  that  no  man  could  acquire  such  an  idea  by  the  employment  of 
;f  S£'??S  a.  nd  ™aSon— and  you  think  correctly .  You  think  also  that 
the  Bible  is  not  a  supernatural  revelation— not  a  revelation  from  <z 
Dei  y  m  any  sense .  These  things  premised,  genileinen,  I  present  my 
problem  in  the  form  of  a  query  again”  * 

.  “  The  Christian  idea  of  an  Eternal  First  Cause  uncaused  or  of  a  God , 
ts  now  m  the  world,  and  has  been  for  ages  immemorial .  You  say  it 
could  not  enter  into  the  world  by  reason,  and  it  did  not  enter  by  revela¬ 
tion.  Note,  as  you  are  philosophers  and  historians,  and  have  all  the 
meaas  of  knowing ,  How  did  it  come  into  the  world  V' 

[Mr.  Owen  asserts,  after  hearing  this  problem  read,  “By  imasina- 
tionri J  *  ?  v  & 

}  am  J’1st  now  told  by  Mr.  Owen,  that  the  idea  of  a  God  obtained 
tnis  universality  through  imagination.  Now,  let  us  try  the  merits  of 
this  solution.  Imagination,  all  writers  agree,  has  not  the  power  of 
dealing  any  new  idea.  It  lias  the  power  of  analysing,  combining, 
compounding,  and  new-modifying  all  the  different  ideas  Dresented  to 
ltj  but  imagination  has  no  creative  power. 

No  system  oi  philosophy  that  is  now  taught  in  any  school,  will 
warrant  us  to  attribute  to  imagination  any  such  power.  Neither  Locke 
nor  Hume  will  aLow  it,:  arid  these  are  the  most  respectable  in  die 
Christian  and  infidel  schools.  We  shall  hear  what  each  of  them  ha* 
to  say  upon  the  power  of  imagination • — 

“Although  nothing  is  so  unbounded  in  its  operations  as  the  rowers 
ol  the  mind,  and  the  imagination  of  man— to  farm  monsters,  an! 


DEBATE, 


m 

join  incongruous  shapes,  and  appearances,  costs  the  imagination  no 
more  trouble,  than  to  conceive  of  the  most  natural  and  familiar  ob¬ 
jects;  and  whilst  the  body  is  confined  to  one  planet,  along  'which  it 
creeps  with  pain  and  difficulty,  the  imagination  and  thought  can 
transport  us  in  an  instant  into  the  most  distant  regions  of  the  universe. 
But  although  our  thought  seems  to  possess  this  unbounded  liberty,  we 
shall  find,  upon  a  nearer  examination,  that  it  is  really  confined  within 
very  narrow  limits,  and  that  all  this  creative  power  of  the  mind  amounts 
to  nothing  more  than  the  faculty  of  combining ,  transposing ,  augment ~ 
ing,  and,  diminishing  the  materials  afforded  us  by  sense  and  expert 
ence — -Hume.  . 

“The  simple  ideas  are  the  materials  of  all  our  knowledge,  which 
Mre  suggested  and  furnished  to  the  mind  only  by  sensation  and  re^ 
flection.  When  the  understanding  is  once  stored  with  these  simple 
ideas,  it  has  the  power  to  repeat,  compare,  and  unite  them,  even  to 
an  almost  infinite  variety,  and  so  can  make,  at  pleasure,  new  com¬ 
plex  ideas.  But  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  the  most  exalted  wit,  or 
enlarged  understanding,  by  any  quickness  or  variety  of  thoughts,  to 
invent  or  frame  one  new  simple  idea  in  the  mind,  not  taken  in  by  th® 
ways  before  mentioned;  nor  can  any  force  of  the  understanding  de^ 
stroy  those  that  are  there/’ — “The  dominion  of  man  in  this  little 
*  world  of  his  understanding,  being  muchwhat  the  same  as  it  is  in  the 
great  world  of  visible  things ;  wherein  his  power,  however  managed 
by  art  and  skill,  reaches  no  farther  than  to  compound  and  divide,  or 
decompose  the  materials  that  are  made  to  his  hand,  but  can  do  nothing 
towards  making  the  least  particle  of  new  matter,  or  destroying  an 
atom  of  what  is  already  in  being.  The  same  inability  will  every  one 
und  in  himself  who  should  go  about  to  fashion  in  his  understanding 
any  simple  idea  not  received  by  his  senses  from  external  objects,  or 
by  reflection  from  the  operations  of  his  own  mind  about  them.  I 
would  have  any  one  try  to  fancy  any  taste,  which  had  never  affected 
his  palate;  or  frame  the  idea  of  a  scent  he  had  never  felt;  and  when 
he  can  do  this,  I  will  also  conclude  thaba  deaf  man  has  distinct  notions 
©f  sounds/’ — “It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  imagine  any  other  quali¬ 
ties  in  bodies,  however  constituted,  whereby  they  can  be  taken  notice 
..of  besides  sounds,  tastes,  smells,  visible,  and  tangible  qualities.  Had 
mankind  been  made  with  but  four  senses,  the  qualities,  then,  which 
are  the  objects  of  the  fifth  sense,  had  been  as  far  from  our  notice, 
imagination,  and  conception,  as  now  any  belonging  to  a  sixth,  a 
seventh,  or  an  eighth  sense,  can  possibly  be;  which,  whether  yes 
some  other  creatures  in  some  other  parts  of  this  “vast  and  stupendous 
universe,  may  not  have,  will  be  a  great  presumption  to  denv.” — Locke, 
Such  is  Mr.  Hume’s  doctrine,  and  it  agrees  with  Mr.  Locke’s  and 
other  philosophers’.  Now,  if  this  he  true,  and  founded  on  a  strict 
analysis  of  the  human  mind,  and  predicated  on  universal  experi¬ 
ence — how  could  man  have  imagined  a  God?  Let  us  try  the  faculty 
ol  imagination,  and  prove,  by  our  own  experience,  its  creative  power . 
We  have  but  five  senses:  I  would  therefore  ask  Mr.  Owen,  and  every 
one  present,  if  you  can,  by  any  exertion  of  your  faculties,  imagine 


118' 


DEBATE. 


a  sixth  sense?  What  would  it  be?  If  you  were  to  imaging  any  other 
sense,  it  must  be  analogous  to  those  you  already  possess.  You  might 
imagine  a  being  like  the  fabulous  Argus,  with  a  hundred  eyes;  bwft 
you  got  your  idea  of  eyes  from  your  own  sense  of  vision.  You  might 
fancy  that  you  possessed  an  organ,  like  that  of  Fame,  that  would 
enable  you  to  hear  from  a  greater  distance  than  the  eye  could  reach 
to;  but  could  you  have  imagined  this  unless  you  had  derived  the 
simple  idea  of  hearing  from  your  organ  of  hearing.  But  a  sixth 
sense,  unlike  those  possessed,  cannot  be  imagined.  Now,  if  Mr.  Owen 
cannot,  from  his  five  senses,  imagine  a  sixth,  how  can  he  assert  that 
a  savage  or  philosopher  could  imagine  a  God?  But  I  call  upon  Mr. 
Owen  to  imagine  and  report  to  us  a  sixth  sense. 

In  the  system  ct  causation,  natural  religionists  go  upon  the  ladder 
of  effect  and  cause,  up  to  the  first  cause ;  but  to  reason  a  posteriori 
on  this  subject,  is,  in  my  opinion,  fallacious.  It  is  predicated  upon  a 
petitio  principii,  inasmuch  as  it  assumes  that  the  material  universe  is 
an  effect.  Quod  erat  demonstrandum — the  very  thing  to  be  proved. 
I  do  hope  that  this  debate  will  put  the  question  between  Deists  and 
Christians  to  repose,  Deism  is  all  founded  upon  a  petitio  principii , — 
a  begging  of  the  question  to  be  proved.  Atheism  or  Christianity 
must  obtain  the  dominion  over  every  inquisitive  mind.  When  I  hear 
a  Deist  talking  about  “the  light  of  nature”  and  “the  great  God  of 
nature,”  I  am  reminded  of  the  school-bov,  who  stole  a  penknife; 
and  when  charged  with  the  fact,  said,  he  found  it  growing  upon  an 
apple-tree.  This  was  equivalent  to  a  confession  of  the  theft,  since 
we  all  know  penknives  do  not  grow  upon  apple-trees.  In  like  manner 
the  reasonings  of  the  Deists,  upon  their  own  premises,  show  that  their 
conclusions  do  not  logically  follow.  You  might  as  well  look  for 
penknives  growing  upon  apple-trees  as  for  Lord  Herbert’s  doctrine  in 
the  mind  of  a  savage.  There  is  no  stopping  place  between  Atheism 
and  Christianity. 

As  we  have,  perhaps,  sufficiently  gone  into  the  detail  in  demon¬ 
strating,  from  the  mysteries  of  Atheism,  that  the  materialist  acts  upon 
the  very  principle  which  he  condemns  in  Christians;  that  is,  in  be¬ 
lieving  what  he  cannot  comprehend,  and  contrary  to  his  own  experi¬ 
ence;  and  not  only  this,  but  in  giving  to  imagination  a  power  which 
it  does  not  possess,  and  afterwards  acting  according  to  the  mere 
vagaries  of  fancy,  more  than  the  most  enthusiastic  Christians;  I  say, 
having  shown  that  the  materialists  assent  to,  and  teach  mysteries 
which  they  cannot  ever  explain;  believe,  and  reason  contrary  to 
universal  experience,  and  follow  imagination,  while  they  ascribe 
these  as  foibles  to  others;  I  will  finish  my  readings  and  comments 
upon  this  system  by  giving  the  moral  consummation  from  one  of  their 
ablest  writers. 

You-  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  necessity.  All  Mr.  Owen’s 
iacts  have  been  adduced  to  prove  that  we  are  locked  up  in  the  chains 
of  an  inexorable  fatality.  That  you  may  see  the  moral  tendency  of 
this  doctrine,  I  shall  read  you  a  few  sentences  from  Mirabaud’s  system 
of  natures-*- 


DEBAtE. 


119 


“Life  being  commonly  for  man  the  greatest  of  all  benefits,  it  is  to  be 
presumed,  that  he  who  deprives  himself  of  it  is  impelled  by  an  invin¬ 
cible  force.  It  is  the  excess  of  misery  v despair,  derangement  of  the 
machine,  caused  by  melancholy,  which  carries  man  on  to  destroy 
himself.  Agitated  then  by  contrary  impulses  he  is,  as  wre  have  be¬ 
fore  said,  obliged  to  follow  a  middle  course  that  conducts  him  to  his 
death,*  if  man  is  not  free  in  any  one  instant  of  his  life,  he  is  again 
much  less  so  in  the  act  by  which  it  is  terminated. 

“We  see  then,  that,  he  who  kills  himself  docs  not  commit,  as  they 
pretend,  an  outrage  on  nature,  or,  if  they  will,  on  its  author.  He 
follows  an  impulse  of  nature,  in  taking  the  only  means  that  she 
leaves  him  to  quit  his  pains ;  he  goes  out  of  existence  by  a  door  that 
she  leaves  open  to  him;  he  cannot  offend  her  in  accomplishing  the 
law  of  necessity;  the  iron  hand  of  which  having  broken  the  spring 
that  rendered  life  desirable  to  him,  and  urged  him  to  conserve  him¬ 
self,  shows  that  he  ought  to  quit  a  rank,  or  system,  which  he  finds 
too  had  to  be  willing  to  remain  in.  His  country,  or  his  family,  have 
no  right  to  complain  of  a  member  that  it  cannot  render  happy,  and 
from  whom  it  has  nothing  more  to  hope  for  itself.  To  be  useful  to 
his  country,  or  to  his  family,  it  is  necessary  that  man  should  cherish 
his  own  peculiar  existence,  that  he  has  an  interest  in  conserving 
himself,  loves  the  bonds  which  unite  him  to  others,  and  is  capable  of 
occupying  himself  with  their  felicity.  In  short,  that  the  suicide 
should  be  punished  in  the  other  life,  and  repent  of  his  precipitate 
steps,  it  were  needful  that  he  should  outlive  himself,  and  that  in  con¬ 
sequence  he  should  carry  with  him,  into  his  future  residence,  his 
organs,  his  senses,  his  memory,  his  ideas,  and  his  actual  mode  of 
existing  and  of  thinking. 

In  short,  nothing  is  more  useful  tnan  to  inspire  men  with  a  con¬ 
tempt  for  death,  and  to  banish  from  their  minds  the  false  ideas  which 
are  given  them  of  its  consequences.  The  fear  of  death  will  never 
make  any  thing  but  cowards ;  the  fear  of  its  pretended  consequences 
will  make  nothing  but  fanatics,  or  pious  melancholy  beings,  useless 
to  themselves  and  to  others.  Death  is  a  resource  that  we  must  not 
by  any  means  take  away  from  oppressed  virtue,  which  the  injustice 
of  men  frequently  reduces  to  despair.  If  men  feared  death  less,  they 
wTould  neither  be  slaves  nor  superstitious.  Truth  wrould  find  defen¬ 
der's  more  zealous ;  the  rights  of  man  would  be  more  hardily  sustain¬ 
ed  ;  error  would  be  more  powerfully  combated,  and  tyranny  would  lx? 
forever  banished  from  nations.  Cowardice  nourishes  it,  and  fear  per¬ 
petuates  it.  In  short,  men  can  neither  be  contented  nor  happy  whilst 
their  opinions  shall  oblige  them  to  tremble!!!” 

Such,  my  friends,  is  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  doctrine 
of  necessity .  I  propose,  to-momnv,  all  things  concurring,  to  present 
you  systematically  with  the  argument  already  introduced  demonstra¬ 
tive  of  the  last  position ;  and  after  that,  to  adduce  the  direct  and 
positive  evidences  of  the  truth  and  certainty  of  the  Christian  religion. 
[Half  hour  out.] 


“Here  Mr.  Owen  requested  the  audience  not  to  return  home  with  their 
heads  full  of  swords  and  pistols.  “Mr .  Campbell said  he,  “has  given 
you  a  lease  of  a  thousand  years  of  happiness?’1] 


Wednesday  forenoon,  15  th  April. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

My  friends,  the  subject  in  which  we  finished  reading  yesterday 
evening  was  tear.  The  next  subject  is  one  of  great  interest  to  all  of 
ns.  It  is  marriage. 


MARRIAGE. 

As  w7e  have  seen  that  man  is  so  organized  by  nature,  that  he  must 
like  that  which  is  agreeable  to  him,  and  dislike  that  which  nature  has 
made  disagreeable,  all  engagements  between  men  and  women,  pro¬ 
fessing  to  like  or  love  each  other,  through  fixture  unknown  changes 
in  both,  w  ill  altogether  terminate.  Other,  and  much  better  arrange¬ 
ments  will  be  formed  for  their  union,  agreeable  to  the  divine  laws  of 
their  nature.,  and  which  will  put  an  end  to  the  present  prostitution  of 
both  body  and  mind,  to  jealousy  and  to  all  sexual  crimes.  The  in¬ 
vention  of  unnatural  marriages  has  been  the  sole  origin  of  all  sexual 
crimes.  They  have  rendered  prostitution  unavoidable.  They  have 
erected  a  spurious  chastity  and  destroyed  all  knowledge  of  pure  clias- 
ty.  For  real  chastity  consists,  in  connexion  with  affection,  and  pros¬ 
titution,  m  connexion  wuthout  affection. 

The  aiffeial  bonds  of  indissoluable  marriage,  and  the  single  fam¬ 
ily  arrangements  to  which  marriage  leads,  are  much  more  calculated 
to  destroy  than  to  promote  affection,  and,  in  consequence,  the  parties 
frequently  live  together  in  a  state  of  real  prostitution,  both  of  body 
and  mind,  and  by  the  customs,  established  in  various  countries,  they 
are  obliged  to  be  satisfied  with  this  spurious  chastity  which  is  real 
prostitution. 

In  the  new  state  of  existence  that  which  experience  has  proved  to 
be  really  beneficial  in  marriage,  or  single  family  arrangements,  will 
be  retained,  while  all  that  is  injurious  and  contrary  to  nature,  will  be 
dismissed. 


By  these  arrangements,  men  and  women  will  be  equally  well  edr 
ucated,  they  will  have  the  same  rights  and  privileges,  and  they  will 
associate  on  terms  of  intimacy  through  their  lives,  with  these  only 
-for  whom  they  cannot  avoid  feeling  the  most  regard  and  greatest  af¬ 
fection. 


COMMERCE 

Now  consists  in  buying  and  selling  for  a  monied  profit,  and  neces¬ 
sarily  engenders  every  kind  “of  deception  and  injustice  under  the 
specious  term  of  fair  trading.  This  kind  of  traffic  will  not  be  known 
in  our  new  state  of  existence.  The  fewest  in  number,  and  those 
especially  appointed  for  the  purpose,  will  make  such  exchange  of  com¬ 
modities,  between  the  different  associations  as  experience  shall  prove 
to  be  the  best  for  all,  and  every  commodity  will  be  exchanged  in  cases, 
for  the  same,  amount  of  labor  which  it  contains  according  to  genera] 


* 


DEBATE. 


12 1 

estimates,  accurately  made,  and  applicable  alike  to  all  parties.— 
Those  who  convey  the  articles  from  one  place  to  another  and  make 
the  exchange  will  have  their  labor  added  to  the  previous  estimate  of 
labor  in  them. 

The  equitable  exchange  of  surplus  productions  upon  this  system 
will  be  much  better  effected,  than  they  are  now,  by  less  than  ore  per 
cent,  of  the  present  cost  to  the  producers,  all  of  v.-hich  is  deducted 
from  the  real  value  of  their  labor;  and  all  the  degradation  and  im¬ 
morality  of  bargaining  will  be  withdrawn  from  society. 

TRAVELLING 

Will  be  arranged  in  the  new  state  of  existence  to  give  every  ad  = 
vantage  which  can  arise  from  it,  while  almost  all  its  real  inconveni¬ 
ences  will  be  greatly  diminished.  And  all  who  desire  will  have  the 
privilege  of  removing  from  one  association,  and  from  one  district  to 
another,  under  such  regulations  as  will  be  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
members  of  the  communities.. 

The  accommodations  for  travelling  by  land  or  water, ‘will  be  the  best 
that  can  be  devised  for  health  and  comfort,  and  for  promoting  the 
means  of  improvement.  These  objects,  by  foresight  under  a  proper 
system  maybe  obtained  without  difficulty. 

EDUCATION. 

All  the  advantages  which  old  society  has  endeavored  to  gain  from 
governments, religions,  laws,  wars,  marriages  and  commerce;  in  all  of 
which  it  has  grievously  failed,  will  be  attained  and  secured  in  the  new 
state  of  existence  by  an  entire  change  of  the  circumstances  by  which, 
the  whole  character  of  man  will  be  formed  by  education  from  infancy 
to  maturity.  • 

He  will  be  trained  and  educated  from  birth  within  circumstances  all 
in  unison  with  the  known  laws  of  his  nature;  he  will  be  early  taught 
to  discover  and  understand  them  by  the  exercise  of  his  intellectual 
faculties  and  to  act  in  obedience  to  them  by  a  conviction,  that  they 
alone,  can  lead  to  happiness,  and  by  observing  the  advantages  derived 
from  obeying  these  laws  by  those  of  mature  age  and  experience. 

All  will  thus  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the 
influence  of  circumstances  over  human  nature  and  know  Tow  to  act 
upon  that  knowledge  in  all  the  business  of  life.  They  will  speedily 
learn  to  know  what  is  essential  to  the  well-being,  the  well-doing  and 
the  happiness  of society.  They  will  soon  discover  that  the  great  busi¬ 
ness  of  life  will  consist  in  educating,  producing,  preserving,  distribu¬ 
ting,  and  preparing  the  means  for  enjoying.  And  to  do  these,  in  the 
best  manner,  for  the  young,  middle  aged  and  old,  the  three  classes  into 
which  society  will  be  divided  will  occupy  the  attention  of  every  one* 
and  be  a  constant  source  of  exercise,  interest,  and  pleasure  to  all  . 

The  sacrifice  to  which  men  of  the  present  generation  must  submit, 
before  they  can  secure  the  benefit  of  this  new  state  of  existence,  is* 
that  they  must  enjoy  their  happiness  upon  principles  of  perfect  equal; 
fy  with  all  of  the  human  race, 

u 


DEBATE. 


For  these  enjoyments  cannot  be  obtained  under  any  system  of  ar¬ 
tificial  inequality  or  separation  into  distinct  classes.  The  new  state 
of  existence  will  admit  of  those  differences  only  which  nature  makes 
unavoidable,  that  is,  age  and  knowledge^ 

This  new  mode  of  education  will  call  into  full  action  the  physical;, 
intellectual  and  moral  powers  of  all  individuals,  and  will  form  them  to 
..  be,  in  consequence,  much  more  competent  to  the  whole  business  of 
fife  than  their  predecessors  in  old  society, 

GOVERNMENTS. 

Artificial  governments  will  be  required  only  so  long  as  men  shall 
be  retained  in  ignorance  of  the  divine  laws  of  their  nature,  and  trained 
to  be  vicious.  A  preliminary  government  will  be  therefore  necessary, 
while  the  change  is  progressing  from  the  old  to  the  new  state. 

After  the  change  shall  have  been  effected,  by  the  education  of  an 
entire  generation  in  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  the  divine  laws,  a 
natural  government  will  be  formed  in  unison  with  them. 

It  is  now  evident,  that  no  people  can  be  virtuous,  intelligent  and 
- nappy  under  any  despotic  or  elective  government,  or  under  any  modi¬ 
fication  of  them.  They  must  necessarity  produce  evil  continually. 

Monarchy  is  defective  in  principle,  on  account  of  the  uncertain 
haracterof  the  sovereign,  as  well  as  the  extreme  inequality  it  produ¬ 
ces  in  the  condition  of  the  governed. 

The  elective  principle  is  equally  defective,  under* the  old  arrange¬ 
ment  of  society,  on  account  of  the  corruption  of  morals,  and  the  un~ 
'easing  bad  feelings  which  it  engenders. 

And  any  combination  of  these  two  modes  of  government  will  ne- 
essarily  partake  of  the  evils  of  both.  But  no  government,  even  the 
nest  ever  known  in  old  society,  can  do  more  than  mitigate,  for  a  short 
period,  some  of  the  innumerable  evils  which  an  opposition  to  the  laws 
of  nature  unavoidably  produces. 

The  existing  generation  however  is  not  prepared  for  a  government 
in  accordance  with  all  the  Iaw7s  of  nature;  we  have  been  so  much  inju¬ 
red  by  the  erroneous  impressions  w  hich  have  been  made  on  our  minds, 
and  by  the  vicious  character  which  has  been  formed  for  us,  that  the 
utmost  that  can  be  expected  in  our  case  is  an  approximation  in  some 
degree  towards  that  which  is  right  in  principle  and  correct  in  practice. 

A  preliminary  government  must,  therefore,  be  framed  for  the  pres¬ 
ent  generation  to  lead  it  onward,  gradually  as  the  mind  expands,  and 
the  practice  improves  until  our  children  shall  be  fully  prepared  fon 
one  in  accordance  writh  all  the  divine  laws  of  human  nature. 

And  this  preliminary  government  must  be  made  to  approximate 
more  or  less  to  the  laws  of  nature,  as  the  part  ies  preparing  to  act  upon 
the  social  system  shall  have  acquired  more  or  less  knowledge  of  it. 

In  this  preliminary  government,  therefore,  there  must  be  a  modifi¬ 
cation  of  the  existing  law7s  and  customs  relative  to  religion,  marriage, 
private  property,  responsibility,  or  rewards  or  punishments,  and  of 
t]ie  modes  of  producing,  distributing  and  enjoying,  as  w7ell  as  of  edu¬ 
cating  those  who  have  been  already  partially  instructed  in  the  fates 
notions  and  injurious  practices  of  the  present  systetps. 


DEBATE. 


m 


Tiie  extent  to  which  these  approximations  shall  proceed  towards 
the  perfect  laws  of  nature,  must  be  left  to  the  decision  of  the  united 
will  of  the  parties,  who  associate,  to  commence  the  social  or  natural 
system ;  or  to  the,  perhaps,  more  calm  determination  of  the  person 
whom  they  may  appoint  to  administer  the  new  government,  until 
they  shall  become  sufficiently  experienced  to  govern  themselves  ac** 
cording  to  the  laws  of  their  nature.  • 

It  is  probable  these  modifications  will  be  at  first,  various,  depending 
in  some  degree,  upon  the  climate,  soil,  and  previous  habits  and  cus¬ 
tom,  but  most  essentially,  upon  the  progress  the  whole  party  uniting 
may  have  acquired  of  the  law's  of  their  nature. 

It  will  be  readily  conceived  that  in  the  new  state  of  existence,  sla¬ 
very  will  be  unknown.  It  will,  of  course,  die  a  natural  death  under 
the  preliminary  government  of  the  present  generation,  and  in  the  sp* 
cond  generation,  servitude  also  will  cease. 

After  that  period  all  the  domestic  operations  of  the  world  will  \>a 
performed  by  mechanical  inventions  and  chemical  discoveries,  under 
the  direction  of  the  youth  of  both  sexes,  a  knowledge  of  which  they 
will  acquire  theoretically  and  practically,  as  a  necessary  and  impor¬ 
tant  part  of  their  education,  and  in  this  respect  all  will  pass  through 
the  same  training  and  exercise.  It  is  probable  that  this  part  of  the 
business  of  life  will  be  easily  completed,  ina  manner  greatly  superior 
to  any  thing  hitherto  known,  before  these  young  persons  shall  be 
twenty  years  of  age,  perhaps  at  eighteen,  and  the  arrangements  may 
be  so  formed  as  to  make  that  which  is  now  considered  a  task  of  slavery 
by  the  most  ignorant,  to  become  a  delightful  occupation;  in  fact  a 
pleasure  and  a  pastime  to  the  most  intelligent  in  principle,  and  the 
most  expert  in  practice. 

In  this  new  state  of  existence,  physical  and  intellectual  employ¬ 
ments  will  be  held  in  estimation  in  proportion  as  they  are  necessary 
and  useful,  and  all  useless  occupations  as  long  as  there  shall  be  any 
thing  useful  to  perform,  or  new  knowledge  to  acquire,  will  be  deemed 
a  waste  of  time  and  faculties,  to  be  practised,  only,  by  the  irrational 
or  insane. 

Idleness,  the  bane  of  human  happiness,  will  be  unknown;  it  will  be 
wholly  prevented  by  the  new  mode  of  education  as  it  will  be  applied 
in  infancy,  childhood,  and  youth;  while  on  the  contrary,  over-exer¬ 
tion  of  body  or  mind,  will  not  be  practised,  because  all  will  know  that 
temperance  in  the  exercise  and  use  of  ail  our  faculties  will  give  the 
greatest  amount  of  happiness,  that  human  nature  can  enjoy. 

OF  A  NATURAL  GOVERNMENT  OR  OF  ONE  IN  ACCORDANCE  WITH 

THE  LAWS  OF  NATURE. 

A  government  founded  on  these  principles,  will  attend  solely  to  the 
improvement  and  happiness  of  the  governed. 

Its  first  inquiries  will  be  to  ascertain,  what  human  nature  13,  what 
jare  the  laws  of  its  organization  and  of  its  existence  from  birth  to  death. 

The  second,  What  is  necessary  for  the  happiness  of  a  being  so 
formed  and  matured. 

Ami  the  third,  What  are  the  best  means  by  which  to  attain  these 


DEBA'PK. 


I'1  * 

requisites,  and  to  secure  them  permanently  for  all  the' governed. 

We  have  developed  the  divine  laws  of  human  nature  in  sufficient  de¬ 
tail  for  the  present  purpose. 

Those  things  which  are  necessary  for  the  happiness  of  a  being  so 
formed  and  matured,  are  comprised, perhaps,  in  the  following  enu¬ 
meration. 

OF  THINGS  NECESSARY  FOR  HUMAN  HAPPINESS. 

1.  The  possession  of  a  good  organization,  physical,  mental,  and 
moral. 

2.  Having  the  power  to  procure,  at  pleasure,  whatever  is  necessa¬ 
ry  to  keep  that  organization  in  the  best  state  of  health. 

3.  An  education  which  shall  cultivate,  in  the  best  manner,  from 
infancy  to  maturity,  the  physical,  intellectual^  and  moral  powers  of 
all  the  population. 

4.  The  means  and  inclination  to  promote  the  happiness  of  our 

fellow-beings. 

5.  The  means  and  inclination  to  increase  continually  our  stock  of 
knowledge. 

-  G.  The  means  of  enjoying  the  best  society  we  know,  and  more  par- 
ocularly,  the  power  of  associating,  at  pleasure  with  those,  for  whom 
we  cannot  avoid  feeling  the  most  regard  and  greatest  affection. 

7.  The  means  of  travelling  at  pleasure. 

$.  A  release  from  superstition,  from  supernatural  fears,  and  from 
the  fear  of  death. 

And  lastly,  to  live  in  a  society  in  which  all  its  laws,  institutions, 
and  arrangements,  shall  be  in  accordance  with  the  divine  laws  of 
human  nature,  wreil  organized,  and  well  governed.  A  more  detailed 
examination  of  these  nine  general  conditions  will  be  found  in  the  ap¬ 
pendix. 

The  third  great  object  of  a  natural  government  will  be  to  devise 
rind  execute  the  arrangements,  by  which  these  conditions  shall  be  ob¬ 
tained  for,  and  secured  to  all  the  governed. 

Its  laws  will  be  few,  easily  to  be  understood  by  all  the  governed, 
and  in  every  instance  in  unison  with  the  laws  of  human  nature. — 
They  may  be  perhaps  contained  in  the  following 

CODE  OF  NATURAL  LAWS. 

1.  As  all  men  have  equal  rights  by  nature,  all  will  have  equal 
rights  in  the  new  state  of  existence;  and,  therefore,  all  men  shall  be 
upon  a  perfect  equality  from  birth  to  death  in  their  conditions  of  life. 

2.  As  all  men  are  composed  of  their  own  peculiar  organization  at 
uirfch,  and  of  the  influence  which  the  circumstances  around  them  from 
birth  made  upon  that  particular  organization,  and  as  no  man  creates 
his'own  organization,  or  the  circumstances  w  hich  surround  him,  in 
infancy,  childhood,  and  youth,  or  at  any  subsequent  period  of  life, 
except  in  so  far  as  he  is  influenced  thereto  by  the  impressions  pre¬ 
viously  made  on  his  organization  by  those  early  circumstances, there¬ 
fore,  no  man  shall  be  held  responsible  for  his  physical  composition, 
fjf  his  intellectual  faculties,  or  for  his  moral  feelings,  and  conse¬ 
quently  for  his  character  and  conduct. 


DEBATE. 


125 


As  the  society  however  in  which  he  shall  be  born  and  shall  live  will 
derive  all  the  benefit  of  his  good  actions,  and  experience  all  the  incoit* 
veniences  of  his  bad  qualities,  and  as  the  society  will  have  have  in  a 
very  great  degree  the  formation  of  the  character  and  direction  of  the 
conduct  of  ail  individualls  under  its  education  and  government;  it 
will  be  alone  entitled  to  all  the  praise  or  blame  which  the  actions  of 
the  individual  may  deserve.  Beings  formed  as  man  is,  cannot  justly 
be  entitled  to  individual  reward  or  punishment  in  this  life  or  the  next ... 

3.  As  no  individual  can  believe  or  disbelieve  contrary  to  the  strong¬ 
est  impressions  made  upon  his  mind,  no  merit  or  reward,  no  blame  or 
punishment  shall  be  awarded  to  any  individual  for  any  opinions,  no¬ 
tions,  or  faith  whatever. 

4.  As  man  is  organized  to  receive  impressions  from  external  objects 
and  internal  reflections,  according  to  the  unchanging  or  divine  laws 
of  his  nature,  no  man  shall  be  made,  in  any  degree,  responsible  for  his 
sensations,  whether  of  liking,  or  disliking,  loving,  indifference,  or  ha¬ 
ting,  of  pleasure  or  of  pain,  or  of  whatever  character  or  description 
they  may  be. 

But  all  shall  be  educated  from  infancy  in  perfect  sincerity,  that 
they  may  give  a  faithful  expression  of  their  sensations,  in  order  that 
society  may  acquire  the  most  accurate  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
and  consequently  of  the  means  by  which  all  may  be  the  most  impro¬ 
ved  and  rendered  the  most  happy. 

5.  Each  individual  shall  have  his  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
nature,  cultivated  from  infancy  to  maturity,  in  the  best  manner  known 
to  the  society  in  which  he  shall  be  born  and  shall  live. 

6.  Every  individual,  shall  pass  from  infancy  through  the  same  gen¬ 
eral  routine  of  education  and  domestic  teaching  and  employments,  in  or¬ 
der,  that  the  highest  happiness  may  be  permanently  secured  for  society, 
and  that  everyone  of  its  members  may  have,  with  the  least  inconve¬ 
nience,  his  full  share  of  the  best  of  every  thing  for  his  individual 
nature. 

7.  The  best  only  of  every  thing  shall  be  produced  by  society  for 
all  its  members. 

Because  to  do  so  will  be  the  most  perfect  economy,  consequently 
the  best  cultivation,  the  best  buildings,  the  best  dress,  the  best  vessels; 
machinery,  and  manufactures,  the  best  education,  and  the  best  amuse* 
ments  and  recreation,  known  at  the  time,  will  be  always  provided 
for  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  every  member  of  the  society. 

8.  As  loving  and  hating,  liking,  indifference,  or  disliking,  depend 
not  upon  the  will  but  upon  the  impressions  which  external  objects' 
compel  each  individual  to  receive  by  reason  ofhis  particular  organ!' 
nation — 

There  shall  be  no  artificial  or  unnatural  bonds  or  engagements  bo 
tween  the  sexes,  compelling  them  to  commit  perjury  under  the  name 
of  marriage,  by  promising  to  love  when  they  may  be  compelled  t£>. 
hate. 

9*  As  pure  chastity  consists  in  co-habitation  with  mutual  affection 
•and  prostitution  in  connexion  without  mutual  affection,  all  children 

11* 


DEBATE 


126 

in  the  new  state  of  existence  will  be  naturally  produced,  according;, 
to  the  divine  laws  of  human  nature,  and  none  will  be  produced  unnatf 
urally  as  at  present  without  affection. 

10.  All  children  born  in  the  new  state  of  existence  shall  be  from, 
their  birth,  under  the  special  care  of  the  society  to  which  they  belong. 

11.  The  children  of  all  parents  shall  be  trained  and  educated  togeth¬ 
er,  by  the  society,  as  the  children  of  one  family,  and  all  of  them  shall 
be  early  taught  the  divine  laws  of  their  nature,  in  order  that  they 
may  acquire  a  real  affection  for  each  other,  a,nd  a  pure  charity,  ari¬ 
sing  from  a  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  every  difference  in  person, 
mind,  and  feelings,  which  may  exist  among  themselves,  or  between 
them  and  any  of  their  fellow-beings. 

12.  All  parents  shall  have  free  intercourse  to  and  with  their  chil¬ 
dren,  during  the  whole  period  of  the  formation  of  their  character, 
which,  a  short  experience  wiil  convince  them,  can  never  be  well  form-* 
ed  under  any  single  family  arrangement. 

13.  There  shall  be  no  unnecessary  private  property  possessed  by 
any  one  in  this  new  state  of  existencfe.  But  each  adult  shall  have  the 
full  use  of  two  private  apartments  as  long  as  the  party  to  whom  they 
shall  be  allotted  by  the  society  shall  desire  to  retain  them.  They 
shall  also  retain  all  clothes  and  other  things  which  they  may  receive 
from  the  society  according  to  its  rules,  for  their  exclusive  use  and  conT 
sumption. 

14.  As  it  is  necessary  for  the  attainment  of  all  the  conditions  requi- 
c  ite  to  give  happiness  to  mankind,  that  some  certain  number  of  indi¬ 
viduals  shall  be  associated  as  one  family,  to  give  the  greatest  amount 
of  advantages  with  the  fewrest  inconveniencies,  and  as  it  is  probable 
that  experience  will  prove  that  number  to  be  about  one  thousand  in- 
Jividuals,  composed  of  men,  women,  and  children  in  the  usual  pro¬ 
portions  ;  all  the  arrangements  in  the  new  state  of  existence  shall 
be  devised  to  admit  the  formation  of  associations  and  communities  to 
consist  of  three  hundred,  as  a  minimum,  and  two  thousand  as  a  maxi¬ 
mum,  to  form,  instead  of  single  families,  the  nucleus  society,  or  the 
natural  congregation  of  men  in  one  place,  the  beet  calculated  to  pro¬ 
mote  each  other’s  happiness. 

15.  That  the  aggregate  of  society,  in  this  new  state  of  existence*, 
shall  be  composed  of  the  union  of  these  communities  into  such  num¬ 
bers  or  circles,  as  shall  be  found  in  practice,  the  most  convenient  for 
their  general  government. 

It  is  probable,  that  very  generally,  they  may  be  united  into  cir¬ 
cles  of  tens  for  more  local  purposes,  into  hundreds,  for  smaller  dis¬ 
tricts,  into  thousands,  for  larger  districts,  into  millions,  for  the  most 
extended  purposes,  until  there  shall  be  no  artificial  separation  be¬ 
tween  any  portion  of  mankind,  to  be  an  obstacle  to  prevent  a  union 
of  language,  of  interest,  and  of  feelings..  Every  obstacle  to  the  unioa) 
of  mankind, being  an  evil. 

16.  Each  of  these  communities,  to  secure  their  independence  shall 
possess  around  it,  land  sufficient  for  the  full  support  of  all  its  members, 
••when  they  shall  be  at  the  maximum  in  number. 


DEBATE. 


5 

i 

17.  Each  of  these  communities  shall  be  arranged  to  give,  as'  near¬ 
ly  as  possible,  the  same  advantages  to  all  its  members,  and  to  afford 
easy  communication  with  all  other  communities,- 

18.  Each  community  shall  be  governed  in  all  its  general  proceed¬ 
ings,  by  the  council  composed  of  all  its  members,  between  the  ages 
of  thirty  five  and  forty  five.  And  each  department  shall  be  under 
the  immediate  direction  of  a  committee  formed  of  the  members  of  this 
council.  And  these  members  shall  be  chosen  in  the  order  to  be  de¬ 
termined  upon  by  each  council  4 

There  will  be,  therefore,  no  selection  or  election  of  any  individuals 
to  office,  after  a  period  when  all  shall  be  trained  to  be  more  than 
equal  to  take  his  full  share  of  the  duties  of  management  at  the  age 
fixed  upon. 

19.  At  thirty  five  years  of  age,  all  who  shall  have  been  trained 
from  infancy  in  the  communities,  shall  be  officially  called  upon  to 
undertake  their  full  share  of  the  duties  of  management,  and  at  forty 
live  they  shall  be  excused  from  officially  performing  them. 

20.  The  business  of  the  council  shall  be  to  govern  all  the  circum 
stances  within  the  boundaries  of  its  own  community.  To  endeavor 
to  improve  them,  by  removing  continually  the  most  unfavorable  cir¬ 
cumstances  to  happiness  and  by  replacing  them,  by  the  best  that  can 
be  devised  among  themselves,  or,  that  they  can  obtain  a  knowledge 
of,  from  all  the  ether  communities. 

21.  The  council  shall  have  full  power  of  government  in  all  things 
as  long  as  they  do  not  act  contrary  to  the  divine  laws  of  human 
nature.  These  laws  shall  be  their  guide  upon  all  occasions,  because, 
when  understood,  they  will  prevent  one  unjust  or  erroneous  decision 
or  proceeding. 

22.  If,  however,  which  is  deemed  scarcely  possible,  this  natural 
council  of  government  shall  ever  attempt  to  contravene  the  laws  of 
human  nature,  the  elders  of  the  community,  who  have  passed  the 
council,  shall  call  a  general  meeting  of  all  its  members,  above  six¬ 
teen  years  of  age,  who  have  been  trained  from  infancy  within  the 
communities.  At  this  meeting,  the  conduct  of  the  council,  shall  be 
calmly  and  patiently  investigated,  and  if  a  majority  of  its  members", 
shall  afterwards  determine  that  the  council  has  acted,  or  attempted  to 
act,  in  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  these  divine  laws;  the  government 
shall  devolve  upon  the  members  of  the  community  wfho  have  passed 
the  council,  and  who  are  under  fifty  years  of  age,  united  with  these 
members,  w'ho  have  not  entered  the  council  who  shall  be  above 
thirty  years  of  age. 

23.  All  other  differences  of  every  description,  if  indeed  it  be  possi¬ 
ble  for  any  to  exist  in  such  communities,  shall  be  immediately  deter¬ 
mined  andamicably  adjusted  between  the- parties,  by  the  decision  of 
a  majority  of  the  three  oldest  members  of  the  council.  Except  wffien 
the  difference  shall  exist  between  members  of  the  council,  when  it 
shall  be  in  like  manner  decided  by  the  three  Members,  who  have 
lost  passed  through  the  council. 


128 


DEBATE. 


24.  As  soon  as  the  members  of  these  communities  shall  be  educated 
from  infancy  in  a  knowledge  of  the  divine  laws  of  their  nature,- 
trained  to  act  in  obedience  to  them,  and  they  shall  be  surrounded  by 
circumstances  all  in  unison  with  these  laws,  there  shall  be  no  indi  ' 
vidual  punishment  or  reward. 

All  these  educated,  trained,  and  placed  must,  of  necessity,  at  alt 
times,  think  and  act  rationally,  except  they  shall  become,  physically* 
intellectually,  or  morally  diseased,  and  in  this  case  the  council 
shall  direct  to  the  best  mode  of  cure,  by  removing  them  into  the 
hospital  for  bodily  or  mental  invalids  until  they  shall  be  recovered 
by  the  mildest  treatment  that  can  effect  their  cure. 

25.  The  council,  whenever  it  shall  be  necessary,  shall  call  to  its 
aid,  the  practical  abilities  of  any  of  the  members,  under  thirty  five 
years  of  age,  and  the  advice  of  any  of  the  members  who  shall  have 
passed  the  council. 

The  individual  Spartans  were  not  the  legitimate  subjects  of 
praise  or  blame,  they  were  not,  any  more  than  any  other  people* 
the  formers  of  their  own  character,  but  their  characters  were  formed 
for  them  by  the  circumstances  introduced  by  Lycurgus.  [ Half  hour 

QUt.] 

Wednesday  forenoon,  15  ih  April,  lS2£b 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Gentlemen  Moderators — I  am  perfectly  aware  of  the  difficult  cir¬ 
cumstances  in  which  my  friend’s  course  has  placed  you.  You  have 
been  selected  by  Mr.  Owen  and  myself  for  the  express  purpose  of 
moderating  this  discussion,  with  the  fullest  confidence,  on  both  our 
parts,  in  your  ability  and  impartiality.  To  insure  the  most  perfect 
impartiality,  you  were  mutually  selected.  I  am  well  aware,  there¬ 
fore,  that  you  must  feel  yourselves  responsible  to  us  and  to  the  com¬ 
munity  for  your  course  in  the  management  of  this  discussion.  I  have 
not  the  slightest  reflection  to  make  upon  your  mode  of  procedure — it 
is  reasonable  and  consistent.  You  have  entered  your  protest  against 
Mr.  Owen’s  course  in  this  debate;  for  that,  it  has  been  irrelevant, 
impertinent,  and  out  of  the  purview  of  the  discussion  contemplated ; 
and  to  which  the  public  have  been  invited.  You  also  perceive  my 
difficulties.  I  came  here  to  reply  to  my  friend’s  arguments  in  sup¬ 
port  of  his  own  theses;  the  obvious  scope  of  which  was  the  subversion 
of  all  religion.  I  came  here  prepared  to  show  that  my  opponent  was' 
not  able  to  make  good  a  single  point  which  he  had  assumed ;  that  h£ 
could  not  adduce  a  single  logical  proof  in  corroboration  of  his  posi¬ 
tions — therefore,  I  could  not  expect  to  have  to  open  this  discussion:  > 
Tiiis  was  not  a  supposeable  case.  Had  I  known  that  I  was  to  havd 
taken  the  affirmative,  I  should  have  come  forward  prepared  with  !) 
some  plan  of  argument  in  which  my  opponent  might  have  joined  issue 
with  me;  and  1  would  have  led  the  discussion  in  such  manner  as.  { 
would  soon,  in  my  opinion,  have  led  us  to  rational  conclusions. 
Surrounded  with  these  difficulties,  gentlemen,  it  appears  necessarj^  : 
that  some  decision  should  be  made  on  the  course  of  investigation. 


DEBATE 


120 


Yesterday  I  introduced  a  series  of  arguments,  calculated,  in  my 
opinion,  and  in  that  of  the  public  at  large,  to  subvert  Mr.  Owen's 
propositions.  He  would  not  argue  the  merits  of  one  of  my  positions-. 
For  two  days  Mr.  Owen  has  been  presenting  a  great  variety  of  topics 
which  he  might  have  introduced  as  pertinently  in  any  other  discus¬ 
sion  as  the  present.  I  have  taken  up  his  own  positions  in  his  own 
terms,  and  agreed  to  rest  the  merits  of  the  controversy  upon  his  own 
allegata.  But  as  I  stand  pledged  to  subvert  Mr*  Owen’s  whole  theo¬ 
ry,  I  proposed  yesterday  to  introduce  a  regular  and  connected  argu¬ 
ment,  without  paying  any  respect  to  any  thing  which  might  be  offered 
by  him,  unless  it  were  pertinent  to  the  subject  matter  in  debate. 
This  morning  we  have  had  a  disquisition  upon  marriage,  commerce, 
and  a  code  of  natural  laws,  none  of  which  has  any  bearing  upon, 
or  logical  connexion  with,  the  question  at  issue.  1  therefore  ask  you, 
gentlemen,  to  allow  me  to  pursue  what  I  deem  the  only  correct  course 
under  present  circumstances,  and  to  declare  your  opinion  of  Mr. 
Owen’s  ‘'course  in  the  management  of  his  part  of  this  discussion . 
Perhaps  this  will  be  equally  necessary  for  your  vindication  as  for  my 
own,  inasmuch  as  the  whole  proceedings  may  become  matter  of  re¬ 
cord.  It  was  part  of  my  original  plan,  that  every  morning  a  brief 
condensed  view,  or  recapitulation,  should  be  presented  of  the  argu¬ 
ments  and  positions  of  the  preceding  day.  On  reviewing  the  outline 
of  the  course  already  pursued,  I  have  made  up  the  following  abstract : 

REC  A  PITTJLATION. 

Mr.  Owen’s  capital  position,  on  which  he  has  laid  so  much  stress, 
is,  that  man,  because  he  does  not  make  himself  or  his  circumstances, 
is  an  irresponsible  being.  In  opposition  to  which  we  have  urged  this 
consideration — that,  admitting  its  truth,  it  follows  that  infants,  idiots, 
and  madmen,  philosophers,  and  the  common-sense  part  of  the  commu  • 
nity,  are  all  alike  capable  or  incapable  of  society  and  moral  govern¬ 
ment,  because  man  has  no  more  control  over  his  own  actions,  than 
a  mill-wheel  has  over  its  own  revolutions.  This  was,  as  I  conceive, 
reducing  his  argument  to  an  absurdity. 

His  next  capital  position  is,  that  all  religious  institutions  and  all 
civil  governments  are  erroneous,  because  they  are  predicated  on 
human  responsibility;  they  require  man  to  have  more  control  over 
his  own  actions  than  a  mill-wheel  has  over  its  own  revolutions.  In 
opposition  to  both  these  positions,  we  have  urged  that  man  is  consti¬ 
tutionally  responsible,  because  rational;  that  all  the  circumstances 
which  can  surround  any  human  being,  the  savage  and  the  citizen, 
concur  in  suggesting  to  his  mind  in  the  very  first  dawnings  of  hi§ 
reason,  his  dependence  and  consequent  responsibility.  No  human 
being  can  possibly  be  placed  in  any  circumstances  which  do  not  im¬ 
press  upon  his  whole  intellectual  nature  a  sense  of  dependence  and 
responsibility.  Suppose  a  child  born  in  a  palace  or  a  wigwam — in 
either  case,  the  circumstances  around  him  must,  as  soon  as  reason 
dawns,  suggest  to  him  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  his  protectors., 
y'-is  sense  of  dependence  begets  the  idea  of  responsibility;  and  this*-. 


DEBATE. 


!&)' 

principle  of  human  nature  is  the  foundation  of  all  moral  obligation, 
of  every  social  compact,  of  all  civil  and  political  security, 

A  favorite  corollary  which  Mr.  Owen  deduces  from  his  views  of 
necessity,  or  the  fact  that  man  did  not  create  himself,  nor  his  circurm 
stances,  is,  that  neither  praise  nor  blame,  merit  nor  demerit,  can  be 
ascribed  to  man.  We  have  shown  that  also  there  can  be  no  such  thing 
as  gratitude  nor  kind  feeling,  charity  nor  benevolence  due  to  any 
human  being,  more  than  to  the  fountain  or  rivulet  which  slakes  our 
thirst,  or  to  the  tree  which  yields  us  its  fruit.  This  I  yesterday 
illustrated  by  showing  that  Mr.  Owen’s  plan  of  cultivating  the  kind 
feelings,  would  extirpate  all  feeling — and  that,  as  to  sympathies,  we, 
should  stand  towards  each  other  like  trees  in  the  forest. 

In  preparing  an  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  society,  and  corn* 
sequently  society  itself,  Mr.  Owen  asserts  that  the  circumstances 
which  now  surround  us,  arc  of  a  vitiating,  or  of  an  irrational  and  anti¬ 
natural  character ;  on  which  we  remark,  that,  as  the  circumstances 
which  surround  us  are  either  topical ,  arising  from  our  location,  or 
social ,  the  vitiocity  must  be  in  the  one  or  the  other;  not  in  the  former, 
because  it  is  natural ;  consequently  it  must  be  in  our  social  circum¬ 
stances.  Now  the  question  which  he  has  not  answered,  and  which 
we  know  he  cannot  answer,  is,  How  came  the  social  circumstances  to  he 
irrational  and  antinatural ,  seeing  necessity ,  or  what  he  calls  nature , 
has  introduced  them? 

The  scriptures  explain  to  us  both  the  cause  and  character  of  these 
preternataral  circumstances.  Mr.  Owen  does  not — cannot.  The 
scriptures  too  adapt  themselves  to  these  preternatural  circumstances, 
and  bring  men  out  of  them.  Mr.  Owen’s  scheme  is  not  adapted  to 
them,  neither  can  it  educe  man  from  these  preternatural  circumstan¬ 
ces.  Because  predicated  upon  an  entire  subversion  of  the  laws  of 
our  nature,  dependence,  obligation,  religion,  individuality,  matri¬ 
mony,  and  the  whole  influence  of  natural  relations,  arising  from  these 
things;  consequently  unable  to  educe  us  from  these  preternatural 
,  circumstances. 

Another  rallying  point  to  which  Mr.  Owen  often  resorts,  is,  that  it 
is  impossible  for  rational  beings  to  be  virtuously  happy  under  a  go¬ 
vernment  which  involves  perpetual  partial  pain  and  misery.  {The 
illustration  of  Mr.  Owen  was,  that  if  he  could  believe  one  sentient 
being  was  suffering  eternal  torment,  it  would  mar  his  peace  of  mind.) 
On  this  hypothesis,  no  man  ever  was,  and  no  man  ever  can  be  happy; 
for  the  more  virtuous  the  more  unhappy!  That  is,  if  virtuous  happi¬ 
ness  is  to  be  made  to  depend  upon  our  feeling  ourselves  existing  in 
such  circumstances  as  to  preclude  all  possible  pain  in  any  sentient 
being  whatever;  or  if  sympathy  and  virtue  must  make  us  miserable 
on  beholding  any  kind  of  sentient  suffering,  the  inseparable  connexion 
between  virtue  and  happiness  must  thereby  be  destroyed.  If  1  were 
afflicted  with  that  morbid  sympathy  which  the  theory  of  Mr.  Owen 
contemplates,  the  sight  of  a  broken  finger  or  a  dislocated  joint  would  , 
make  me  miserable.  On  his  hypothesis  I  could  not  be  happy  if  g 
single  instance  of  pain  existed  in  the  world.  On  the  hypothesis  that, 


DEBATE. 


in 

vihe  more  virtuous  we  are,  the  more  acute  and  morbid  our  sensibilities, 
there  can  be  no  happiness  or  enjoyment  in  the  practice  of  virtue. 

From  some  people  with  whom  I  have  reasoned  on  the  subject  of 
future  happiness,  I  have  heard  whole  theories  of  religion,  predicated 
■upon  the  idea  that  the  mercy  of  God  is  not  reconcileable  with  the  idea 
of  punishment,  present  or  future.  This  system  has  been  predicated 
upon  their  view  of  God’s  mercy.  I  have  hinted  to  them  the  danger  of 
founding  a  theory  of  religion  upon  their  imperfect,  and,  perhaps,  in¬ 
accurate  ideas  of  the  character  of  God,*  and  that  however  correct 
their  views  of  divine  justice  or  mercy  contemplated  apart  from  all 
other  perfections,  yet  the  compound  attributes  of  the  divine  character 
were  beyond  human  comprehension.  We  must  judge  of  the  divine 
attributes  from  what  exists  in  nature  before  our  eyes,  as  well  as  from 
what  is  said  in  scripture.  We  have  frequently  requested  such  reason- 
ers  to  reflect  that  animal  and  mental  pain  existed  to  a  very  great 
extent.  We  have  asked  them  to  imagine  a  great  field,  an  immense 
area ,  in  which  all  the  animals  of  the  various  genera  and  species  in 
the  universe,  that  were  suffering  pain  and  disease,  were  congregated^ 
what  millions  of  suffering  creatures,  grouped  together,  each  according"; 
to  its  kind,  do  we  see  in  this  immense. area .  To  a  man  of  morbid,  or  \ 
even  of  well-regulated  sensibilities,  what  a  sight  is  here  presented!  f, 
What  painful  sympathetic  feelings  are  excited!  If  the  very  idea  that  j 
the  saddle  on  which  I  ride  injures  my  horse’s  back,  makes  me  feel 
excessively  uncomfortable — how  would  the  actual  sight  of  all  these 
millions  of  suffering  animals,  congregated  within  the  limits  of  an 
-undivided  area,  affect  me!  1  shudder  at  the  thought.  And  yet  the 
beneficent  Creator  of  the  Universe  has  this  sight  before  his  eyes 
continually.  They  stand,  in  all  their  agonies,  night  and  day,  before 
him;  and  not  a  painful  throb  of  their  hearts,  not  a  single  spasm  of 
nerve  or  muscle,  that  his  all-seeing  eye  does  not  observe.  The  argu¬ 
ment  deduced  is,  that  if  it  be  compatible  with  the  diuine  government 
and  attributes  to  tolerate  such  a  scene  of  animal  suffering  perpetually 
before  him;  how  can  we  infer  from  these  premises,  that  the  future 
punishment  of  man  would  mar  the  felicity  of  his  Creator,  or  be  in¬ 
compatible  with  his  character.  This  will  be  received  as  a  logical 
argument  by  all  those  who  believe  in  future  punishments.  But  the 
Divine  Author  of  our  nature  has  so  constituted  us  that  we  are  not  to 
be  made  miserable  by  the  contemplation  of  temporary  or  perpetual 
partial  pain  and  misery.  He  has  most  beneficently  established  an 
inseparable  connexion  between  personal  virtue  and  personal  happi¬ 
ness,  between  personal  vice  and  personal  misery;  and  this  may  well 
be  called  a  divine  law  of  human  nature.  But,  my  friend’s  hypothesis 
would  lead  us  to  conclude  that,  just  in  proportion  as  we  become  virtu- 
ous,  we  must  become  unhappy. 

If  there  have  been  any  argument  offered  by  my  opponent,  in  sup-~. 
port  ofhis  premises,  it  amounts  to  this,  Because  religion  is  not  predi¬ 
cated  upon  the  sciences  of  botany,  agriculture,  chemistry,  geology, 
&c.  because  it  does  not  make  provision  for  the  improvement  of  the 
breed  of  animals,  i.  c„  of  men.  as  well  as  dogs  and  horses;  because  it 


YA2 


DEBATE. 


does  not  assimilate  social  man  to  the  savage  in  a  state  of  nature,  with¬ 
out  property,  save  his  bow  and  arrow ;  because  it  did  institute  matri¬ 
mony,  and  does  not  absolve  men  from  the  obligation  of  the  marriage 
contract,  and  all  other  moral  and  civil  contracts — ergo ,  it  is  not  divine, 
not  true,  not  worthy  of  universal  reception.  I  affirm  that  from  the 
reasonings  before  us,  this  is  the  logical  force  of  the  argument. 

[ Here  the  Chairman  rose  and  stated ,  that,  Mr,  Campbell  had  made 
an  appeal  to  the  Board  of  Moderators ,  and  the  Board  desire  to  know  if 
you  wish  the  point  to  be  now  decided  before  the  argument  progresses . 
This  decision  seems  now  to  be  necessary ,  after  advancing  whatever  you 
may  wish  to  offer  on  this  point. 

Mr.  Owen  rose  and  said — This  meeting  was  called  in  consequence 
of  my  undertaking  to  prove  certain  positions,  and  Mr.  Campbell 
engaging  to  disprove  them.  At  our  first  interview  at  Cincinnati,  1 
proposed  to  Mr.  Campbell  that  I  should  state  the  whole  of  my  argu¬ 
ments  first,  and  having  gone  through  with  them,  that  Mr.  Campbell 
should  reply  at  full  length;  but  Mr.  Campbell  wished  that  each  party 
should  speak  but  half  an  hour  at  a  time.  Knowing  that  the  truths  J 
had  to  advocate  were  plain  and  incontrovertible,  I  could  have  no  ob¬ 
jection  to  Mr.  Campbell’s  taking  the  course  he  suggested ;  but  in  con¬ 
sequence  of  our  having  to  speak  for  half  an  hour,  Mr.  Campbell  has 
been  replying  to  he  does  not  know  what.  Most  probably  Mr.  Camp¬ 
bell  expected  that  X  would  have  taken  up  the  arguments  which  he 
anticipated,  and  which  he  had  prepared  himself  to  refute.  Had  we 
proceeded  as  I  suggested,  Mr.  Campbell  would  now  have  been  in  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  whole  of  my  arguments,  and  X  think  by  this  he  would  have 
also  been  convinced  of  their  incontrovertible  truth.  When  I  have  got 
through  with  my  arguments  and  illustrations,  I  will  place  my  manu 
script  in  Mr.  Campbell’s  hands,  and  allow  him  his  own  time  fully  to 
consider  them.  This  is  the  first  morning  that  Mr.  Campbell  has  at¬ 
tempted  any  answer  to  my  arguments;  and  this  shows  that  I  was 
perfectly  correct  in  my  view  of  the  order  of  this  debate  which  1  open¬ 
ed  to  Mr.  Campbell  at  our  first  interview..  Mr.  Campbell  is  now 
beginning  to  come  to  the  point. 

[The  Hon ,  Chairman  rose  and  said— I  can  only  observe ,  that  the 
Moderators  are  of  their  former  opinion ,  that  they  consider  the  subject 
now  under  discussion  to  be  the  first  proposition  in  Mr.  Owen's  challenge 
viz.  an  offer  to  prove  that  all  religions  were  founded  in  ignorance  from 
whence  the  implication  arises  that  they  are  all  false.  From  the  begin¬ 
ning  we  have  been  of  opinion  that  the  rules  of  fair  discussion  required 
that  each  party  should  confine  himself  strictly  to  that  single  isolated  pro¬ 
position;  and  of  this  opinion  we  still  remain,  viz.  that  it  is  incorrect 
and,  illogical  to  deviate  from  the  course  just,  designated.  The  Board 
are  unanimously  of  opinion  that  Mr.  Owen's  first  proposition  is  the  or r 
iy  one  in  controversy,  and  that  each  party  should  confine  himself  to  math 
ter  strictly  relevant  and  pertinent  to  that  proposition.  That  in  order  to 
observe  the  established  controversial  rules ,  the  party  holding  the  affirm¬ 
ative  of  this  preposition  should  pi'oceed  to  demonstrate \  that  all  the  reli- 
£ioasf  now  existing  in  the  world ,,  originated  in  ignorance ,  and  are 


DEBATE, 


133 


%» 

j minded  in  error.  And  after  he  shall  have  demolished  all  the  religions 
the  Board  consider  that  it  would  he  proper  for  the  party  holding  the 
affirmative  of  the  proposition,  to  offer  a  substitute  for  the  system  abol¬ 
ished,  to  state  what  the  new  system  is,  and  the  consequences  resulting 
from  it;  because,  until  the  f  allacy  of  all  existing  systems  be  detected 
and  demonstrated it  does  not  follow  that  all  the  anticipated,  advantages 
of  the  new  system  may  not  be  the  legitimate  results  cf  the  existing 
systems .] 

Mr.  Owen  remarked — -Having  heard  your  wish  on  this  point,  I  have 
strictly  conformed  to  it:  all  I  have  been  saying  goes  to  prove  the 
past  and  present  ignorance  of  man;  when  I  shall  have  exhausted  this 
part  of  the  discussion,,  I  shall  then  adopt  any  course  which  the  Board 
may  suggest 

Mr.  Campbell  rose- — Gentlemen  Moderators,  I  agree  perfectly  with 
you  in  the  sentiment  that  it  would  be  incompatible  with  your  feelings 
and  the  dignity  of  this  controversy,  to  dictate  to  the  disputants  what 
course  they  shall  pursue.  I  am  perfectly  aware  of  the  delicacy  which 
you  must  feel  in  exercising  any  thing  like  dictation  in  the  course  of 
this  controversy ;  all  that  I  washed,  was,  that  you  would  express  your 
views  relative  to  the  manner  in  winch  the  controversy  has  been  < -on- 
ducted,  so  that  they  might  be  recorded  ;  and  that  1  might  be  author¬ 
ized  in  adopting  the  course  which  I  have  suggested. 

I  conceive,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  am  entitled  to  so  much  of  rny  time 
as  has  been  occupied  by  the  Board  and  disputants  in  the  discussion 
of  interlocutory  topics. 

[Mr.  Campbell  is  allowed  ff teen  minutes  to  make  up  his  half  hour.] 

Mr.  Campbell  then  rose  and  said— ‘Yielding  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  I  am  placed,  I  now  propose  to  submit  to  your  consideration  an 
analysis  of  the  infant  man  :  It  is  certainly  true,  as  Lord  Bacon  ob¬ 
serves,  that  “all  our  valuable  knowledge  of  the  world  has  been  gleaned 
from  minute  observation  f  therefore,  an  analysis  of  our  corporeal 
and  mental  endowments,  is  indispensable  in  arriving  at  any  thing  like 
a  correct  view  of  the  creature  man.  I  intend  not  to  elaborate  this 
matter,  but  merely  to  glance  at  the  five  senses  of  man,  regarding 
them  as  the  only  means  to  the  soul  or  mind  of  man  through  which  we 
^acquire  all  our  simple  and  original  ideas  of  the  universe  around  us. 
My  object  is,  to  demonstrate  from  a  brief  analysis  of  human  capacity 
the  utter  impossibility  of  man^s  originating  those  supernatural  ideas 
.which  are  necessarily  involved  in  the  frame  and  institution  of  every 
system  of  religion.  I  know  that  the  system  of  natural  religion  is  pre¬ 
dicated  upon  the  hypothesis,  that  man,  by  the  exercise  of  his  natural 
reason,  is  capable  of  arriving  at  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  rela  ¬ 
tions  to  him  and  one  another,  In  order  to  establish  the  true  iinc  of 
demarcation  in  this  matter,  I  affirm,  first,  that  there  is  a  God,  all  nature 
cries  aloud  through  all  her  works.  But  we  must  have  ears  to  hear 
this  voice.  In  other  words,  all  things  around  us  and  w  ithin  us  provft 
tho  existence  of  God  when  that  idea  is  originated.  2.  I  affirm  that  all 
nations  have  derived  their  ideas  of  Deity,  (and  there  is  no  nation  with¬ 
out  these  ideas,)  from  tradition  and  not  from  the  light  of  nature ,  3’. 

12 


134 


DEBATE, 


I  deny  that  man,  in  possession  of  but  live  senses,  and  with  no  other 
guide  but  the  light  of  nature,  could  ever  have  originated  the  idea  of 
Deity.  But  it  is  more  than  probable  that  no  human  being  having  but 
five  senses  would  be  a  fit  subject  for  an  experiment  whereby  to  ascer¬ 
tain  whether  it  were  in  human  nature,  unaided  by  the  light  of  ievela- 
tion  or  tradition,  to  originate  the  idea  of  a  God ;  because  all  who  have 
a  full  organization  have  heard  ol  a  Creator.  Therefore,  the  matter  is 

O  ' 

to  be  demonstrated  on  purely  philosophic  principles.  Now  the  ad¬ 
missions  are,  that  all  nature  vouches  the  existence  of  God — that  the  tra¬ 
dition  concermmg  God  is  the  common  moral  property  of  all  nations. 
And  the  negative  is,  that  man  cannot  originate  theidea  of  God, 

Now  it  is  conceded  on  all  hands  that  we  have  but  fee  senses f  and 
that  these  five  senses  are  the  only  avenues  through  which  intelligence 
concerning  material  things  can  reach  us,  These  are  the  senses  of 
seeing ,  hearing ,  tasting ,  smelling ,  feeling.  For  example,  let  us  take 
the  sense  of  smelling ,  as  the  most  simple  of  all  our  senses.  Nov/  there 
are  in  nature  many  substances  possessing  ordorous  properties  Upon 
a  chemical,  analysis  we  discover  that  these  odors  are  nothing  but 
small  particles  of  matter,  sometimes  exceedingly  minute.  These  par¬ 
ticles  falling  off  from  tfie  bodies,  are  pressed  into  the  atmospheric  air; 
in  the  process  of  respiration  they  reach  our  sense  of  smelling.  They 
penetrate  the  nasal  membrane,  and  strike  upon  the  olfactory  nerve, 
and  the  impressions  which  the  impulse  of  each  of  the  odorous  parti¬ 
cles  makes  upon  this  nerve  is  communicated  to  the  sensorium.  Bring 
a  rose  into  a  dark  room,  within  the  reach  of  this  sense,  and  although 
we  cannot  see  it,  we  know  it  is  there,  because  the  odorous  particles 
flying  off  and  commingling  with  the  atmosphere  of  the  room,  we  in¬ 
hale  them.  This  impression  made  upon  the  sensorium  by  means  of 
the  impulse  of  each  particle  upon  the  sense,  we  call  sensation.— 
Though  it  be  a  digression,  I  would  call  upon  the  materialist  to  reflect 
upon  the  wisdom  and  design  manifested  in  placing  this  sense  exactly 
where  it  is. .  Air  is  the  real  pabulum  vita,  but  were  it  not  for  the  loccile 
of  this  sense,  being  in  the  very  channel  through  which  this  fluid  passes 
into  our  lungs,  how  could  we  discriminate  between  the  salubrious  and 
insalubrious  qualities  of  the  air  we  inhale.  We  know  the  extent  to 
which  the  most  minute  miasmata  may  affect  our  health;  and  al¬ 
though  many  of  the  ordorous  particles  are  so  minute,  or  sc  weak  in 
their  impulse,  as  not  to  be  sensibly  felt,  yet  still  all  the  grosser  and 
more  common  impurities  are  detected  by  this  sense.  Now  had  the 
locale  of  this  sense  been  in  tlie  hand,  it  would  have  been  useless  for 
the  preservation  of  health  and  life.  Its  position  therefore  proves 
wisdom  and  design  in  its  formation 

But  to  return,  odors  are  material  things  ;  small  particles  of  matter 
flying  off  from  bodies,  so  small  as  to  be  invisible.  Now,  had  we  not. 
this  organ  \ye  should  be  deprived  of  all  those  ideas- which. come  by 
that  sense.  We  could  not,  without  the  sense  of  smelling,  have  any 
more  ideas  of  odors  than  a  human  hand  could  have  of  music.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  communicate  to  a  man,  born  without  the  sense  of  • 
smelling,  any  idea  of  odors,  because  he  would  be.  without  archetype 


DEBATE. 


135- 


or  analogy  for  the  conception  of  any  such  idea.  The  corollary  then 
\s,  that  all  our  ideas  of  this  class  are  derived  through  the  medium  of 
this  sense.  [ Half  hour  out.] 

Mr.  Owen  resumes  reading. 

Each  of  these  nine  conditions  appear  to  be  necessary  for  the  happi¬ 
ness  of  man,  and  it  is  almost  useless  to  state  that,  they  cannot  be  ob¬ 
tained' under  any  of  the  governments,  religions,  laws,  or  institutions 
by  which  the  characters  of  men  have  been  hitherto  formed,  or  by  which 
they  have  been  governed. 

These  conditions  cannot  be  obtained  in  any  society  in  which  merit 
or  demerit  are  attributed  for  any  belief,  or  faith  whatever,  or,  for  li¬ 
king  or  disliking  any  person  or  any  thing. 

On  the  contrary,  happiness  can  be  obtained  and  secured,  only,  when 
every  member  of  society  can  freely  express  his  thoughts  and  feelings, 
and  when  all  men  shall  understand  the  laws  of  human  nature,  so  well, 
that  none  shall  be  offended  by  thus  acquiring  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  sensations  which  nature  compels  his  fellow-beings  to  receive. 

And  these  conditions  can  be  enjoyed,  only  when  a  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  our  nature  shall  remove  all  personal  pride  and  individual 
selfishness,  with  all  desire  to  possess  any  unnecessary  private  pro¬ 
perty.  # 

And  also,  when  men  and  women  shall  not  be  required  to  perjure 
themselves,  and  promise  what  they  have  not  the  power  to  perform,  be¬ 
fore  they  enter  into  the  married  state;  but  when,  on  the  contrary,  all 
shall  live  and  associate  according  to  their  affections,  and  shall  be 
trained,  educated,  and  governed  by  reason,  instead  of  force,  fraud,  and 
cunning. 

We  will  now  consider  each  of  these  nine  conditions,  deemed  requi¬ 
site  for  human  happiness  more  in  detail. 

FIRST  CONDITION. 

Of  possessing  a  good  organization ,  physical,  intellectual ,  and  moral. 

It  is  evident,  on  reflection,  that  the  happiness  of  every  individual 
is  materially  influenced  by  the  faculties  which  he  derives  from  nature 
at  birth. 

When  these  are  physically  weak,  or  intellectually,  or  morally  de¬ 
fective,  greater  care  and  attention  are  required  through  infancy, 
childhood,  and  youth,  to  strengthen  the  first,  and  improve  the  others, 
than  are  necessary,  when  the  organization,  in  these  respects,  is  more 
perfect  at  birth. 

And  as  the  application  of  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  after 
the  birth  of  the  individual,  cannot  fully  compensate  for  defective  natu¬ 
ral  power,  it  becomes  absolutely  necessary  for  human  happiness  that, 
measures  shall  be  adopted  to  prevent  the  production  of  any  inferior 
organization  in  the  human  race. 

There  is  a  science  which,  when  it  shall  be  better  understood,  and 
the  ignorant  prejudices  of  mankind  will  permit  it  to  be  properly  &p- 


DEBATE. 


plied;  will,  to  a  great  extent,  effect  this  ground  work  of  human  happi¬ 
ness,  for  it  is  the  only  foundation  on  which  it  can  be  permanently 
secured. 

This  science  has  been  already  partially  applied  with  success  to  im¬ 
prove  the  physical  qualities  of  many  animals,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  extraordinary  beneficial  changes  which  may  be  made  in 
the  human  race,  when  their  knowledge  of  this  science  shall  be  right¬ 
ly7  applied  to  improve  their  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  powers. 

The  most  valuable  animal  known  by  man,  is  man,  and  it  is  far 
more  important  for  his  happiness  that  he  should  he  produced,  at  hrs 
birth,  with  all  his  varied  powers  in  the  best  state,  than  that  the  breed 
of  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  dogs,  etc.  should  be  improved. 

It  is  not,  however,  intended  that  the  breed  of  these  latter  animals 
shall  be  neglected,  for,  in  a  rational  state  of  society,  no  inferior  ani¬ 
mal,  vegetable,  or  any  other  thing,  will  be  produced  when  that  which 
is  superior  caji  be  obtained, 

Consequently,  the  greatest  attention  wil  be  given  to  this  science-, 
in  the  new  state  of  existence,  that,  as  far  as  it  is  practicable  by  human 
knowledge  and  industry,  a  good  natural  material  may  be  obtained  for 
all  purposes, but,  more  especially,  that  the  most  superior  physical,  in¬ 
tellectual,  and  moral  materials  of  the  human  race  may  be  obtained  at 
birth. 

Under  the  present  irrational  notion  of  the  world,  this  science  is  of 
little  use  any  where,  except,  as  it  is  applied  partially,  to  improve  tke 
breed  of  some  of  the  inferior  animals,  and  the  qualities  of  some  vege¬ 
tables. 

For  the  existing  laws  and  institutions,  create  only  ignorant  preju¬ 
dices  which,  not  only  retard  every  natural  improvement,  but  by  their 
exclusive  tendencies  deteriorate  tha  whole  breed  of  man. 

In  a  new  state  of  society  about  to  be  formed  in  accordance  with  the 
divine  laws  of  our  nature,  arrangements  will  be  made  to  give  man  the 
full  benefit  of  thi^  important  science,  for,  without  it,  he  cannot  possess 
the  best  of  every  thing  for  human  nature. 

SECOND  CONDITION. 

Of  having  the  power  io  produce ,  at  pleasure ,  whatever  is  necessary  to 

keep  the  natural  organization  of  man  in  the  best  state  of  health , 

which  includes  food,  exercise ,  habitation ,  dress ,  occupation ,  rest ,  re- 
■  creation ,  cuid  amusements . 

All  will  admit  that,  the  present  laws,  and  institutions,  and  practices 
of  mankind,  do  not  permit  these  requisites  to  health,  and  consequent¬ 
ly  to  happiness,  to  be  obtained,  any  where,  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
population  in  tfie  best  manner. 

The  customs  of  the  world  are  now  such,  that,  nine-tenths  of  the  peo  - 
pie,  in  all  countries,  can  procure  only  the  most  common  necessaries 
to  support  life;  while,  if  the  governing  powers  of  these  countries,  under¬ 
stood  their  own  interest,  as  individuals,  they  would  know  that,  it  is  in¬ 
jurious  to  each  member  of  every  community  that,  any  thing  whatever 
should  be  produced  inferior,  while  the  power  is  possessed  to  have  it  * 
superior., 


DEBATE. 


137 


Itis  the  interest,  therefore,  of  the  governing  powers,  as  well  as  of 
all  others,  that  every  man  shall  possess  not  only  the  best  organization 
at  birth,  but  that  he  shall  be  supplied,  through  life,  with  the  best  food, 
habitation,  and  dress  for  human  nature ;  and  that  arrangements  shall 
exist  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  proper  exercise,  rest,  recreation,  and  amuse¬ 
ment,  and  that  he  shall  be  occupied,  through  life,  in  the  best  manner 
to  promote  his  health  and  happiness,  and  to  benefit  society. 

Accordingly  in  the  new  state  of  existence,  permanent  arrangements 
will  be  made  to  secure  these  objects, 

THIRD  CONDITION. 

Of  a  n  education  to  cultivate  from  infancy ,  the  physical ,  intellectual ,  and 

moral  powers  in  the  best  manner. 

So  little  has  been  effected,  upon  this  subject,  by  the  laws,  institu¬ 
tions,  and  customs  of  men,  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  human  race 
are,  at  this  hour,  more  ignorant  of  themselves,  than  they  are  of  most 
objects  around  them,  while  it  is  the  first  interest  of  all,  that  they 
should  be  early  taught  to  know  themselves — to  learn  what  manner 
of  beings  they  are. 

Hitherto  none  have  had  their  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
powers  cultivated,  from  infancy,  in  the  best  manner,  but  every  ob¬ 
stacle,  which  cunning  could  devise  or  force  apply,  has  been  placed 
in  the  way  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  in  all  countries,  to  prevent 
them  from  attaining  knowledge.  Consequently,  the  population  of 
the  world,  is  now,  in  a  most  degraded  condition,  little  better,  indeed, 
than  beasts  of  burden,  toiling  uselessly,  from  morning  tonight  without 
understanding  for  what  object.  It  has  acquired  a  very  small  part 
only  of  the  powers  which  it  might  be  made  to  possess,  probably,  not 
more  than  one  out  of  a  million  or  many  millions,  for  'when  all  the 
best  faculties  of  the  human  race  shall  be  cultivated  as  they  ought  to 
be,  from  infancy,  the  human  mind  trained  as  it  has  been  is  incompe¬ 
tent,  to  estimate  the  extraordinary  results  that  may  be  attained.  A 
statement  greatly  within  the  truth  on  this  subject  would  now  startle 
the  most  sanguine. 

Therefore  in  the  newT  state  of  existence,  arrangements  will  be  for¬ 
med,  not  only  to  obtain  for  man  the  best  organization  at  birth;  a  reg¬ 
ular  supply  of  the  most  w  holesome  food,  the  best  habitation  and  dress, 
with  the  best  means  to  enjoy  exercise,  rest,  recreation,  and  amuse¬ 
ment;  but  arrangements  will  be  also  formed,  to  bring  out,  into  full 
action,  these  extraordinary  new  powers,  by  training  and  cultivating 
from  infancy  to  maturity,  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  facul¬ 
ties  and  qualities  of  all  in  the  best  manner. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — As  this  is  so  much  of  the  evidence  to  be  adduced 
in  support  of  my  friend’s  first  proposition,  I  presume  that  I  must  sub¬ 
mit  to  hear  it  read ;  but  I  shall  protest  against  its  being  read  five 
times  to  prove  the  five  positions.  If  it  had  the  charm  of  being  a 
new  theory- — if  it  had  not  been  detailed  to  us  before,  and  its  practica¬ 
bility  and  utility  bad  not  been  tested  by  experiment,  we  might  with 

12* 


JUEBATIL 


138 

more  patience  and  interest  listen  to  the  outline.  But  the  experiment 
made  in  the  state  of  Indiana  has  gone  much  farther  to  dissipate  the 
influence  of  the  illusions  of  my  friend’s  philosophy  upon  the  public 
mind  than  he  is  aware  of. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  our  brief  analysis  of  the  five  senses.  Next 
to  the  sense  of  smelling  is  that  of  tasting ,  as  respects  simplicity  in  its 
use  and  operation.  By  this  sense  we  become  acquainted  with  the 
qualities  of  aliment ,  so  as  to  discriminate  the  qualities  between  what 
is  agreeable  or  disagreeable,  conducive  or  prejudicial  to  health, 
The  Author  of  Nature  has  wisely  ordered  the  locale  of  this  sense  also. 
Located  elsewhere  than  where  it  is,  it  would  be  valueless  to  the 
animal  man.  When  a  material,  vegetable,  animal,  and  sometimes 
mineral  substance,  is  presented  to  the  discrimination  of  this  sense, 
uie  particles  are  solved  by  the  saliva  which  is  its  adjunct.  This 
saliva,  which  always  moistens  the  organs  of  taste,  is  one  of  the  most 
universal  menstruums  in  nature,  and  possesses  the  power  of  solving 
all  the  aliments  necessary  to  animals;  so  as  to  enable  the  tongue  to 
discriminate  the  qualities  of  the  object  as  pleasing  or  displeasing, 
healthy  or  the  contrary.  The  impressions  made  upon  this  organ  are 
immediately  communicated  to  the  brain,  and  an  idea  of  the  savors  of 
bodies  necessary  to  life  or  health  is  thus  acquired.  Thus,  after  a 
little  experience,  we  are  enabled  to  discriminate  the  nutricious  and 
unwholesome  properties  of  all  aliments.  It  is  true  that  this  sense 
may  be  much  obtunded,  and  that  it  has  been  grossly  perverted;  but 
b  is  the  safest  criterion  by  which  to  ascertain  the  healthful  and  agree¬ 
able  properties  of  aliments.  Whatever  may  be  the  extent  of  our  ideas 
of  savors  or  tastes,  they  are  all  derived  through  the  medium  of  this 
sense. 

Feeling  being  not  so  local  in  its  design,  but  more  local  in  its  object, 
is  wisely  and  beneficently  transfused  through  the  whole  animal 
system;  and  through  this  avenue  of  intelligence  we  become  acquaint¬ 
ed  with  the  tactile  properties  of  bodies — their  roughness,  smoothness, 
hardness,  softness,  &c.  &c.  All  these  sensations  through  this  medium 
find  their  way  to  the  sensorium.  The  wisdom  of  transfusing  this 
sense  generally  is  as  obvious  as  the  specific  location  of  the  smell  and 
taste.  This  sense,  however,  is  not  equally  transfused,  being  most 
uxquisite  in  the  most  useful  organs,  particularly  in  the  organ  of  vision, 
b  is  obvious  that  if  we  could  conceive  a  man  were  born  without  this 
avenue  to  intelligence,  closed  up  he  must  ever  remain  in  ignorance  of 
dl  the  tactile  properties  of  bodies,  and  he  could  never  originate  the 
ulea  of  material  tangibility .  The  thing  is  physically  impossible. 

The  sense  of  hearing  is  given  to  us  that  we  may  discriminate  all 
the  vibrations  and  motions  of  the  air.  Every  impression  made  upon 
the  outward  ear  reaches  to  the  tympanum ,  and  conformably  to  the  im¬ 
pulse  given  to  it,  it  gives  us  the  idea  of  the  whole  gamut  of  harmonious 
or  discordant  sounds.  We  all  know  that  a  man  born  deaf  can  have 
ao  idea  of  the  nature  of  sound,  and  therefore  can  never  be  taught  the 
art  of  speaking*,  which  is  simply  the  art  of  making  such  an  impres-  ' 


DEBATE. 


■i&f 

>Kion  upon  the  auricular  sense  as  to  communicate  our  ideas  to  others 
through  the  medium  of  that  sense. 

We  come  next  to  seeing.  This  most  perfect  and  delightful  of  ak 
our  senses,  is,  in  like  manner,  admirably  adapted  to  its  specific 
object.  It  is  the  avenue  of  intelligence  through  which  all  our  ideas 
of  color,  magnitude,  and  distance  are  derived  to  us;  and  the  impres¬ 
sions  made  upon  this  sense  reach  the  sensorium  through  the  optic 
nerves. 

Now  it  is  only  necessary  to  name  these  five  senses,  and  their 
respective  uses,  in  order  to  discover,  in  them  all  that  beneficence, 
wisdom,  and  design  which  suggest  the  idea  of  a  supremely  intelli¬ 
gent  First  Cause,  manifesting  its  wisdom  and  benevolence  in  the 
animal  Organization  of  man,  to  discover  that  man  has  been  endowed 
by  his  Creator  with  an  organization  which  enables  him  to  elicit  every 
valuable  property  of  matter.  We  discover  an  admirable  adaptation 
of  these  senses  to  the  conception  of  all  ideas  of  colors,  sounds,  odors, 
tastes,  and  tacts;  and  that  all  our  intelligence  on  these  subjects  is  de¬ 
rived  through  these  five  channels.  , 

The  conclusion,  therefore,  from  these  premises,  is,  that  a  man  born 
without  any  one  of  these  senses,  must  ever  remain  destitute  of  all 
ideas  derivable  through  it;  that  a  man  born  deaf,  dumb,  blind,  and 
without  tactability,  has  all  these  avenues  to  intelligence  closed  up, 
and  must  therefore  remain  an  idiot  all  his  lifetime.  Is  it  not  self- 
evident  that  a  blind-born  man  can  never  acquire  any  idea  of  colors, 
nor  a  deaf-born  man  any  idea  of  sounds?  But  if  we  would  suppose 
a  man  born  destitute  of  all  the  five  senses,  he  would  not  only  be 
idiotic,  but  he  would  be  a  lump  of  insensible  matter.  Well,  if  all 
the  ideas  we  have  of  sensible  objects  are  derived  through  these  media, 
there  must  be  a  model  or  archetype  of  each  of  these  ideas  presented 
to  the  appropriate  sense.  Before  I  can  have  an  idea  of  the  color  or 
shape  of  a  rose,  it  must  be  brougfit  within  the  jurisdiction  or  cog¬ 
nizance  of  my  occular  and  olfactory  sense.  Therefore,  every  writer 
who  has  undertaken  to  analyse  the  senses,  has  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  we  cannot  have  an  idea  of  material  objects,  or  the  qualities  of 
matter,  that  is  not  derived  from  the  exercise  of  our  senses  upon  the 
material  objects  around  us.  Well  now,  this  being  the  basis  of  ail  cur 
knowledge,  the  powers,  which  we  call  rational,  or  intellectual,  are 
necessarily  circumscribed  by  the  simple  ideas  thus  acquired.  The 
senses  put  us  in  possession  of  all  the  materials  which  the  intellect  has 
to  work  up — in  like  manner  as  the  raw  material  must  first  be  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  manufacturer  before  it  can  be  manufactured  for 
the  various  uses  of  life.  All  mechanical  or  intellectual  ingenuity  is 
unavailable  without  the  material.  There  can  be  no  ship  without 
timber — no  penknife  without  metal.  Thus  a  child,  from  the  time  its 
powers  of  discriminating  sensible  objects  begin  to  be  developed,  ac¬ 
quires  a  fund  of  materials,  or  simple  ideas,  on.  which  its  intellect 
begins  to  operate.  - 

In  consequence  of  inattention,  we  imagine  that  children  are  making 
no  advances  in  information  during  the  first  months  of  their  existence. 


MO 


DEBATE. 


But  a  superficial  observer  can  form  no  idea  of  the  important  acqui¬ 
sitions  of  knowledge  made  by  an  infant  in  the  first  few  months, after 
its-  birth.  It  is  employed  most  industriously  in  learning  to  use  its 
hands,  to  move  its  different  members,  to  adjust  its  different  senses 
to  their  proper  objects.  The  minute  observer  will  notice  its  first 
efforts  to  trim  its  eyes  so  as  to  have  a  discriminating  vision;  he  will 
remark  how  its  soft  pulpy  fingers  are  in  almost  continual  exercise  in 
order  to  acquire  a  discriminating  tact. 

There  are  many  mysteries  existing  in  our  animal  economy  which 
have  never  yet  been  developed.  We  well  know  that  upon  the  first 
presentation  of  a  candle  to  the  vision  of  an  infant,  there  is  one 
distinct  and  separate  impression  made  upon  the  retina  of  each  eye, 
precisely  as  if  two  candles  were  in  the  first  instance  presented  to  the 
vision  of  the  infant.  How  comes  it  then  to  pass  that  the  infant  mind 
has  such  a  power  of  minute  attention,  as  very  early  to  have  a  con¬ 
sciousness  of  the  presence  of  but  one  candle.  There  are  many 
secrets  yet  inexplicable  in  the  operations  of  each  of  these  senses. 

1  will  mention  one  which  the  wisest  physiologists  have  not  yet  been 
able  to  explain.  It  is  well  known  that  there  is  no  anatomical  con¬ 
nexion  between  the  nerves  or  muscular  systems  of  either  eye ;  that 
the  muscles  which  control  the  movements  of  either  eye  are  as  inde¬ 
pendent  as  those  which  move  either  arm ;  yet  we  turn  both  eyes  in¬ 
voluntarily  at  the  same  moment  to  any  particular  object,  giving 
precisely  the  same  turn  to  both  our  organs  of  vision.  This  is  as  per¬ 
fect  in  the  new-born  infant  as  in  the  full-grown  man.  The  mind 
appears  in  its  first  acts  to  possess  a  sort  of  innate  power  over  the 
organs  of  vision.  From  the  first  dawn  of  rationality  the  mind  ap¬ 
pears  conscious  that  illusion  has  been  practised  by  the  singular 
phenomenon  of  two  distinct  impressions  upon  the  retina  of  either 
eye.  No  one  has  yet  fathomed  these  physical  mysteries  of  animal 
economy,  nor  is  it  any  part  of  my  present  business  to  attempt  to  fathom 
them.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  establish  the  position  that  all  our 
ideas  of  sensible  objects  are  derived  from,  and  only  derivable  through 
khe  five  senses;  that  the  mind  begins  to  operate  upon  these  materials 
as  soon  as  they  are  presented  to  the  senses,  and  that  this  gives  us 
the  first  intimation  of  the  existence  of  infantile  intellect.  Having 
rather  stated,  than  analysed,  the  power  called  sensation ,  let  us  turn 
our  thoughts  a  moment  to  'perception. 

The  mind  forms  ideas  in  accordance  with  the  sensations  impressed 
upon  the  brain.  The  mind  is  perfectly  conscious  of  the  existence  of 
these  impressions;  they  are  communicated  directly  to  the  sensorium; 
and  here  begins  the  intellectual  process  of  reflecting  upon,  compa 
ring,  and  recalling  them;  then  presenting  them  in  different  views, 
separating,  abstracting,  combining,  and  generalizing  them.  All  this 
is  in  the  natural  operation  of  the  intellect  on  the  objects  presented  to 
it  by  sensation.  Thus  it  is  that  we  derive  our  ideas  of  sensible  objects, 
and  thus  we  begin  to  reason  upon  them.  Therefore ,  we  cannot 
imagine  a  sixth  sense — we  cannot  conceive  what  it  would  be.  The 
reason  is,  that  we  have  never  seen  any  animal  possessed  of  it.  Had 


DEBATE. 


141 


1v£  been  endowed  but  with  four  senses  it  would  have  been  equally 
impossible  to  conceive  of  a  fifth  sense,  with  but  three,  of  a  fourth,  &'c,  ‘ 
These  are  truths  which  I  think  must  be  palpable  to  the  plainest  un-  j 
derstanding  and  which  require  no  philosophic  subtlety  in  their  eluci¬ 
dation.  Now  to  expect  a  man  destitute  of  the  light  of  revelation  ? 
to  have  ideas  not  derivable  through  any  of  his  senses,  would  be  as 
absurd  as  to  expect  a  man  without  the  organs  of  vision  to  have  ail  the 
ideas  of  color  possessed  by  those  who  enjoy  the  very  clearest  vision . 
You  might  as  reasonably  expect  a  person  born  deaf  to  have  all  the 
-deas  of  harmony,  as  a  man  destitute  of  supernatural  revelation  to 
have  the  ideas  of  God  and  a  spiritual  system — Without  seeing  or 
hearing  some  supernatural  personage,  all  natural  objects  would  be 
Inadequate  to  originate  any  spiritual  ideas.  Many  experiments  have 
been  made  upon  the  deaf,  who  have  been  restored  to  hearing  to  as¬ 
certain  whether  by  the  other  senses,  and  all  the  reasonings  which  the 
mental  powers  were  capable  6f,  they  had  acquired  any  idea  of  God*1 
and  all  have  concurred  in  attesting  the  utter  impossibility  of  acquiring 
such  without  the  aid  of  revelation.  No,  my  friends,  the  man  on  whom 
the  light  of  revelation  has  never  beamed,  can  no  more  conceive  of 
those  ideas  which  in  a  system  of  spiritual  religion  are  native,  inherent,  / 
and  discoverable,  than  the  deaf-born  man  can  be  moved  by  the  “eon-  \ 
cord  of  sweet  sounds.”  It  would  be  as  rational  to  talk  of  seeing  by 
the  hand,  or  hearing  by  the  tongue,  as  to  talk  of  knowing  God  without 
a  communication  from  himself.  We  can  by  things  already  known  be  > 
taught  things  not  known;  but  there  must  be  a  teacher. 

But  I  must  tell  you,  while  speaking  of  revelation,  that  perhaps  I  am 
misunderstood ;  and  certainly  lam,  if  I  am  supposed  to  use  this  term  in 
flie  vulgar  sense.  Far  now  it  is  usual  to  call  the  whole  Bible  areve-* 
lation  from  God.  I  must  explain  myself  here.  There  are  a  thousand 
historic  facts  narrated  in  the  Bible,  which  it  would  be  absurd  to  regard 
as  immediate  and  direct  revelation  from  the  Almighty.  Paine  defines 
revelation  very  accurately,  although  he  did  not  believe  we  had  any 
properly  so  called.  He  says — Page  14.  “Age  of  Reason.” — “Revela~ 
uon  cannot  be  applied  to  any  thing  done  upon  earth.  It  is  a  commu¬ 
nication  of  something  which  the  person  to  whom  that  thing  is  reveal¬ 
ed  <did  not  know  before” — and  I  add,  could  not  otherwise  know. — 
(That  intelligence  which  could  never  have  been  derived  to  us  through 
the  agency  of  our  senses.) — “Consequently  all  the  historical  and  an¬ 
ecdotal  part  of  the  Bible  is  not  within  the  compass  and  meaning  of 
the  word  revelation/5  Revelation ,  from  the  import  of  the  term,  must 
be  supernatural.  But  the  historic  parts  of  both  testaments,  present 
a  great  variety  of  topographical  and  historic  facts  and  incidents ;  col¬ 
loquies  between  friends  and  enemies,  of  apostles,  prophets,  and  patri¬ 
archs,  and  of  distingushed  persons  good  and  evil;  wars,  intrigues,  am¬ 
ours,  and  crimes,  of  every  dye.  Now  it  would  be  neither  philosophi¬ 
cal  nor  rational  to  dignify  and  designate  these  colloquies,  narratives, 
geographical  and  biograghical  notices,  &c.  by  the  term  revelation. 
The  term  revelation,  in  its  strict  acceptation  amongst  intelligent 
Christians,  moans  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  Divine  ccmmunicatioir 


DEBATE.- 


142 

concerning  spiritual  and  eternal  things,  a  knowledge  of  which  rnjan 
could  never  have  attained  by  the  exercise  of  his  reason  upon  mate¬ 
rial  and  sensible  objects;  for  as  Paul  says,  “Things  which  the  eye 
has  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  has  it  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man  to  conceive,  has  God  revealed  to  11s  apostles,  and  we  declare 
them  to  you.1’  Now  the  corollary  is,  that,  to  a  man  to  whom  this 
divine  revelation  has  never  been  made,  it  is  impossible  to  acquire 
?deas  of  spiritual  and  eternal  things,  as  for  a  blind  man  to  admire  the 
play  of  colors  in  a  prism. 

In  the  Old  Testament,  to  distinguish  the  ordinary  information  from 
the  divine  communications,  such  intimations  are  made  as  uThc  word 
of  the  Lordf  or  aA  message  from  the  Lord  came to  such  a  person. 
Sometimes,  “  The  Lord  said. ”  Bat  in  the  New  Testament,  the  phrase 
‘''The  Word, ”  ov  “The  word  of  the  Lord or  “The  Truth  f  is  almost 
exclusively  appropriated  to  the  testimony  ickich  God  gave  concerning  the 
verson  and  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  may  also  be  remarked,  that  in 
a  volume  such  as  the  Bible  is,  and  having  the.object  which  it  profess¬ 
es,  it  was  necessary  that  the  worst  deeds  and  the  best  deeds  of  all  sorts 
of  men,  in  all  sorts  of  circumstances,  should  be  detailed.  It  teaches 
us  man,  it  developes  human  nature,  it  reveals  to  us  the  character  and 
purpose  of  the  Maker  of  the  Universe.  Moreover  the  persons  who 
are  employed  to  make  these  communications  are  so  supernaturally 
guided  as  to  make  them  infallible  witnesses  in  all  the  facts  they  at¬ 
test,  as  well  as  all  the  communications  concerning  supernatural  things. 
The  ridicule  which  some  ignorant  sceptics  have  uttered  against  the 
contents  of  the  book,  under  the  general  title  of  a  revelation  from  God, 
as  if  it  were  all  properly  so  called,  is,  if  it  have  any  point  only  direct¬ 
ed  against  their  own  obtueity  of  intellect,  and  negligence  in  making 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  most  important  of  all  books  in  the 
world. 

Our  reasoning  upon  these  premises  must  therefore  necessarily  be 
'in  the  following  order.  Objects  of  sense  are  presented  to  the  infant 
mind,  it  perceives  them,  begins  to  reflect  upon  them,  and  after  exerci¬ 
sing  its  power  of  discrimination,  it  arrives  at  certain  conclusions  res¬ 
pecting  them.  And  this  leads  us  to  notice  the  intellectual  powers  of 
man.  1.  Perception,  hy  which  we  become  acquainted  with  all  things 
external.  2.  Memory  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  recall  things  past. 
3.  Consciousness  which  acquaints  us  with  ail  things  internal.  Per¬ 
ception  has  present  sensibile  objects  for  its  province.  Memory  is  the 
record  which  we  Have  of  the  past.  But  consciousness  has  respect 
only  to  things  present.  I  perceive  a  numerous  assemblage  now  be¬ 
fore  me,  and  I  am  conscious  of  my  own  thoughts  at  the  time.  I  re¬ 
member  that  there  were  such  and  such  persons  here  yesterday. — 
These  three  powers  of  perception,  memory,  and  consciousness,  are 
the  primary  powers  of  the  mind.  Over  these  three  we  have  shown 
that  the  will  has  no  power;  that  they  are  independent  of  volition. 
For  example,  I  often  have  perceptions  contrary  to  my  volitions; 
ipeAters  written  upon  the  table  of  my  memory,  by  singular  associa¬ 
tions,  will  involuntarily  present  themselves  in  a  vivid  manner  before 


DEBATE. 


143 


me.;  and  it  certainly  is  felt  by  all,  that  our  being  conscious  6^ our 
own  thoughts  depends  not  upon  any  act  of  the  will,  but  upon  the  con¬ 
stitution  of  mind  itself.  Butin  exercising  the  faculties  of  recollecting, 
reflecting,  imagining,  reasoning,  and  judging,  I  discover  that  all 
these  are  subject  to  the  control  of  my  volition.  For  example,  in 
exercising  the  faculty  of  imagination,  I  can,  at  will,  transfer  the  ex¬ 
ternal  peculiarities  of  one  animal,  to  the  body  of  another,  and  thereby 
create  any  kind  of  imaginative  monster;  I  can  by  imagination  take 
the  head,  trunk,  and  arms  of  a  man,  and  put  them  on  horseback  and 
thereby  present  to  rny  mind's  eye,  the  fabulous  Centaur.  But  this 
license  of  imagination  is  entirely  under  the  control  of  my  volition, 

I  can  recollect  only  by  making  an  effort,  and  consequently  must 
determine  to  make  that  effort.  I  can  reason  only  when  I  decide  to 
reason ;  and  my  placing  myself  in  the  attitude  of  a  judge,  is  as  much 
in  obedience  to  a  previous  determination,  as  the  eating  of  my  supper, 
or  my  going  to  bed.  These  matters  are  so  plain  to  those  who  do  re¬ 
flect,  that  to  demonstrate  them,  appears  something  like  an  insult  to 
the  understanding  of  such  an  audience  as  this. 

I  was  about  to  state  some  facts  in  proof,  that  the  deaf  cannot  form 
an  idea  of  God,  a  future  state,  or  of  a  human  spirit.  But  lam  inform¬ 
ed  my  half  hour  is  out/ * 

*From  some  cause  these  facts  were  not  given  in  the  Debate.  The  next 
speech  failed  to  call  them  forth.  1  shall  just  state  one  case  here,  as  a  specimen 
of  the  documents  alluded  to.  I  believe  all  experiments  yet  made  upon  such 
persons,^iave  proved  that  faith, *or  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  a  Creator,  has 
come  by  hearing.  By  faith  Paul  said,  and  not  by  reason ,  “we  know  that  the 
worlds  were  made  by  the  word  of  Gcd.”  This  case  is  extracted  from  “The 
Memoirs  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Paris. — 

“  The  son  of  a  tradesman  in  Chartres,  who  had  been  deaf  from  his  birth,  and 
consequently  dumb;  when  he  was  twenty  three  or  twenty  four  years  of  age, 
began  on  a  sudden  to  speak,  without  its  being  known  that  he  had  ever  heard  . 
This  event  drew  the  attention  of  every  ope,  and  many  believed  it  to  be  mirac 
ulous. — The  young  man,  however,  gave  a  plain  and  rational  account,  by  which 
it  appeared  to  proceed  wholly  from  natural  causes.  He  said  that  about  four 
months  before  he  was  surprised  by  a  new,  and  pleasing  sensation,  which  he 
afterwards  discovered  to  arise  from  the  ringing  of  bells;  that  as  yet  he  heard 
with  one  ear,  but  afterwards  a  kind  of  water  came  from  his  left  ear,  and  then  he 
could  hear  distinctly  with  both;  and  from  this  time  he  listened  with  the  utmost 
qurioeity,  and  attention  to  the  sounds  which  accompany  those  motions  of  the 
lips  which  he  had  before  remarked  to  convey  ideas  or  meaning  from  one  person 
to  another.  In  short,  he  was  able  to  understand  them,  by  noting  the  thing  to 
which  they  related,  and  the  action  they  produced.  And  after  repeated  at¬ 
tempts  to  imitate  them  when  alone,  at  the  end  of  four  months  he  thought 
himself  able  to  talk.  He  therefore,  without  having  intimated  what  had  hap¬ 
pened,  began  at  once  to  speak,  and  affected  to  join  in  conversation,  though 
with  much  more  imperfection  than  he  was  aware. 

“Many  divines  immediately  visited  him,  and  questioned  him  concerning 
God,  and  the  soul,  moral  good,  and  evil,  and  many  other  sub  je  cts  of  the  same 
kind;  but  of  all  this  they  found  him  ignorant,  though  he  had  been  used  to  go 
to  mass,  and  had  been  instructed  in  all  the  externals  of  devotion,  as  making 
the.  sign  of  the  cross,  looking  upwards,  kneeling  at  proper  seasons,  and  using 
gestures  of  penitence,  and  prayer.  Of  death  itself,  which  may  be  considered 
as  a  sensible  object,  jhc  had  very  confused,  and  imperfect  ideas,  nor  did,  it  ap- 


DEBATE 


£44 

Mr.  Owen  again  commences  reading, 

FOURTH  CONDITION. 

Of  having  the  means  and  inclination  to  promote  continually,  the  fiappU 
ness  of  our  fellow-beings,  as  far  as  our  power  can  be  made  to  extend f 
and  also  to  assist  in  increasing,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  enjoyments 
of  all  that  has  life. 

The  governments,  religions,  laws,  institutions,  and  practices  of the 
world,  have  not  been  yet  devised  to  promote  the  happiness  of  man,  or 
the  comfort  of  animals.  They  have  been  contrived,  rather,  to  insure 
the  misery  of  man,  and  the  discomfort  of  animal  life.  The  very  sup¬ 
position  that  man  was  organized  by  nature  to  give  him  the  power  to 
think  and  feel  according  to  his  own  pleasure,  was  of  itself,  when  car¬ 
ried  into  practice,  as  it  has  been  by  all  tribes  and  people,  quite  suffi¬ 
cient  to  stay  any  progress  towards  the  happiness  of  the  human  race. 

This  single  mistake,  respecting  human  nature  is  abundantly  suffi¬ 
cient  to  disunite  all  mankind,  and  to  make  them  secret  or  open  ene¬ 
mies  to  each  other.  For  while  each  man  or  woman  is  taught  to  be¬ 
lieve,  that  every  other  man  and  woman,  may,  if  they  please,  think 
and  feel  as  they  do, it  becomes  natural  for  them  to  be  angry  with  those, 
who,  they  imagine,  will  not,  from  obstinacy  or  some  worse  motive, 
believe  what  they  believe,  who  do  not  like,  or  dislike,  or  love  and  hate, 
according  to  their  notions  of  right  or  wrong. 

It  is  upon  this  error  that  all  governments,  religions,  laws,  institu¬ 
tions,  languages,  and  customs  have  been  formed,  and,  by  it,  they  have 
been  all  made  so  complex  and  irrational.  And  it  is  solely  owing 
to  this  error  that  the  world  has  been  so  long  divided  against  itself,  that 
it  has  been  always  armed  for  its  own  destruction,  and  rendered  wholly 
blind  to  the  natural,  and  therefore  easily  attained  means  of  happiness. 

•Instead  of  this  confusion  of  intellect,  and  consequent  division  of  feel¬ 
ings  among  the  human  race,  man  will  be  trained  “to  know  himself” 
from  infancy,  and  he  will  then  acquire  the  inclination  to  promote  the 
happiness  of  his  fellow-beings,  and  of  the  means  by  which  to  apply 
the  inclination  to  practice, 

FIFTH  CONDITION. 

Of  the  means  and  inclination  to  increase,  continually,  our  stock  of 

knowledge. 

As  men  acquire  experience  they  learn  the  value  of  real  knowledge, 
they  discover  that  it  is  the  only  solid  foundat  ion  for  v  irtue  and  happiness, 
and  that  it  is  the  true  source  of  power.  Hitherto  the  book  of  nature  Gr 
of  real  knowledge  has  been  sealed,,  in  such  a  manner,  that  no  man  has 
yet  dared  to  open  it  honestly  and  fairly,  for  the  benefit  of  the  many. 
Innumerable  books,  however,  said  to  be  of  divine  origin  have  been 


pear  that  he  had  ever  reflected  upon  it.  His  life  was  little  more  than  animal, 
and  sensitive.  He  seemed  to  be  contented  with  the  simple  perception  os  such 
objects  as  ke  could  perceive,  and  did  not  compare  his  ideas  with  each  other, 
nor  draw  inferences,  as  might  have  been  expected  from  him.  It  appeared* 
however,  that  his  understanding  was  vigorous,  and  his  apprehension  quick,  so. 
that  his  intellectual  defects  must  have  been  caused,  not  by  the  barrenness  of 
the  «oi?,  but  merely  by  the  want  of  necessary  cultivation.” 


DEBATE, 


l4fi 


tsp read  over  the  world,  and  palmed  upon  the  public  as  books  of  real  j 
knowledge. 

The  fables  which  they  contain  have  been  made  to  fill  the  minds  of  ') 
men  with  all  manner  of  error,  and  to  compel  them  to  commit  all  kinds 
of  evil,  as  at  this  day,  as  is  evident  to  all  who  can  reflect  without  pre- 
i  judice. 

All  these  spurious  books  of  divine  origin  are  full  of  high  sounding 
words  in  praise  of  virtue,  and  learning,  and  religion;  but  we  now  dis¬ 
cover,  by  an  unerring  standard  of  truth,  that,  the  authors  of  these 
dogmas  and  mysteries,  did  not  know  any  thing  of  real  virtue,  know¬ 
ledge,  or  religion ;  or,  if  they  did,  that  they  purposely  devised  these 
fables  to  deceive  mankind,  to  keep  them  in  ignorance,  that  they  might 
be  more  easily  governed,  and  made  to  support  the  governing  few  in 
luxury  and  idleness,  to  the  injury  of  all  parties. 

It  is  now  evident  that  the  reign  of  these  mysteries  is  rapidly  passing 
away ;  that  it  is  about  to  be  superceded  by  knowledge  derived  from 
tangible  facts,  by  the  only  kind  of  knowledge  that  ever  can  be  of  real 
benefit  to  mankind. 

Now  when  this  description  of  knowledge  shall  be  taught  from  infan¬ 
cy  to  all  men,  they  will  have  pleasure  in  acquiring  it,  and  the  farther 
they  proceed,  the  greater  will  be  their  gratification,  ahd  the  more  ar¬ 
dently  will  they  desire  to  pursue  it. 

The  acquisition  of  the  knowledge,  founded  on  facts,  in  unison  with 
all  other  facts,  and  its  truth  proved  by  its  accordance  with  the  know¬ 
ledge  previously  known  and  ascertained  to  be  true,  will  create  a  con 
tmually  increasing  desire  to  add,  day  by  clay,  to  the  stock  acquired  in 
childhood  and  youth,  and  thus  will  the  inclination  be  formed,  and  per  ¬ 
manently  established  to  seek  to  progress  in  real  knowledge  through 
life. 


In  the  new  state  of  existence  effectual  means  will  be  devised  to 
satisfy  the  desires.  Every  individual  will  have  the  benefit  of  the  best- 
libraries,  laboratories,  instruments,  and  implements  to  assist  him  in 
his  studies.  Men  of  the  most  experience,  and  best  minds,  and  dis¬ 
positions  will  be  always  ready  to  aid  the  younger  in  every  branch  of 
knowledge,  while  all  the  means  will  surround  the  population  to  enable 
them  to  prove  the  truth  of  their  theories  by  practice. 

The  acquisition  of  real  knowledge  will  accumulate  enormous  pow¬ 
er  to  the  human  race,  and  to  its  extension,  age  after  age,  there  can  be 
no  assignable  limit.  It  will  be  the  legitimate  means  of  agreeably 
and  beneficially  changing  men’s  sensations ;  of  opening  new  stores 
of  pleasure  which  will  never  satiate,  and  they  will  be  led  on,  step  by 
step,  in  the  path  of  real  knowledge,  and  made  more  and  more  acquaint¬ 
ed  with  that  power  which  gives  them  an  existence  and  hourly  sup  ¬ 
port. 

in  fact  the  chief  design  in  the  new  state  of  existence,  will  be  to 
♦r  un  -lie  young  in  the  best  manner,  and  to  provide  the  means  for  all 
to  morese  continually  in.  the  most  useful  knowledge,  and  to  create  the 
desfio  to  make  the  greatest  attainment  in  the  most  valuable  pursuit-'. 

IQ 


146 


DEBATE. 


SIXTH  CONDITION. 

Of  the  means  of  employing  the  best  society ,  and  more  particularly  of 

associating  at  pleasure  with  those  for  whom  we  feel  the  highest  regard 

and  greatest  affection. 

Without  this  power,  whatever  may  be  the  other  advantages  accu¬ 
mulated  around  any  societ}~,  their  condition  cannot  be  satisfactory. 

All  who  have  had  extensive  experience,  know  that  by  far  the  largest 
•share  of  happiness  arises,  through  life,  from  the  society  of  those  to 
whom  we  are  compelled,  by  nature,  to  feel  the  most  regard  and  the 
strongest  affection. 

With  this  privilege,  few  things,  beyond  the  simple  necessaries  of 
life,  are  requisite  to  insure  a  considerable  degree  of  satisfaction  of 
mind,  and  a  nearer  approach  to  happiness  than  power,  wealth,  and 
knowledge,  combined,  can  give  without  it. 

But  as  the  world  has  hitherto  been  governed,  how  very  few  have 
•possessed  the  privilege  of  associating  at  pleasure  with  those  for  whom 
they  were  compelled  to  feel  the  greatest  regard  and  strongest  affec¬ 
tion  !  How  few  enjoy  it  at  this  moment  over  all  the  world! 

All  past  institutions  have  been  formed  apparently  with  the  inten-  j  J 
uon  of  obstructing,  as  much  as  possible,  the  happiness  that  nature 
designs  man  should  enjoy  from  his  social  feelings  by  implanting 
so  deeply  and  widely  the  seeds  of  affection  among  the  human  race. 

For  all  the  artificial  arrangements,  by  man,  in  all  countries  and  at 
all  times,  appear  to  be  purposely  calculated  to  destroy  the  pleasures  | 
arising  from  sincerity,  confidence,  and  affection. 

The  division  of  society  into  governors  and  governed,  rich  and  poor,  | 
.learned  and  unlearned,  into  single  families,  into  sects  and  classes,  J 
and  into  numerous  tribes  and  people  taught  to  have  opposing  fbelings  j| 
lor  each  other,  all  tend  to  deteriorate  society,  and  to  give  a  wrong  or  ] 
unnatural  direction  to  all  the  kindlier  feelings  of  our  nature,  and  to 
render  it  difficult  or  almost  impossible,  in  most  cases,  for  individuals  -J 
to  associate  at  pleasure  with  those  for  whom  they  cannot  avoid  having  ,1 
the  most  regard  and  strongest  affection.  J 

In  the  new  state  of  existence  this  great  evil  will  not  be  known — 
.every  obstacle  to  the  free,  open,  honest  communication  between  mind  4 
and  mind  will  be  removed.  In  this  state  of  society  all  intercourse 
betwreen  human  beings  of  both  sexes,  and  of  all  ages,  w  ill  be,  at  all  J 
times,  what  is  now  termed  confidential,  that  is,  they  will  express, 
under  all  circumstances,  their  genuine  thoughts  and  feelings  w  ithout  '  || 
any  reservation  whatever.  * 

Not  feeling  the  necessity  for  disguising  their  sensations,  they  will  j 
never  acquire  the  habit  of  doing  so.  While,  under  the  existing  insti¬ 
tutions,  almost  the  whole  communication  between  man  and  man, 
and  nation  and  nation,  is  a  continued  system  of  insincerity,  by  which  r| 
they  endeavor  to  deceive  each  other;  and  when  they*  succeed,  it  is  to  j 
their  own  injury.  ,  i*> 

The  necessity  which  exists,  under  these  institutions,  to  cover  our 
real  thoughts  and  Toolings  from  others,  is.  of  itself,  sufficient  to  degrade 


DEBATE.  147 

man  below  the  inferior  animals,  and  to  inflict  misery  on  his  whole 

race. 

By  attending  to  the  feelings  of  children,  we  discover,  that  man  is 
most  powerfully  impelled  by  his  nature,  to  be  honest  and  sincere, 
j  and  to  hide  or  be  ashamed  of  any  of  the  sensations  which,  by  his 
j  formation,  he  is  compelled  to  receive.  It  requires  constant  watching 
and  great  care,  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  around  children,  to  pre- 
j  vent  them  from  expressing  all  their  sensations,  and  telling  the  whole 
truth  upon  every  subject,  as  far  as  they  know  it,  and  still  more  exer¬ 
tion  to  force  them  to  acquire  as  much  practical  deceit,  as  the  irration¬ 
al  customs  of  the  most  civilized  nations  require. 

All  this  degradation  and  subjugation  of  the  very  finest  and  best 
feelings  of  human  nature  will  altogether  cease  in  the  new  state  of  ex¬ 
istence.  For  all  the  practical  arrangements,  and  all  the  institutions 
in  this  state,  will  be  in  unison  with  the  laws  of  nature,  and,  when  the 
results  of  this  union  of  practice  and  principle  shall  bo  enjoyed,  it  will 
be  felt  to  be  an  act  of  insanity,  or  a  real  aberration  of  the  human  fac¬ 
ulties,  whenever  any  individual  in  conversation  with  man,  woman, 
or  child,  shall  not  express  the  genuine  sensations  which  the  existing 
circumstances  make  on  his  organization.  These  sensations  are, 
alone,  to  him,  truth  ;  and  as  soon  as  men  shall  be  trained  to  be  ration¬ 
al,  and  shall  be  under  institutions  and  within  circumstances  in  unison 
with  their  training,  truth  alone  will  be  known  among  them. 

And,  under  these  arrangements,  all  will  know  precisely  the  impres¬ 
sions  which  their  conduct  makes  upon  others,  and  a  stronger  stimu¬ 
lus  to  every  kind  of  excellence,  cannot  be  given;  it  will  effectually 
purify  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  all,  and  produce  a  perfection  of 
conduct  throughout  society,  of  which  the  present  ignorant,  degraded, 
and  irrational  race  can  form  no  adequate  conception. 

When  sincerity  and  truth  and  consequently  rationality  shall  bo 
alone  known  among  men,  it  will  be  soon  ascertained,  by  experience, 
whether  nature  intended  to  give  man  happiness,  by  limiting  or  extend¬ 
ing  his  affections;  whether  she  intends  him  to  confine  his  most  ex¬ 
clusive  feelings  to  one  of  the  opposite  sex,  or  to  divide  it  with  more 
than  one,  and  how  many. 

However  this  may  prove  by  experience,  we  may  be  assured,  when 
no  artificial  obstructions  shall  exist,  that  the  dictates  of  nature  are 
those  which  she  intends  shall,  alone,  influence  to  actions  that  shall 
the  most  effectually  promote  real  virtue  and  happiness. 

Nature,  which  is  now  thwarted  in  every  advance  to  urge  the  human 
race  to  knowledge  and  happiness,  will  persevere,  until  her  righteous 
..laws  shall  be  alone  obeved,  and  they  will  ultimately  direct  the  inter¬ 
course  of  society  as  wisely  for  the  well  doing,  well  being,  and  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  the  human  race,  as  she  has  ever  done  among  the  whole  of  the 
animal  and  vegetable  existences,  which  are,  in  this  respect,  subject 
to  the  same  general  laws. 

One  thing  is  most  evident,  that  nature,  by  keeping  the  power  of 
making  new  impressions  to  herself,  never  intended  that  man  or  wo- 


.DEBATE. 


t,4S 

man  should  perjure  themselves  by  promising)  to  each  other,  that  their 
sensations  from  and  for  each  other,  should  continue,  without  change,, 
until  death , 

In  the  new  state  of  existence,  this  crime,  also,  of  perjury,  will  be 
unknown,  for  there  will  be  “no  indissoluble  marriages,  or  giving  in 
marriage;-’  on  the  contrary,  all  will,  at  all  times,  possess  the  power 
to  associate  with  those  only  for  whom  nature  compels  them  to  feel 
the  most  regard  and  strongest  affection. 

Seventh  Condition, 

Of  travelling  ivith  convenience  and  advantage. 

To  have  the  means  of  travelling  at  pleasure,  or  of  removing,  with¬ 
out  inconvenience,  from  one  district  to  another,  is  essential  to  the  full 
enjoyment  of  happiness, 

This  benefit  will  be  provided,  ifi  a  very  effectual  manner,  in  the 
new  state  of  existence,  by  arrangements  which  will  be  equally  advan^ 
fageous  for  the  traveller  and  for  society. 

The  arragements  which  wall  be  formed,  under  this  new  mode  of 
existence,  will  be  so  formed,  that  when  any  country  shall  be  regular¬ 
ly  settled  under  its  regulations,  the  traveller  will  have  an  opportunity 
of  resting  in  any  direction  in  which  he  may  proceed,  within  two  miles 
of  the  last  association  or  station  he  mhy  have  left  or  passed, 

lie  will  find,  in  all  these  places,  whatever  can  be  necessary  to  Iris 
comfort;  the  same  as  he  enjoyed  in  the  association  or  society  from 
whence  he  commenced  his  travels.  It  will  not  be  necessary  for  him 
to  encumber  himself  with  luggage  of  any  description;  there  will  be 
supplies  of  all  he  will  require,  ready  for  his  use,  in  each  society,  and 
these,  as  before  stated,  will  be  within  two  miles  of  each  other  in  what¬ 
ever  direction  he  may  travel. 

These  journies  must  be,  of  necessity,  subject  to  general  regulations,  | 
which  will  apply  equally  to  all  of  the  same  age;  for  it  is  evident,  all 
,  cannot  travel  at  the  same  time.  But  it  is  probable  that  more  than  all 
who  wish  to  change  their  position  atone  time,  may  leave  their  station 
without  inconvenience. 

As  long  as  travellers  do  not  go  out  of  the  territories  occupied  by  the 
associations  wrho  have  embraced  the  new  mode  of  existence,  they  will 
not  require  money  or  extra  provisions  of  any  description,  beeause  ] 
they  will  be  equally  at  home,  wherever  they  may  wish  to  stop,  for  a 
longer  or  shorter  period. 

The  only  condition  to  which  they  will  be  liable,  is,  that  they  shall 
occupy  themselves,  as  long  as  they  remain  in  their  new  situation,  in 
the  same  manner  in  which  they  were  employed  in  their  former  asso-  1 
ciatien. 

When  the  change  is  in  progress,  from  the  old  to  the  new  state  of 
existence,  money  of  the  countries  to  which  the  traveller  is  about  to 
proceed  will  be  supplied  to  him  from  the  public  treasury. 

But  rational, as  all  these  reformed,  or  re-created  beings  will  become,.  • 
under  the  new  circumstances  by  which  they  can  be  surrounded,  no 
funds,  or  labor,  of  the  societies’  will  be  uselessly  expended.  They 


DEBATE, 


149 


Will  all  distinctly  perceive  that  a  well  arranged  economy,  in  the  whole 
proceedings  of  these  communities,  is  the  true  foundation  of  the  high¬ 
est  and  most  permanent  prosperity. 

Whatever  temporary  difficulties  may  arise,  at  first,  in  bringing  all 
the  requisite  arrangements  for  travelling  with  ease,  comfort,  and 
general  benefit  into  practice,  a  little  experience  and  perseverance, 
in  right  principles,  will  soon  overcome  them. — [Half  hour  out .] 

Mr.  Campbell  rises  — 

Mr.  Chairman — There  is  a  land  in  which  there  is  no  sickness,  in 
which,  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping  are  unnecessary.  1  am  well 
aware  that  in  an  argument  so  abstract  in  its  nature  as  the  present,  we 
cannot  go  into  such  details  as  to  make  every  topic  perfectly  apprehen¬ 
sible  to  all.  We  have  been  attending  to  a  brief  analysis  of  our 
external  senses,  and  internal  faculties.  To  aid  the  least  accustomed 
to  this  kind  of  reasoning,  we  shall  present  the  substance  in  a  new 
form.  Let  us  imagine  that  there  are  five  worlds,  and  that  we  have  a 
distinct  organ  calculated  exclusively  for  the  use  of  each  distinct 
world — that  there  is  a  world  of  colors,  cognizable  by  the  eye;  a 
world  of  sounds,  cognizable  by  the  ear;  a  world  of  odors,  cognizable 
by  the  olfactory  sense;  a  world  of  savors,  cognizable  by  the  taste; 
and  a  world  of  tacts,  that  is,  of  the  tactile  properties  of  bodies,  all 
.  the  ideas  belonging  to  which  world  are  cognizable  only  by  the  sense 
of  feeling.  Now  these  five  worlds  make  up  this  one  material  world 
and  all  the  properties  which  belong  to  it.  And  he  that  lacks  one  of 
these  organs  or  senses,,  is  forever  debarred  from  that  world  of  which 
it  is  the  door. 

Sensation  is  the  name  which  philosophers  have  given  to  theexer- 
else  of  these  senses,  or  rather  to  the  operation  by  them  which  makes 
us  acquainted  with  the  material  world.  Perception  is  the  name  given 
to  those  acts  of  the  mind  which  discriminate  the  different  sensations 
or  impressions  made  upon  our  senses.  It  is  called  the  faculty  of 
perception  to  distinguish  it  from  other  faculties,  such  as  memory  of 
imagination.  By  this  faculty  we  become  acquainted  with  all  things 
external ;  but  to-morrow  all  the  ideas  of  to-day  derived  through  the 
faculty  of  perception  become  the  objects  of  memory,  that  having 
respect  exclusively  to  the  past.  Next  comes  consciousness ,  which  is 
like  an  internal  eye,  enabling  me  to  take  cognizance  of  my  recollec¬ 
tions,  reasonings,  and  all  the  operations  of  my  intellect — such  as 
reflecting,  comparing,  discriminating'',  and  judging.  These  are  the 
primqjfy  intellectual  operations,  and  they  are  all  necessary  in  order 
to  arrive  at  certain  conclusions  on  material  things  or  the  dominions  of 
these  five  worlds.  But,  then,  there  is  the  world  of  spirits,  which  no 
man  could  imagine,  and  of  which  these  five  worlds  do  not  afford 
an  archetype,  or  sensation,  or  perception.  Of  this  world  we  have 
manv  ideas,  thoughts,  terms,  and  conversations,  and  the  question 
is,  How  did  we  come  by  them  ?  No  window  or- door  has  been  opened 
to  us  in  the  department  of  sense.  Where  are  the  organs,  the  senses^ 
thd  media ,  through  which  we  have  derived  these  ideas  ?  Not  by  the 

13* 


DEBATE, 


i50 

eye,  the  ear,  nor  the  taste ;  for  these  are  our  corporeal  senses  and 
cannot  take  cognizance  of  spiritual  existences.  For  all  our  ideas  of 
spiritual  and  eternal  things  we  must,  therefore,  be  indebted  to  some 
other  power. 

The  human  intellect  has  no  creative  power.  It  can  only  reason 
from  the  known  to  the  unknown.  We  can  augment  almost  ad  infi¬ 
nitum i9  but  we  cannot  create.  And  so  it  is  in  the  material  world — It 
is  a  law  of  physics  that  one  new  particle  of  matter  cannot  be  created  . 
We  can  change  and  modify ;  we  can  convert  a  fluid  into  a  solid,  a 
shapeless  piece  of  wood  into  a  polished  piece  of  furniture ;  but  we  can 
neither  create  nor  destroy  one  particle  of  matter.  And  just  so  it  is 
in  the  operations  of  our  intellectual  faculties  upon  sensible  objects. — 
Conceding  to  my  friend  that  imagination  ranges  wildly  through  the 
intellectual  world,  yet  all  philosophic  sceptics  and  Christians  have 
admitted  that  although  imagination  may  “body  forth  the  forms  of 
things  unknown,”  it  is  only  by  analogy  to  things  already  known, 
that  they  can  be  “turned  to  shapes,”  and  receive  “a  local  habitation 
and  a  name”  Imagination  is,  to  the  intellectual  world,  what 
mechanical  ingenuity  is  to  the  natural  world.  In  neither  can  any 
result  be  elaborated  without  a  stock  to  begin  upon.  Our  position  is 
that  imagination  can  do  no  more  with  ideas,  than  mechanical  inge¬ 
nuity  can  with  metals,  wood,  and  stone — that  the  intellectual  as  well 
as  the  mechanical  artificer  must  have  his  subject  before  him.  Hence 
it  is  utterly  out  of  the  power  of  imagination  to  originate  the  idea  of 
spiritual  existences,  or  even  to  invent  ajname  expressive  of  a  spiritual 
idea. 

But  to  give  the  argument  its  plain  practical  application,  and  great* 
est  force,  we  must  contemplate  another  endowment  of  man,  I  mean 
the  faculty  of  speech.  This  topic  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
preceding.  What  is  this  faculty  ?  It  is  the  power  not  only  of  giving 
utterance  to  our  feelings,  but  of  giving  names  to  things.  How  did 
we  come  by  the  use  of  speech?  is  it  natural  to  man  to  speak?  oris 
not  language  rather  purely  an  imitative  thing.  I  may  show  this 
tumbler  to  an  infant,  and  thus  afford  matter  for  its  perception,  mem¬ 
ory,  and  consciousness  to  operate  upon;  but  will  its  perception, 
memory,  or  consciousness  enable  it  to  give  a  name  to  this  vessel? 

I  may  perhaps  hazard  the  disapprobation  of  this  audience,  by  assert¬ 
ing  that  speech  is  not  natural  to  man.  Groans  and  inarticulate 
enunciations,  expressive  of  passion  or  feeling,  are  natural  to  almost  all 
animals.  But  man  difTers  from  them  all  in  the  following  respect:  they 
all  have  a  systematic  expression  uniformly  the  same ;  but  man,  withs 
out  language,  has  such  groans  and  sighs  and  expressions  of  feeling 
without  system.  The  speechless  babes  have  no  uniformity  of  this 
sort.  But  the  horse,  the  ass,  the  cow,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the  swal¬ 
low’,  the  sparrowr,  have,  wherever  found,  the  same  language  o.lf 
passion  and  feeling.  The  nightingale  and  the  lark  sing  the  same 
song  all  the  world  over.  But  when  we  speak  of  language,  we  mean 
not  enunciations  indicative  of  feeling,  but  names  for  ideas  or  senti¬ 
ments,  But  let.  us  ask,  How  do  infants  learn  to  speak?  Do  they 


DEBATE, 


151 


speak  as  naturally  as  they  see  or  smell  ?  Surely  not.  They  sigh, 
groan,  cry,  and  laugh  naturally,  but  imitatively  they  speak.  Speech 
is  the  result  of  education,  of  training,  and  of  the  imitative  faculty 
of  man.  It  has  been  experimentally  demonstrated  that  a  man  who 
has  never  heard  the  articulations  of  the  human  voice  can  never  speak* 
A  child  may  be  born  with  the  most  perfect  organs  of  speech,  and 
yet  be  born  dumb  and  continue  dumb  through  life,  in  consequence  of 
the  imperfection  of  its  auricularorgans.  Dumbness  is  the  necessary 
consequence,  the  inseparable  adjunct  of  deafness  from  birth.  If 
there  be  a  language  of  nature  it  is  a  language  of  inarticulate  sounds, 
which  all  abandon  so  soon  as  they  learn  to  speak.  This  is  &  fact  of 
vast  consequence  in  this  argument.  Admitting  that  there  is  a  natu¬ 
ral  enunciation  of  feeling,  and  a  language  of  pains  and  joys,  this 
language  is  abandoned  when  what  is  now  called  human  language  is 
taught.  All  philosophers  have  been  baffled  in  their  attempts  to  ac¬ 
count  for  the  origin  of  language,  and  all  nations  have  concurred  in 
declaring  that  speech  was  the  gift  of  the  gods.  The  most  ancient  of 
the  Egyptian  writers  (and  these  are  of  higher  antiquity  than  any 
other  extant,)  concur  in  declaring  that  they  are  utterly  unable  to  ac¬ 
count  for  the  origin  of  human  speech  without  referring  it  to  God. 
The  impossibility  of  inventing  a  universal  language  is  very  obvious. 
Because  in  order  to  invent  a  new  language  common  to  all,  all  must 
be  congregated,  and  a  conventional  vocabulary  must  be  adopted 
* — for  instance,  they  must  agree  unanimously  that  this  glass  shall  be 
called  tumbler.  But  how  could  they  be  congregated  or  enter  upon  this 
business  without  the  possession  of  that  identical  universal  language 
which  the  scheme  contemplates?  There  is  no  speculation  on  the 
origin  of  language  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  schools,  that  warrants 
the  conclusion  that  man,  by  the  unaided  exercise  of  his  native,  inher¬ 
ent  powers,  could  have  attained  to  the  use  of  speech ;  or  that  language 
could  have  been  communicated  to  man,  in  the  first  instance,  by  any 
but  a  divine  instructer.  Speech,  like  faith,  comes  by  the  ear;  what¬ 
ever  comes  by  the  ear  is  derived ;  therefore  human  language  is  derived. 
Whatever  is  derived  is  not  natural';  human  language  is  derived; 
therefore  human  language  is  not  natural.  In  proof  of  the  syllogism, 
the  deaf  cannot  speak.  The  idea  of  any  thing  must  necessarily  be 
precedent  and  anterior  to  the  invention  of  a  name  for  it.  All  nations 
must  have  had  an  idea  of  Deity  before  the  word  God ,  in  their  respect¬ 
ive  languages,  could  have  been  invented  Fifty  years  ago  there  was 
not  to  be  found  in  all  the  books  and  all  the  vocabularies  in  the  world, 
such  a  word  as  steam-boat;  and  why?  Because,  at  that  period,  the 
idea  of  stemn-boats  had  not  been  conceived,  consequently  no  name 
could  be  annexed  to  an  idea  which  had  no  existence.  How  then  was 
the  ideas  and  names  of  God,  Spirit,  Altar,  Priest,  Sacrifice,  derived 
to  man?  The  idea  of  these,  and  all  positive  acts  of  religious  wor" 
ship,  must  necessarily  have  existed  antecedently  to  the  invention  of 
names  to  express  them.  The  conclusion,  is  irresistible,  that  the  in¬ 
vention  of  the  terms  by  which  spiritual  ideas  are  expressed,  must 
have  been  posterior  to  the  conception  of  the  ideas  themgelves — that 


152  DEBATE, 

a&  these  ideas  could  not  have  been  derived  through  the  media  of  the  ' 
five  senses,  they  must  have  been  communicated  in  some  other  way — ■- 
and  that  both  the  ideas  and  names  of  spiritual  things  must  have  been 
matter  of  divine  revelation.  By  a  reference  to  the  Old  Testament  we 
shall  find  these  facts  fully  established  in  evidence.  And  if  the  Bible 
facts  did  not  Support  our  reasoning,  we  would  nevertheless  be  con* 
strained  to  regard  it  as  logical  and  demonstrative  as  any  that  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  an  abstract  speculation .  But  I  am  not  compelled 
to  rest  the  truth  of  this  reasoning  upon  metaphysical  deductions-. 
We  have  matters  of  fact  to  go  upon.  The  Bible  tells  us  most  em¬ 
phatically  that  the  first  colloquies  ever  held  upon  this  earth  were 
between  the  great  Creator,  and  our  first  ancestors,  viva  v occ.  The 
book  of  Genesis  tells  us  that  the  first  pair  talked  with  God — hence 
the  inference  from  the  fact,  that  God  first  taught  man  to  speak,  is,  that 
the  art  of  speaking  is  not  native  and  inherent  in  the  family  of  man, 
Newton  has  sagely  observed  that  God  has  given  us  both  reason  and 
religion  in  the  gift  of  speech }  that  the  power  of  ratiocination  is  but 
an  adjunct  of  the  faculty  of  speech.  There  is  no  logical  objection  to 
the  dictum  of  Newton,  that  God  gave  to  man  both  reason  and  religion 
tn  the  gift  of  speech.  I  presume  that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to 
prove,  by  any  process  of  philosophical  reasoning,  that  man  could 
Correctly  reason  or  have  spiritual  ideas  without  the  use  of  speech.  In 
truth,  we  think  by  words,  and  infants  think  by  things;  and  let  him 
Who  imagines  he  can  think  without  terms  make  the  experiment. 

But  for  these  purposes  it  is  not  necessary  that  man  should  have 
an  extensive  vocabulary.  He  only  requires  two  lessons — first,  the 
elementary  ideas ;  and,  secondly,  the  elementary  words  significant 
of  them-:  and  then  who  shall  prescribe  limits  to  the  range  of  his  in¬ 
tellectual  powers?  He  will  soon  multiply  his  conceptions  and  his 
terms  beyond  the  powers  of  numbers  to  express.  But  he  must  have 
the  data,  or  some  stock,  to  trade  upon. 

Hoses  tells  us  that  God  called  the  animals  in  Paradise  around 
Adam,  and  that  he  tried  Adam’s  skill  in  speech,  by  requiring  him  to 
give  names  to  them.  He  gave  them  names;  and  we  are  told  that 
Adam’s  nomenclature  was  correct.  But  we  can  trace  the  phenomenon 
of  language  up  to  the  root,  although  we  cannot,  on  philosophic  prin¬ 
ciples  account  for  the  origin  of  language.  We  find  in  Europe  twenty- 
seven  languages;  and  by  tracing  them  up,  we  find  that  they  ard 
kindred  branches  from  three  roots;  that  these  three  roots  of  European 
languages  are  scions  of  one  single  stock  is  highly  probable,  and  that 
this  root  was  Hebrew.  Whether  this  root  was  Hebrew  or  some  other 
eastern  language  is  more  matter  of  philological  curiosity  than  of 
importance  to  our  argument.  But  there  can  be  no  question  that  all 
languages  are  traceable  up  to  the  same  fountain.. 

In  the  nomenclature  of  animals  respect  was  had  to  the  qualities  oE 
the  animal,  therefore  the  idea  of  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
animal  must  necessarily  have  existed  before  the  animal  itself  could 
have  been  designated  by  any  specific  name.  If  the  Hebrew  was  not 


DEBATE, 


m 


the  first  language  ever  spoken,  it  has,  nevertheless,  internal  evidences 
of  having  been  predicated  upon  these  primitive  elementary  princi¬ 
ples  as  illustrated  in  the  nomenclature  of  animals. 

In  Hebrew  the  zoological  nomenclature  is  always  analogous  to  the 
v  characteristic  quality  of  the  animal.  “Thus  the  original  Hebrew 
names  of  many  of  the  beasts  and  birds  of  that  region  are  apparently 
formed  by  onomatopoeia,  or  in  imitation  of  their  natural  cries  or  notes  ? 
so  the  general  name  given  to  the  tamer  animals,  sheep  and  kine, 
was  heme ,  in  which  sound  the  lowing  of  the  one,  and  the  bleating  of 
the  other,  seems  to  be  imitated ;  so  the  name  of  the  common  ass ,  orud, 
and  of  the  wild  ass  era,  resembles  their  braying.  The  name  of  the 
k  raven ,  oReb,  was  doubtless  taken  from  its  hoarse  croaking ;  of  the 

sparrow ,  tsippor,  from  its  chirping ;  of  the  partridge ,  quera,  from 
the  note  she  uses  in  calling  her  young;  and  the  murmur  of  the  turtle¬ 
dove ,  is  exactly  expressed  by  its  Hebrew  name  tur,  and  evidently 
gave  rise  to  it.  Many  other  instances  of  the  kind  might  be  produced ; 
but  these  are  sufficient  to  show,  at  least  the  great  probability,  that 
some  of  the  first  names  given  to  the  several  tribes  of  animals  were 
i  derived  from  their  respective  notes.’'’ 

But  the  instances  already  adduced  are  sufficient  to  show,  that,  in 
the  primitive  formation  of  language,  respect  was  had  in  the  nomen¬ 
clature  of  animals,  to  the  analogies  and  accordance  of  articulate  and 
inarticulate  sounds.  But  this  was  not  the  only  plan  adopted  in  the 
primitive  nomenclature  of  animals.  The  primeval  nomenclators  not 
only  took  cognizance  of  the  vocal  peculiarities  of  animals,  but 
also  of  their  characteristics.  Hence  the  camel  was  called  girnel ,  be¬ 
cause  supposed  to  be  of  a  vindictive  temper.  A  sheep  was  called 
rachel,  because  of  its  meekness;  a  ram  was  called  agil ,  because  of 
its  agility;  in  like  manner  a  goat  was  called  sair  from  its  being 
hairy. 

Thus  they  took  the  vocal  and  other  qualities  of  animals,  and  from 
their  observation  of  tir  se  they  formed  their  zoological  nomenclature. 
Well,  then,  the  analogical  argument  goes  to  prove,  and,  indeed,, 
compels  us  to  conclude,  that  the  annexation  of  the  names  of  God, 
spirit,  angel,  altar,  priest,  sacrifice,  &c.  must  have  been  posterior  to 
the  conception  of  the  spiritual  ideas  which  these  terms  express.  The 
corollary  to  be  derived  from  analysing  the  five  senses  and  this  super- 
added  gift  of  speech,  is,  that  we  can  neither  have  ideas  concerning 
spiritual  things,  nor  names,  without  the  aid  of  immediate  and  direct 
revelation;  that,  without  revelation,  we  could  no  more  conceive  of 
these  ideas  than  we  could  invent  names  for  them.  The  child  born  in 
France  we  know,  by  experience,  will  acquire  the  language  of  that 
country;  the  child  born  in  Italy  will  speak  Italian,  because  they  are 
artificially  taught  to  speak  the  mother’s  language;  but  if  language  was 
natural  to  man,  all  children  would  speak  the  same  language.  On  the 
hypothesis  that  the  first  pair  were  created  in  a  state  of  infancy,  or  of 
adolescence,  the  difficulty  concerning  the  origin  of  language  remains 
equally  inexplicable. 


154 


DEBATE. 


Children  at  birth,  it  is  said,  have  been  excluded  by  circumstances 
from  all  access  to  the  sound  of  the  human  voice;  and  after  arriving  at 
maturity,  it  has  been  discovered  that  they  have  no  more  of  the  gift  of 
speech  than  brutes  have;  and  from  all  the  premises  before  us  the  con¬ 
clusion  follows  out  irresistibly  that  speech  is  as  legitimately  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  divine  revelation  as  religion  itself;  or  to  express  the  conclusion 
in  other  words,  the  inevitable  inference  is,  the  idea  of  God,  altar, 
priest,  victim,  &c.  is  older  than  the  names.  But  two  ways  only  can 
ideas  be  communicated;  first,  by  presenting  the  archetype,  or  that 
which  produces  the  idea  to  the  external  sense;  or,  secondly  by  speech , 
describing  the  thing  to  be  revealed  or  communicated  by  something 
already  known.  Now  as  the  language  of  a  people  is  the  only  infalli¬ 
ble  test  of  their  improvement  and  civilization,  so  the  name  of  God, 
altar,  priest,  victim,  found  among  the  most  savage  tribes  of  antiquity, 
incapable  of  abstract  reason  or  sentimental  refinement,  is  a  positive 
proof  that  none  of  them  did  ever  invent  the  idea.  This  would  be  as 
decisive  proof,  were  all  the  premises  clearly  understood,  as  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  a  gold  or  silver  coin  or  medal  found  amongst  a  people  igno¬ 
rant  of  metals  and  their  natures,  would  be,  that  they  w  ere  not  the 
makers,  but  the  finders  or  borrowers  of  this  coin.  I  boldly  assert  here, 
and  I  court  objection  to  the  assertion,  that  every  principle  of  sound 
-easoning,  and  all  facts  and  documents  in  the  annals  of  time,  compel 
■is  to  the  conclusion  that  the  idea  and  name  of  God  first  entered  the 
fiuman  family  by  revelation.  No  man  ever  uttered  a  sentence  more 
imphilosophic,  more  contrary  to  human  experience,  observation,  and 
fight  reason,  than  Mirabaud,  when  he  declared  that  savages  invented 
he  idea  and  name  of  God  and  spiritual  existences.  He  might  as  well 
tave  averred  that  savages,  without  fire,  without  a  mould,  and  without 
metal,  made  the  first  gold  coins, 

■/  ■  ■■  • 

Wednesday ,  April  15,  3  o'clock  P.  M. 

Mr.  Owen  rises — 

My  friends,  I  proceeded  this  forenoon  as  far  as  the  eighth  provision 
necessary  to  human  happiness :  I  have,  therefore,  only  to  read  the 
eighth  and  ninth  in  order  to  finish  all  I  have  before  me;  and  then  my 
friend  Mr.  Campbell,  and  myself,  may  come,  perhaps,  to  closer  quar¬ 
ters. 

[Here  Mr.  Oicen  reads  to  the  end  of  the  Appendix ,  and  his  half  hour 
is  owf.] 

EIGHTH  CONDITION. 

Of  release  from  all  superstitious  fears ,  supernatural  notions ,  and 

from  the  fear  of  death. 

In  the  new  state  of  existence  all  children  will  be  taught  to  perceive, 
to  investigate,  and  to  compare  facts,  and  to  deduce  accurate  conclu¬ 
sions,  by  comparing  one  fact  carefully  with  another.  The  founda¬ 
tion  of  the  human  mind  will  thus  rest  upon  a  knowledge  of  facts  all 
in  unison  one  with  another;  and,  its  formation  will  proceed,  day 
by  dav,  by  adding  a  clear  perception  of  one  law  of  nature  to  another, 
until  each  mind  will  thus  acquire  for  itself  an  increasing  standard  of 


DEBATE. 


15iJ 


truth,  which  will  guard  It  from  youth  against  the  reception  of  errors 
of  the  imagination.  In  minds  thus  cultivated  superstitious  or  un¬ 
natural  fears  w7ill  never  enter.  They  will  never  become  so  irrational 
as  to  iin  ne  any  laws  of  nature  for  which  they  can  discover  no  {act, 
but  they  will  study  to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  those  laws  to 
the  extent  their  minds  can  investigate  them,  and  knowing,  as  they 
will  speedily  learn,  that  truth  is  one  throughout  the  who' 3  universe, 
and  that  there  can  be  no  opposition  or  contradiction  bet  /-  sen  any  one 
-truth  and  another,  their  minds  will  soon  attain  so  much  strength  and 
knowledge,  that  an  error  will  not  find  admittance  therein. 

.Every  error,  presented  to  a  mind  so  trained  and  formed,  will  be 
immediately  compared  with  the  true  ideas  already  received  by  the 
study  of  facts — of  facts  the  truth  of  which  all  are  compelled  to  admit, 
because  they  have  been  previously  found,  after  ihe  most  severe  inves¬ 
tigation,  to  be  in  strict  accordance  with  all  the  ascertained  laws  of 
nature.  This  comparison  wall  soon  detect  its  fallacy  by  showing  its 
opposition  to  those  established  facts,  or  to  the  unchanging  laws  of 
nature ;  and,  in  consequence,  it  will  be  as  impracticable  for  the  mind 
to  give  it  reception  among  its  true  ideas,  as  for  the  stomach  to  receive 
the  most  loathsome  food,  when  attempted  to  be  forced  into  it. 

The  human  mind  wrill  thus  become,  for  the  first  time  since  its  ex¬ 
istence,  sane  and  rational;  for  all  the  ideas  with  which  it  will  be 
filled,  wdll  be  in  unison  wfith  each  other;  there  will  be  no  complexity 
or  confusion  among  them — all  will  be  harmony  within. 

There  will  be  no  jarring  between  natural  feelings  and  imaginary 
divine  commands  in  direct  opposition  to  those  feelings;  for  it  will  be 
known  that  the  natural  feelings  of  the  human  race  are  the  divine 
commands,  and  that  whatever  is  opposed  to  them  is  error — is  super¬ 
stition — is  an  invention  of  ignorant  men,  whose  class  is  opposed  to 
the  well-being  and  happiness  of  mankind,  who  are  trained  from  their 
youth  to  deceive  them,  to  fill  them  with  fear  and  dread  of  nonentities, 
which  they  describe  according  to  the  wildest  fancies  of  the  most 
absurd  imagination. 

None  of  this  ignorant  and  mischievous  proceeding  will  be  found 
in  the  new  state  of  existence.  Nothing  that  is  unknown,  or  that  is 
incomprehensible  to  the  human  faculties,  will  create  any  other  feel¬ 
ing  than  a  cheerful  confidence;  that  the  best  has  been,  is,  and  will 
be  done,  that  the  materials  of  which  the  universe  is  composed  permit 
to  be  done. 

Every  aberration  of  the  human  intellects  will  be.  at  once,  detected 
by  the  standard  of  truth,  formed  in  every  mind,  of  a  sufficient  number 
of  facts,  all  in  unison  w  ith  each  other. 

This  standard  will  guard  the  mind,  in  the  newr  state  of  existence, 
against  the  reception  of  all  incongruous  notions.and  absurd  combi¬ 
nation  of  ideas.  Superstitious  and  supernatural  fears  will  entirely 
cease,  and  all  will  readily  acquire  correct  ideas  relative  to  the  do* 
composition  of  ail  materials,  compounds",  and  organizations. 


DEBATE. 


m 

Were  it  not  for  the  irrational,  imaginary  notions,  which,  for  nuiu-  1 
berless  ages,  the  population  of  the  world  has  been  compelled  to  receive 
as  divine  truths,  there  would  be  no  fear  of  death  among  mankind. 

It  would  become  obvious  that  the  materials  of  which  the  earth  and 
atmosphere  are  composed,  modified,  as  they  probably  are,  by  the  in- 
fluence  of  the  solar  system  in  which  they  revolve,  are  continually 
undergoing  the  changes  of  composition  and  decomposition  according 
to  the  fixed  laws  of  nature,  which  alter  not  their  eternal  course,  in  the 
Slightest  iota,  through  any  of  the  forms  or  ceremonies,  or  wordy 
wanderings  of  the  human  race. 

7,  Are  we  not  justified  in  saying  that  it  is  a  necessary  law,  of  all  other  ; 
laws  of  nature,  that  no  change  has  ever  been  or  can  be  made  in  the 
eternal  laws  of  the  universe?  That  the  least  change  in  the  laws  by 
which  the  universal  mechanism  and  chemistry  of  nature  perform 
their  united  operations,  would  create  a  chaos  and  confusion  that 
would  disturb  and  destroy  its  one  universal  movement  that  preserves 
the  harmony  of  all  existences? 

Can  these  laws  be  rendered  variable  and  uncertain  for  man,  an 
insect  upon  an  atom,  as  he  exists  upon  the  earth  compared  to  the 
eternity  cf  space,  with  its  endless  systems  of  suns  and  planets, 
revolving,  sphere  beyond  sphere,  unchanged  and  probably  unchange¬ 
able?  No!  the  composition  and  decomposition  upon  the  earth,  when 
viewed  without  the  vanity  and  presumption  arising  from  ignorance  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  will  be  found  to  differ  not  in  man  from  any  other 
vegetable  or  animal  compound.  He  is  composed  of  the  self-same 
materials,  and  he  is  again  decomposed,  and  becomes  part  of  the 
general  mass  from  which  every  earthly  compound  continues  to  be 
termed. 

And  this  is  a  law  of  impartiality  a*nd  justice,  which,  when  it  shall 
be  fully  comprehended,  wrill  lead,  not  only  to  universal  charity  in 
practice  from  man  to  man  throughout  the  globe;  but  it  will  fiil  him 
with  benevolent  and  kind  feelings  for  all  that  has  life— it  will  give 
him,  in  fact,  a  fellow-feeling  for  all  that  exists  around  him. 

He  will  know  that  he  is  perpetually  changing  particles  of  his  own 
existence  with  all  objects  among  which  he  moves,  whether  animate 
or  inanimate.  He  will,  therefore,  avoid  giving  unnecessary  pain  to 
any  thing  that  has  life.  The  worm  and  the  insect  are  his  kinsfolk ; 
they  are  from  the  same  original  stock  of  materials,  and  in  the  next 
decomposition  will  unite  again  as  children  of  the  same  origin,  pro¬ 
ceeding  from  one  common  parent,  who  is  aline  interested  in  the 
general  happiness  of  every  being  formed  from  the  universal  mass 
from  whence  all  come,  and  into  which  all  return. 

No!  man  is  not  an  exception  to  the  general  laws  of  nature;  lie  is 
born  and  he  dies,  and  “the  place  which  knew  him,  knows  him  no 
more” 

There  is  not  one  single  fact,  except  in  a  slight  extension  of  some 
of  the  same  faculties,  different  in  the  formation  and  decomposition 

man,,  from  any.  other  earthly  compound  and  decomposition and 


DEBATE, 


when  men  shall  be  disabused,  on  this  subject,  they  will  be  great 
gainers  in  practice. 

They  will  no  longer  vainly  expend  their  time  and  faculties  upon 
imaginary  future  existences  which  belong  not  to  their  nature;  but 
they  will  at  once  apply  themselves,  heart  and  soul,  to  make  a  para¬ 
dise  of  their  present  abode,  that  each  generation  in  succession  may 
enjoy  it  continually  without  any  ignorant  fears  for  the  future,  except 
that  of  creating  some  permanent  cause  of  misery  during  their  lives; 
such  as  slavery,  cruel  and  unjust  laws,  or  irrational  institutions  and 
customs,  to  inflict  punishment  on  their  progeny;  or,  in  other  words, 
on  that  which  constituted  part  of  themselves,  and  for  which  they 
would  have,  if  rightly  instructed,  a  fellow-feeling. 

This  view  of  our  existence  is  similar  to  the  desire  we  hate  been 
taught  to  have  to  provide  abundantly  for  our  children  and  immediate 
descendants. 

The  latter  is  now  an  ignorant  and  selfish  desire,  created  by  ay 
artificial  state  of  society,  while  the  other  will  evince  a  true  know¬ 
ledge  of  human  nature'and  generate  dispositions  of  unbounded  love 
and  charity — not  in  words,  but  in  practice,  for  the  whole  hitman 
race,  present  and  future. 

This  view  of  human  nature  will  put  an  end  to  the  pride,  vanity, 
and  selfishness  of  individuals  Mid  families;  it  will  destroy  all  notions 
of  superstition  and  of  unknown  supernatural  agencies,  until  some 
tangible  and  consistent  facts  respecting  their  existence,  if  they  do 
exist,  shall  be  acquired.  Anc.  more  especially  of  their  interference 
in  human  affairs  in  opposition  to  the  unerring  laws  of  nature. 

It  will  also  annul  all  the  unreasonable  fears  of  death,  or  of  our\ 
accidental  or  natural  decomposition,  which  are  now  so  unwisely  in¬ 
stilled  into  the  minds  of  children,  almost  as  soon  as  they  can  be  made 
to  receive  these  injurious  impressions.  Man  is  thus  made  a  mental 
coward,  and  filled  with  all  manner  of  fears  of  the  imagination,  against 
which  he  knows  not  how  to  defend  himself.  lie  is  thus  made  so  weak 
and  irrational,  that  he  continually  torments  himself  and  others  through 
life,  without  producing  any  counteracting  benefit. 

Instead  of  being  thus  abused  in  childhood,  he  ought  to  be  taught 
from  infancy  the  plain  truth  on  this,  as  well  as  upon  wery  other 
subject. 

He  would  then  know  what  to  expect,  and  he  would  be  always 
without  fear  or  dread  of  any  kind,  prepared  for  that  change  which 
all  nature  undergoes ;  and  his  happiness,  during  life,  would  not  be 
disturbed  with  apprehensions  and  fears  of  what  would  become  of 
him  after  decomposition. 

He  would  comprehend  the  truth,  upon  this  subject,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth,  and  in  consequence,  his  mind  would  bo 
firm  and  sane  at  all  times;  he  would  be  free  to  act,  without  a  selfish 
motive,  what  the  world  now  calls  a  noble  and  generous  part  to  ail  hs 
fellow-beings,  but  which  conduct  would  then  become  the  common 
practice  of  the  human  race. 


r 


n 


158 


DEBATE. 


NINTH  CONDITION. 

Of  a  state  of  society,  in  which  all  its  laics ,  institutions ,  and  customs  shall 

be  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  human  nature ,  or  with  the  divine 

laws  by  which  man  is  formed  and  governed. 

Any  society  in  which  the  laws  of  man  have  been  made  to  oppose 
the  divine  laws  of  his  nature,  must,  of  necessity,  exist  in  a  state  of 
continued  crime,  disunion,  and  misery. 

All  societies  of  men  have  been  so  formed,  that  at  this  day  they  all 
exist  in  crime,  disunion  and  misery.  In  all  of  them  the  divine  laws 
of  nature  have  been  misunderstood,  or  disregarded,  and  men  have 
busied  themselves  in  vain,  in  devising  artificial  laws  to  alter  their  un- 
ohangeble  nature,  and  improve  the  work  of  a  power  beyond  their  fac¬ 
ulties  to  comprehend. 

It  is  evidently  the  whole  duty  of  man  for  his  own  sake,  and  for  the 
benefit  of  his  race,  to  find  out  the  laws  of  his  nature,  that  he  may 
first  know  what  manner  of  being  he  is,  and  then  form  all  his  institu¬ 
tions  to  be  in  strict  accordance  with  these  divine  laws.  He  will  then 
by  the  natural  progress  of  knowledge,  bring  about  a  new  state  of  ex¬ 
istence,  in  which  the  duty,  the  interest,  and  inclination  of  all  will 
be,  at  all  times,  one  and  the  same  feeling.  In  which  all  will  possess, 
in  security  and  without  opposition  from  any  quarter,  a  full  supply,  at 
all  times,  of  whatever  is  essential  to  the  happiness  of  human  life. 

Under  the  supposition  that  these  principles  are  as  true,  and  their 
practice  as  beneficial  as  I  have  stated,  it  becomes  a  question  of  per¬ 
manent  interest,  to  know  how  this  change — a  change  greater  than  all 
which  have  preceded  it — can  be  accomplished,  not  only  without  in¬ 
jury  to  any,  but  with  permanent  advantage  to  all.  To  me  it  appears 
that  this  change  can  be  effected,  the  most  easily,  by  the  union,  in  the 
first  instance,  of  some  of  the  leading  governments,  and  of  the  heads  of 
the  chief  sects  of  religion,  in  the  adoption  of  general  measures  to  di¬ 
rect  the  new  arrangements  upon  an  extensive  scale ;  but  in  a  manner 
so  gradual,  that  no  shock  shall  be  given  to  the  interests  or  feelings  of 
any  portion  of  society.  And,  in  forming  these  arrangements,  no  at¬ 
tempt  should  be  permitted  to  be  made  to  displace  the  individuals  who 
are  at  the  head,  or  who  administer  any  of  the  existing  governments. 

No  member  of  any  church  should  he  deprived,  during  his  life,  of 
the  support  and  emoluments  which  he  now  derives  from  it.  No  one 
deriving  his  support  from  other  professions  should  be  in  any  degree 
curtailed  in  the  advantages  which  he  derives  from  his  present  station 
in  them.  No  one  employed  in  any  business  should  be  called  upon 
or  expected  to  do  more  than  his  present  occupation  requires  him  to 
perform.  No  one  shall  be  required  .to  do  any  thing  contrary  to  his 
former  habits. 

It  is  unnecessary  that  any  of  these  evils  should  arise  or  be  allowed 
to  take  place,  because,  there  is  power  in  society,  which,  when  direct¬ 
ed,  will  be  found  much  more  than  sufficient  to  supply  all  the  wants 
and  wishes  of  mankind,  without  it  being  necessary  to  adopt  any  of 


DEBATE. 


160 

those  temporary  evils,  or  in  any  degree  to  diminish  the  small  portion 
of  happiness,  which,  under,  the  existing  systems,  had  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  any  individual. 

The  unused  and  misdirected  powers  of  society,  are  far  more  than 
sufficient  to  satisfy  the  wishes  of  all  mankind,  as  soon  as  they  shall 
learn  what  is  requisite  to  make  them  happy;  and  shall  know  what 
it  is  their  interest  to  desire,  and  the  best  means  to  obtain  and  secure  it. 

Thus  have  I  endeavored  to  sketch  the  outline  of  the  causes  of  the 
past  and  present  errors,  and  evils  among  men ;  to  deduce  the  princi¬ 
ples  of  human  nature  from  facts  which  change  not,  but  which  remain 
the  “same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever;”  to  show  how  those  princi¬ 
ples  may  be  beneficially  applied  to  practice,  for  the  advantage  of  man¬ 
kind,  and  how  this  change  may  be  gradually  effected  throughout  so¬ 
ciety  without  injury  to  any  individual  of  any  class,  sect,  party,  or 
country. — [Half  hour  out .] 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — 1  did  not  know  that  in  undertaking  to  encounter 
Mr.  Owen  with  controversial  weapons  I  was  to  combat  with  a  divine 
iy.  I  did  not  know  that  his  twelve  laws  were  to  he  received  and  inter¬ 
preted  as  divine  revelations.  He  has  claimed  the  power  of  forgiving 
us  and  himself  all  sins,  originating;  in  his  own  singular  and  eccentric 
course  during  the  whole  prosecution  of  this  argument.  He  has  laid 
claim  to  the. high  attribute  of  understanding  the  secrets  of  all  hearts. 
He  says  that  his  facts  and  premises  are  of  a  dignity  and  high  import 
that  none  of  us  are  able  to  comprehend;  and  seems  to  insinuate  that 
there  are  as  many  mysteries  and  incomprehensibilities  in  the  new 
revelation  which  he  promulgates,  as  in  the  old  one,  which  we  have 
all  been  taught  to  receive. 

But,  with  all  due  deference  to  Mr.  Owen’s  new  light  of  revelation, 
I  must  protest  against  the  liberties  which  he  takes  with  our  oracles. 
He  seems  to  be  very  fond  of  quoting  from  them.  This  must  proceed 
either  from  a  desire  to  mislead  us  by  passing  off  these  sentences  as  ex¬ 
pressive  of  his  meaning  in  the  commonly  received  sense  of  them,  or 
from  his  conviction  that  there  is  no  book  so  eloquent  and  sublime  as 
the  Bible,  and  thus  directly  compliments  the  book  which  he  opposes. 

I  did  expect,  in  this  contest,  to  have  had  to  encounter  the  much 
boasted  reason  of  the  sceptics.  In  their  zealous  adoration  of  reason, 
sceptics  have  ridiculed  us  as  mere  dupes  for  revering  the  light  of  the 
sacred  volume.  1  did  expect  that  argument,  deduction,  reason,  proof, 
the  most  exact  and  philosophic  definitions,  and.  the  most  minute 
analysis  of  the  physical  and  intellectual  man,  would  have  been 
adduced  by  my  opponent  in  this  discussion.  I  was  expecting  to  meet 
this  formidable  array  of  controversial  forces ;  but,  to  my  utter  as¬ 
tonishment,  I  have  not  yet  been  encountered  by  a  single  syllogism. 
So  far  my  opponent  has  offered  us  neither  logical  premises  nor  con¬ 
clusions.  Well,  perhaps,  we  must  overlook  all  this,  and  anticipate 
a  new  order  of  things.  I  have  regretted  the  necessity  of  introducing 
the  argument  which  I  have  nearly  brought  to  a  close,  because  it  is 


DEBATE, 


TOO 

Neither  adapted  to  the  taste  nor  apprehension  of  a  popular  assembly--. 
But  I  have  been  obliged  to  be  somewhat  abstract  in  these  disquisitions 
because  the  scope  of  the  debate  seems  to  require  it,  and  the  debate 
itself  is  contemplated  to  be  matter  of  record.  It  is  only  after  the 
whole  premises  are  submitted  to  calm  and  dispassionate  reading,  that 
you  can  form  a  correct  estimate  of  the  validity  of  each  argument. 
1  should,  therefore,  never  have  thought  of  introducing  an  argument 
of  this  abstract  character  before  this  assembly,  did  I  not  expect  the 
whole  to  be  published,  and  the  grounds  on  which  the  cause  of  eter*- 
nal  truth  is  to  be  placed  against  the  fancies  and  cavils  of  distempered 
minds,  fairly  laid  before  the  youth  of  this  generation. 

In  introducing  an  argument  like  this  in  a  popular  assembly,  we 
have  to  imitate  the  pedagogue  who  first  teaches  the  alphabet  in  order 
to  give  his  pupil  the  art  of  reading.  We  have  to  adduce  the  alphabet 
of  mental  philosophy  in  order  to  lead  you  to  relish  and  apprehend  the 
truth  of  our  reasonings  upon  our  external  senses,  and  mental  faculties. 
Butin  purely  abstract  and  philosophic  topics  this  course  must  be  pur¬ 
sued.  I  must,  then,  go  over  the  ground  which  I  have  taken  in  this 
•argument,  so  far  as  it  has  been  prosecuted,  with  the  hope  that  if  Mr. 
Owen  will  not  take  notice  of  any  issue  that  may  be  tendered  to  him, 
some  other  person  may  present  me  with  some  solid  objections,  in 
order  that  these  premises  may  be  tested  thoroughly  by  fair  and  logical 
arguments.  We  have,  then,  endeavored  to  show,  by  a  very  brief  an¬ 
alysis  of  our  senses,  that  we  can  have  no  simple  ideas  except  those 
derived  through  sensation  and  reflection;  that  the  powers  of  the  mind 
in  ail  its  operations  are  confined  to  ideas  and  impressions,  acquired 
ly  perception  and  consciousness;  that  although  we  may  compound 
and  remodify  almost  ad  injimtum ,  we  cannot  originate  an  idea  entirely 
new,  We  have  shown  that  speech  is  neither  natural  to  man,  nor  the 
invention  bf  man;  that  infants  must  be  taught  to  speak  by  a  slow  and 
regular  process;  that  names  are  applied  to  things  and  ideas  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  pre-existence  of  the  ideas  in  the  mind;  that  the  idea 
must  always  necessarily  precede  the  name,  and  that  we  have  ex  peri-, 
mental  proof  from  infants,  from  those  born  deaf  and  subsequently 
restored  to  hearing.  And  here  I  will  remark,  for  the  sake  of  illustra¬ 
tion,  that  no  infant  has  ever  been  known  to  speak  any  language  but 
that  which  it  has  been  taught,  nor  to  attempt  to  give  a  name  to 
any  thing  till  some  mother,  nurse,  or  other  instructer,  has  desig¬ 
nated  that  thing  by  its  appropriate  name  to  tbe  child.  I  have  stated 
that  it  was  universal!)  known  that  a  man  bom  deaf  could  never  be 
taught  to  speak  until  His  deafness  was  removed,  because  the  power  of 
speech  can  only  be  acquired  by  the  ear,  and  not  by  any  other  organ; 
that  if  it  were  natural  to  man  to  express  himself  in  language,  and 
give  names  to  ideas  and  sensible  objects,  all  men  would  attempt  this, 
the  untaught,  as  well  as  those  who  have  been  taught  to  speak.  In 
the  philosophical  transactions  of  several  European  and  American 
societies  there  are  instances  on  record  of  persons  born  deaf,  being 
brought  to  hearing  after  they  had  attained  the  age  of  twenty-five  or 
thirty,  and  then  taught  the  use  of  speech.  These  persons  have  been 


Qi 

Interrogated  whether,  previously  to  their  restoration  to  the  faculty 

of  hearing  and  their  acquisition  of  the  power  of  speech,  they  had 

ever,  from  their  observations  on  the  visible  universe,  derived  any 

idea  of  an  invisible  Creator;  and,  unavoce ,  they  have  declared  that 

V  such  an  idea  never  entered  their  imaginations.  This  tangible  fact 

is  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  all  the  cases  in  which  this  cure  has 

been  performed. 

* 

This  is  the  only  experiment  that  is  possible  to  make  in  a  case  of 
this  kind;  for  we  cannot  find  a  human  being  possessed  of  a  full  or¬ 
ganization,  whose  mind  has  not  in  some  way  or  other  been  enlight¬ 
ened  on  this  subject  by  tradition.  We  cannot  find  a  man  perfectly 
in  a  state  of  nature,  who  never  heard  the  sound  of  any  human  voice 
but  his  own.  If  we  could,  he  might  be  a  fit  subject  to  experiment  upon, 
after  teaching  him  the  use  of  speech.  This  is  all  the  proof  that  the 
nature  of  the  argument  requires  or  directs,  and  it  must  be  by  this  time 
logically  established  in  the  minds  of  those  who  can  appreciate  the 
argument.  It  has  been  presumed  that  we  might  arrive  at  the  idea  of 
a  first  cause  by  a  process  of  reasoning  a  posteriori;  but  there  is  a 
palpable  petitio  principii  in  this  argument,  since  it  assumes  that  the 
material  world  is  an  effect,  and  if  an  effect  it  must  have  a  cause ,  which 
is  the  very  position  to  be  proved.  So  far  reason  and  experience  cor¬ 
respond  with  revelation.  I  rest  a  very  important  point  of  the  argu¬ 
ment  here — for  if  this  be  argument  and  not  fallacy,  (and  I  wish  to  hear 
all  objections  to  the  argument,)  then  Paul’s  was  an  axiomatic  truth; 
“By  faith  we  are  assured  that  the  universe  was  made  by  the  word  of 
Ood.”  lie  does  not  say  by  reason ,  observe,  but  by  faith.  No  Chris¬ 
tian  can  demur  to  a  mode  of  reasoning  which  has  for  its  object  the 
establishing  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  what  Paul  says,  when  he  af¬ 
firms  that  by  faith  ire  know  the  universe  was  made  by  the  word  of  God , 
when  he  affirms  that  the  world  by  philosophy  never  knew  God.  Third¬ 
ly,  we  have  further  proved  from  the  analysis  cf  our  intellectual 
powers,  that  faith  or  belief  is  not  more  necessary  or  independent  of 
our  volition  than  knowdedge  and  experience.  This  a  very  capital 
point  of  the  argument,  and  goes  to  subvert  the  whole  of  my  opponent’s 
theory  of  faith.  Faith,  then,  I  say,  has  been  proved  to  be  as  depend- 
ent  on  volition  as  knowledge  or  experience;  because  all  the  faculties 
employed  in  examining  evidence  and  acquiring  knowledge  are  sub¬ 
ject  to  .our  volitions.  The  moment  I  determine  to  push  my  investi¬ 
gation  into  any  department  ofknowledge  of  which  I  am  ignorant,  that 
moment  I  summon  my  energies  to  the  work.  The  moment  testimony 
is  presented  to  me,  I  call  all  my  faculties  to  the  examination  of  that 
testimony ;  and  my  volition  is  just  as  operative  in  my  examination  of 
testimony,  as  it  is  in  my  researches  into  any  favorite  department  of 
science.  Such  then  is  the  argument  which  I  have  submitted  to  you 
as  deduced  from  these  premises.  We  may  now  naturally  lead  you  as 
we  proposed,  to  the  direct  evidences  of  the  positi  ve  truth  of  revelation, 
a  duty  which  I  hoped  to  have  been  called  to  at  the  onset. 

My  friend  and  I  have  been  sailing  in  company  so  long,  and  have 
at  last  arrived  where  wc  can  bring  our  artillery  to  bear  against  each 

14* 


Jfc* 


DEBATE. 


161 


102 


DEBATE. 


other.  I  have  just  now  arrived  at  the  point  upon  which  I  did  suppose  all 
the  merits  of  this  controversy  were  to  rest.  But  while  speaking  on 
the  incapacity  of  the  human  mind  to  originate  ideas  entirely  new,  I 
cannot  pretermit  this  opportunity  of  illustrating  a  theory,  common,  I 
believe,  to  both  Christians  and  sceptics,  by  a  reference  to  my  friend’s 
proceedings.  We  have,  then,  asserted  that  the  human  faculties  have 
not  the  power  of  originating  any  thing  new,  and  Mr.  Owen’s  social 
theory  corroborates  the  assertion.  I  would,  therefore,  ask  Mr.  Owen 
to  answer  this  question,  Did  he,  or  did  he  not,  some  forty  years  ago, 
originate  this  theory  from  his  own  observation  of  human  nature;  or 
was  it  not  suggested  to  him  by  the  circumstances  which  Christi¬ 
anity  threw  around  him  in  Scotland?  That  his  theory  originated  in 
the  religious  circumstances  at  that  time  existing  in  Lanark,  we  have 
'  good  reason  to  believe.  It  was  the  Christian  benevolence  of  Mr.  Dale 
which  prompted  him  to  invent  a  plan  for  the  education  of  the  children 
of  the  poor.  By  instituting  a  system  of  co-operation,  Mr.  Dale  was 
enabled  to  sustain  five  hundred  poor  children  at  one  time,  who  were 
collected  in  the  manufactories,  which  he  controlled,  and  were  there 
maintained  and  educated  by  his  philanthropy.  And  to  these  circum¬ 
stances,  instituted  by  Mr.  Dale,  is  Mr.  Owen  indebted  for  the  origina¬ 
tion  of  his  new  views  of  society.  And  this  is  another  proof  that  we 
can  only  acquire  the  knowledge  of  new  things  from  things  already 
known. 

We  come  now,  in  the  regular  prosecution  of  this  subject,  to  the 
consideration  of  an  innate  power  in  human  nature.  I  do  not  know 
that  i  am  able  to  designate  thi*j  power  by  its  appropriate  name;  but 
there  is  a  native,  inherent  power  in  human  nature  of  believing  upon 
testimony.  This  power  is  sometimes  called  credulity ,  which  is  as 
inherent  in  the  infant  mind  as  any  other  faculty.  Now,  upon  this 
credulity,  are  predicated  all  systems  of  instruction.  Were  it  not  for 
ibis  innate  principle  of  credulity  in  human  nature,  there  could  be 
no  docility  in  children.  Were  it  not  that  they  have  the  power  of 
receiving  instruction  upon  testimony  from  their  teachers,  all  intellec¬ 
tual  ‘improv ability  would  be  impracticable.  And  here  commences  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  mere  animal  instinct  and  the  intellectual 
progressi. f  :;ss  of  man.  lie  is  by  nature  a  progressive  animal,  and 
there  is  no  ne  plus  ultra  in  his  intellectual  progress.  But  all  this 
boundless  impro validity  in  man  has  its  source  in  his  credulity.  If  he 
had  not  the  power  of  believing  what  his  parents  and  all  others  who 
may  stand  in  a  didactic  relation  to  him,  instruct  him  in,  it  would  be 
as  impossible  to  fructify  his  mind,  as  it  would  be  to  teach  a  goat  to 
speak.  This  power,  by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called,  is,  in  its 
operations,  ihe  most  gigantic  moral  power  with  which  man  has  been 
endowed.  Now  the  theory  of  my  opponent  pretermits  and  keeps  out 
of  view  this  important  faculty  of  human  nature; — he  has  not  predi¬ 
cated  a  single  one  of  his  facts  upon  it.  Nay,  lie  has  had  the  temerity 
to  affirm  that  the  only  use  of  authority  was  to  give  countenance  and 
support  to  that  which  was  false  and  erroneous.  I  believe  my  friend 
volunteered  this  eccentric  affirmative  proposition,  because  he  was  well 


DEBATE, 


m 


aware  that  the  faculty  of  believing  or  disbelieving  the  verity  of 
facts  as  reported,  is  the  principle  germ  of  improvability  in  man.  To 
this  diet  are  we  indebted  for  almost  all  we  know.  If  Mr.  Owen  could 
erase  from  the  tablet  of  his  mind  all  that  he  has  acquired  upon  the 
testimony  of  others — if  it  were  possible  for  him  to  be  deprived  of  a 
native  inherent  faculty,  which  is  inalienable  from  his  nature,  and  to 
be  made  dependent  for  his  acquisitions  of  knowledge  exclusively  upon 
his  own  observation  and  experience,  he  would  not  have  one  idea  for 
ten  thousand  which  he  now  has,  and  for  which  he  is  indebted  to  his 
power  of  belief  upon  testimony.  Here  is  no  exaggeration.  If  the 
difference  could  be  computed,  it  is  probable  I  should  be  found  to  have 
fallen  short,  of  the  mark.  There  is  not  a  savage  “running  wild  in 
the  woods,”  untutored  and  untamed,  who  does  not  owe  more  of  his 
information  to  the  faculty  of  receiving  truth  upon  testimony,  than  to 
all  the  experience  of  his  life  multiplied  by  thousands.  What  is  the 
legitimate  import  of  the  term  experience!  Experience  is  neither  more 
nor  less  than  another  name  for  memory. 

Suppose  I  should,  by  some  accident,  some  concussion  of  th©  brain, 
be  deprived  of  the  faculty  of  memory ,  what  would  my  experience  be 
worth  after  I  had  forgotten  all  that  I  had  ever  heard,  seen,-  read,  or 
acted?  And  yet  this  experience  is  the  mighty  engine  by  which  my 
friend  expects  to  overturn  every  thing  predicated  on  testimony ! !*■ — • 
[Half  hour  out.] 

*  While  reading  over  my  debate  with  Mr.  Owen,  which  I  see  is  a 
gooddeal  in  the  style  of  my  extemporaneous  harangues — a  good  many 
unnecessary  repetitions  and  a  too  great  diffuseness  in  the  argument, 
(though  I  hope  this  defect  will  be  advantageous  to  the  common  reader 
as  it  will  keep  the  argument  longer  before  his  mind,  and  relieve  him 
from  much  abstract  thinking.)  I  discover  what  I  call  a  more  forcible 
proof  of  the  argument  against  the  dcistical  notion  of  natural  religion, 
or  the  supposed  power  we  have  to  originate  the  idea  of  God,  spirit, 
angels,  heaven,  a  future  state,  &c.  I  gave  one  forcible  proof,  as  I 
think,  in  merely  asking  Mr.  Owen  to  originate  the  idea  of  a  sixth  sense . 
This,  I  think,  is  an  irresistible  proof,  that  the  human  mind,  however 
cultivated,  has  not  the  power  of  originating  an  idea  entirely  new.  But 
perhaps  the  following  puzzle  will  carry  conviction  farther  and  deep¬ 
er  than  anyr  argument  yet  adduced  upon  this  subject. 

We  know  three  worlds — one  by"  sense,  and  two  by  faith— I  say  we 
are  in  possession  of  ideas  concerning  three  worlds:  the  present  ma¬ 
terial  world,  possessing,  as  we  now  think,  various  combinations  of 
forty  elements.  This  is  the  mundane  system.  The  other  two  worlds 
are  Heaven  and  Hell ,  or  a  state  of  future  bliss,  and  future  woe.  Be¬ 
sides  these,  from  some  expressions  found  in  the  scriptures,  concerning 
the  intermediate  state  from  death  to  the  resurrection,  some  have  fan¬ 
cied  a  state  called  Purgatory.  This  is,  however,  onlv  in  part  fanci- 
f  il,  because  there  is  a  state  of  separation  of  spirit  and  body,  which 
was  the  data  for  this  idea.  But  now  I  ask  all  the  atheists  and  scep¬ 
tics,  of  every  name,  to  fancy  any  other 'world — a  fourth  world — and 


184 


DEBATE 


Mr.  Owen  rises — 

I  wish  to  have  the  official  copy  of  the  points  of  debate,  that  I  ira^ 
adhere  strictly  to  them. 

[Mr.  Campbell  hands  the  document  to  Mr.  Owen .] 

My  friends,  I  deem  it  the  first  duty  of  those  who  are  contending 
only  for  the  truth,  to  concede  every  thing  they  possibly  can  to  an 
opponent.  I  therefore  most  readily  concede  to  Mr.  Campbell  that 
the  Christian  religion  was  the  foundation  of  the  social  system.— 
When  I  was  very  young  I  was  very  religious.  At  7,  8,  9,  and  up  to 
10  years  of  age,  I  only  read  what  are  called  good  books.  But  at  ten 
years  of  age  1  became  convinced,  from  these  books,  that  there  was 
error  somewhere.  I  discovered  so  much  contradiction  between  dif¬ 
ferent  religions,  and  between  the  various  sects  of  the  same  religion, 
that  I  became  convinced  there  was  some  great  error  pervading  the 
whole  subject.  I  was  very  desirous  to  distinguish  truth  from  error, 
and  studied,  with  great  industry,  for  the  three  followingyears,  that  is, 
until  I  was  thirteen  years  old,  with  a  determination,  forced  upon  me 
by  my  early  impressions,  to  find,  if  possible,  a  religion  that  was  true. 
But  the  more  I  read  and  reflected,  the  more  errors  and  mistakes  I 
discovered  in  religion,  and,  therefore,  the  more  I  differed  from  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  all  other  religions ;  until,  at  length,  I  was  compelled,  sorely 
against  my  will,  to  believe  Christianity  and  all  religions  to  be  found¬ 
ed  in  error.  There  was  no  relation,  no  congrukv  between  them  and 
facts — between  what  they  taught,  and  what  I  knew  and  felt  to  be  true. 

to  give  us  a  single  idea  of  it,  not  borrowed,  in  whole  or  in  part,  from 
the  three  already  known.  If,  with  all  the  intellect,  which  science  and 
philosophy  have  given  them,  they  cannot  do  this,  how,  in  the  name 
of  common  sense,  can  they  say  that  savages,  when  they  had  but  this 
globe,  or  a  knowledge  of  one  world,  could  originate  two  others?  If  but 
two  worlds,  Earth  and  Heaven,  had  yet  been  known,  without  revelation, 
it  would  have  been  just  as  difficult  to  have  originated  a  third,  as  it  is 
now  to  originate  a  fourth.  If  then,  any  sceptic,  deist,  or  atheist,  in  these 
United  States,  will  tell  me  what  a  sixth  sense  or  a  fourth  world  would 
be,  I  will  then  concede  that  this  philosophic  argument  is  not  con¬ 
clusive;  till  then  I  must  think  that  it  is— -till  then  I  must  think  that  it 
exterminates  every  system  of  scepticism  in  the  world.  Here  I  must 
retort  upon  all  atheists  in  away  which  their  own  system  teaches  me: 
You,  gentlemen,  deny  that  there  is  what  we  call  a  Creator,  and  that 
you  are  creatures.  But,  in  truth,  you  give  to  man  all  the  powers  we 
give  to  God;  you  believe  and  teach  that  we  Christians  have  created 
two  worlds  out  of  nothing  and  filled  them  with  inhabitants.  The  athe¬ 
ists,  for  theirKbodies  and  souls,  (if they  have  any}  cannot  get  along  with 
their  own  system  without  a  creator.  They  give  to  Christians  all  the 
attributes  which  Christians  give  to  God.  They  sav  that  we  Christians 
have  created  two  worlds  out  of  nothing,  and  have  filled  them  with  in¬ 
habitants,  by  the  mere  strength  of  our  omnipotent  imaginations!!  If 
this  be  not  good  logic,  on  their  premises,  I  will  consent  to  go  to  school 
again.  Will  some  of  the  club  show  us  that  the  conclusion  is  illogical  ?* 


debate; 


Therefore,  Mr.  Campbell’s  surmise  that  the  Christian  religion  was 
the  foundation  of  this  system  is  perfectly  correct:  but  it  was  not 
founded  in  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Finding  that  no  religion  was  based  upon  facts,  but  that'all  of  then; 
were  in  opposition  to  facts,  and  could  not  therefore  be  true;  I  began 
to  reflect  upon  what  must  be  the  condition  of  mankind,  trained  from 
infancy  to  believe  in  these  errors,  and  to  make  them  the  rule  of  their 
conduct.  I  argued  thus  with  myself:  As  I  am  very  certain  that  re¬ 
ligion  is  not  true,  therefore  something  else  must  be  true,  and  it  is 
highly  important  to  discover  what  it  is.  With  a  view  to  this  disco¬ 
very  I  read  five  hours  per  day  for  twenty-five  years,  until  I  believe  I 
collected  all  the  facts  which  are  of  value  on  these  subjects,  in  the 
English  language,  during  a  great  part  of  the  latter  period,  exclusively 
under  the  influence  of  an  oarnest,  honest,  ardent  desire  to  discover 
and  elicit  the  truth.  I  knew  that  there  were  certain  facts  and  deduc¬ 
tions  from  them,  upon  which  all  parties  were  agreed.  I  thought  it. 
therefore,  highly  probable  that  those  points  on  which  all  parties  had 
agreed* were  true;  and  these  I  recollected  for  the  sake  of  reference 
and  comparison.  But  when  I  came  to  an  idea  that  was  riot  in  unison 
or  accordance  with  them,  I  felt  myself,  as  a  lover  of  truth,  bound  to 
examine  it  carefully,  because  I  very  early  discovered  that  truth  was 
always  consistent  with  itself.  If,  therefore,  I  found,  by  close  investi¬ 
gation  and  extensive  comparison,  that  the  new  idea  to  be  examined 
was  in  strict  consistency  and  congruity  with  the  other  truths  previ¬ 
ously  received  into  my  mind,  it  was  added  to  the  original  store.  And 
thus  I  went  on  with  great  diligence  and  perseverance,  until  I  had 
collected  a  great  stock  of  ideas,  all  in  unison  with  each  other.  And 
it  is  from  this  stock  of  ideas,  and  from  no  other  source,  that  I  have 
been  enabled  to  discover  the  ignorance  in  which  we  and  our  ancestors 
have  been  trained.  I  did  not  go  into  Scotland  until  seventeen  years 
after  my  mind  had  passed  through  the  greater  part  of  this  process. 
I  was  a  thorough  sceptic  for  seventeen  years  before  my  removal  to 
Scotland.  In  regard  to  Mr.  Dale,  there  never  was,  perhaps,  a  man 
of  kinder  or  more  benevolent  feelings.  After  I  was  his  son-in-law  we 
became  very  intimately  acquainted  with  each  other’s  real  views  and 
feelings.  Our  objects  were  precisely  the  same;  but,  by  the  differ¬ 
ence  of  our  organization  and  circumstances,  we  were  compelled  to 
fake  different  roads  to  obtain  them.  I  admired  ins  character  and 
conduct,  and  I  believe  he  had  a  great  regard  and  affection  for  me; 
tor,  in  his  last  illness,  he  was  desirous  to  receive  his  medicine  and 
chief  attendance  from  me,  although  he  well  knew  how  much  I  differ¬ 
ed  from  him  on  the  subject  of  religion,  and  although  he  had  a  number 
of  religious  friends  about  him.  But  this  is  a  digression  produced  by 
Mr.  Campbell’s  observations. 

My  organization,  no  doubt,  differs  in  some  degree  from  others;  and 
certainly  the  circumstances  which  have  acted  upon  that  organization 
have  been  most  peculiar.  I  do  not  know  to  what  extent  my  organiza¬ 
tion  differs  from  others ;  but  the  circumstances  in  which  I  have  been 
placed,  acting  upon  this  organization,  have  been  the  causes  which 


DEBATE. 


166 

have  produced  all  the  occurrences  and  proceedings  of  my  life,  and  my 
character  and  conduct,  such  as  it  has  always  been,  before  the  world. 

But  to  come  to  the  point.  I  have  stated  that  there  are  twelve 
fundamental  laws  of  nature  not  derived  from  any  authority  whatever, 
but  from  facts  which  I  defy  all  the  world  to  disprove.  Mr.  Campbell 
admits  that  these  facts  are  true,  but  contends  that  they  do  not  contra¬ 
vene  or  oppose  the  faith  and  doctrine  of  Christianity.  Well,  if  my 
friend  can  convince  me  that  there  is  no  contradiction  or  discrepancy 
between  these  twelve  laws  and  Christianity,  I  shall  then  become  a 
Christian  indeed.-  But  to  me,  with  such  ability  as  I  possess — with  all 
the  power  of  attention  and  discrimination  which  I  can  exercise  on  the 
subject,  no  two  things  ever  did  appear  more  strongly  contrasted  and 
opposed  to  each  other  than  these  twelve  laws  and  Christianity — to  me 
they  appear  to  be  perfect  antipodes  to  each  other.  If  my  friend  Mr. 
Campbell  can  reconcile  them,  it  is  more  than  I  can  do.  I  shall  listen 
with  patience  and  great  interest  to  the  proofs  which  he  may  adduce 
on  this  point;  because  if  he  can  prove  that  there  exists  no  discrepan¬ 
cy  between  the  two  systems,  he  necessarily  will  make  me  achfristian. 
My  present  conviction  is,  that  these  twelve  la\ys  of  human  nature 
differ,  toto  ccdo ,  from  Christianity — that  these  twelve  laws  demon¬ 
strate,  in  the  clearest  manner,  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  are 
founded  in  the  ignorance  of  man  with  regard  to  himself — that  all  the 
religions  of  the  world  are  therefore,  Mr.  Campbell,  [turning  round  to 
kiwi ]  directly  opposed  to  the  never-changing  laws  of  our  nature — that 
there  is  not  the  remotest  connexion  or  affinity  between  these  twelve 
laws  and  any  religion  existing  on  the  face  of  the  globe — that,  on  the 
contrary,  all  religions  are  in  direct  opposition  to  them — that  these 
laws,  when  rightly  understood,  and  fully  and  fairly  carried  into 
practice,  will  produce  “peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  man;”  will 
create  a  new  state  of  society,  in  which  every  individual  composing  it 
shall  be  simple  and  virtuous  in  his  habits,  highly  intelligent,  possess¬ 
ing  the  best  dispositions,  and  enjoying  the  highest  degree  of  human 
felicity . 

I  do  say  farther,  that  these  religions  are  now  the  only  obstacles 
which  oppose  themselves  to  the  formation  of  a  society  over  the  earth 
of  virtue,  intelligence,  and  charity  in  its  most  extensive  sense,  and 
of  sincerity  and  kindness  amongst  the  whole  human  family.  These 
are  my  general  deductions  from  the  premises  before  us.  Were  I  to 
go  into  all  the  detail,  I  fear  I  should  occupy  too  much  of  your  time; 
for  I  have  as  much  of  these  details  to  bring  forward  as  would  occupy 
your  time  for  a  fortnight,  were  I  alone  to  speak.  These  details  all 
go  to  show,  step  by  step,  throughout  their  whole  progress,  how  in¬ 
jurious  all  your  religions  are  to  yourselves — that  they  cause  you  and 
your  children  to  continue  like  your  ancestors  in  total  ignorance  of 
yourselves,  and  that  they  involve  you  in  every  kind  of  disunion  which 
generates  the  worst  feelings  and  passions,  and  creates  all  those  little 
under  currents  of  misery  with  which  we  are  all  but  too  familiar. 

But  we  shall  now  bring  this  discussion  within  a  narrower  compass. 
£  have  stated  these  twelve  laws  as  succinctly  and  distinctly  as  words 


DEBATE 


16? 


tor  that  purpose  occur  to  me.  Now,  if  Mr.  Campbell  will  only  show 
me  that  one,  or  all,  or  any,  or  either  of  these  laws  are  contrary  to  fact, 
or  in  unison  with  Christianity — from  that  time  forth  he  makes  me  a 
Christian ! 

Now  it  will  be  Mr.  Campbell’s  duty  to  prove  either  that  these  twelve 
laws  of  human  nature  are  not  derived  from  facts,  and  in  unison  there¬ 
with,  or  he  must  prove  that  these  laws  and  Christianity  are  one  and 
indivisible..  I  take  it  for  granted  that  Mr.  Campbell  gives  up  all  other 
religions  except  the  Christian.  But  were  I  to  go  to  any  other  country 
with  my  challenge,  I  could  find  no  champion  willing  to  defend  any 
but  his  own;  therefore,  I  can  only  be  met  formidably  by  the  religion 
of  the  region  or  district  where  they  happen  to  be.  I  should  be  told  in 
one  district,  ‘We  will  not  contend  with  you  for  the  truth  of  the  reli¬ 
gion  taught  by  Confucius,  by  Moses,  or  by  Mahomet;  but  we  will 
contend  with  you  to  the  death  for  the  divine  truth  of  that  holy  religion 
which  has  been  delivered  to  us  of  this  district  and  to  our  fathers  from 
time  immemorial.’  The  attachment  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  different 
regions  of  the  earth  to  their  respective  religions  seems  to  be  but  a 
mere  local  kind  of  attachment.  When  asked  why  they  believe  their 
peculiar  religion  to  be  the  only  true  one,  they  reply,  ‘Because  we 
have  been  born  in  this  part  of  the  world,  and  have  been  taught  that 
we  ought  so  to  believe.’  At  present  I  shall  say  no  more,  having  placed 
the  matter  thus  plainly  before  you.  Mr.  Campbell  has  now  a  fair 
opportunity  to  prove  that  these  twelve  laws  are  not  based  upon  facts, 
or  being  founded  in  truth  that  they  are  in  unison  with  Christianity. 
I  do  think  it  would  be  unfair  to  ask  Mr.  Campbell  to  proceed  forthwith 
in  reply  to  the  mass  of  matter  which  has  been  presented ;  that  I  ought 
to  put  my  document  into  his  hands  and  allow  him  ample  time  to  digest 
and  refute  it.  Mr.  Campbell  has  now  either  to  lose  his  cause  alto¬ 
gether,  or  to  make  me  a  Christian. 

In  reply  to  a  dictum  ^rom  the  Chair ,  Mr.  Owen  said — 

I  willingly  adopt  the  suggestion  from  the  Chair,  and  shall  proceed 
to-morrow  to  demonstrate  the  opposition  between  Christianity  and 
these  facts,  although  Mr.  Campbell  ought,  as  he  engaged,  to  show 
their  accordance  with  each  other, 

Mb.  Campbell  rises. 

I  am  glad  there  is  now  a  probability  of  coming  to  close  quarters 
with  my  friend  and  opponent. 

[ Here  the  Honorable  Chairman  rose  and  staled ,  the  impression  of 
the  Board  to  be ,  that  the  affirmative  of  the  proposition  now  in  debate 
rests  with  Mr.  Owen.  Unless  he  make  out  the  affirmative  that  his  facts 
arc  irreconcileablc  to  the  Christian  religion ,  he  fails  to  establish  fiis 
proposition.  The  bare  proof  or  admission  of  the  twelve  facts  by  no 
means  establish  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Owen .  It  is  one  thing  to  lay 
down  facts  and  prove  them  to  be  true ,  and  another  thing  to  ascertain 
the  legitimate  results  from  these  facts.  Mr.  Owen  succeeds  but  in  part 
when  he  proves  his  facts.  If  the  argument  were  to  be  suspended ,  Mr. 
Owen’s  proposition  would  not  be  sustained  Holding  the  affirmative  of 


DEBATE. 


tm 

ifie  proposition,  Mr,  Owen's  onus  probandi  is  not  only  to  show  that  his 
facts  are  true ,  but  that  they  are  irreconcileable  to  Christianity  and  all 
other  religions  assumed  to  be  veritable  systems.] 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — I  accord  with  this  view  of  the  Board,  and  shall 
proceed  to-morrow  to  demonstrate  the  discrepancies  between  Christi¬ 
anity  and  these  twelve  facts. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises  again. 

Mr.  Chairman — In  the  mean  time  I  ask  to  be  indulged  with  per¬ 
mission  to  prosecute  the  argument  which  I  have  thus  far  introduced. 
When  I  sat  down  I  had  got  to  the  position  that  all  the  experience  of 
man  amounted  to  no  more  than  his  memory ;  but  to  be  under¬ 

stood  sub  modo.  When  I  defined  experience  thus,  I  meaht  to  exclude 
every  particle  of  knowledge  derived  from  faith  in  testimony.  I 
meant  personal  experience  in  the  strictest  sense,  and  had  reference 
only  to  the  precise  quantum  of  information  to  be  accquired  by  individ¬ 
uality  of  experience.  But  as  we  have  advanced  thus  far  towards  the 
true  point  on  which  Christianity  is  predicated,  I  deem  it  important  to 
aid  my  opponent  by  adducing  facts,  additional  to  his  twelve,  in  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  verity  of  the  Christian  religion.  I  require  the  concession 
of  only  one  postulatum  in  order  to  establish  the  verity  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion.  That  postulate  I  will  couch  in  the  following  terms — - 
The  Christian  religion,  as  well  as  the  Jewish,  is  predicated  upon 
certain  matters  of  fact — or  rather  these  religions  being  predicated 
upon  certain  matters  of  fact,  it  follows  that,  if  these  facts  be  true, 
the  whole  system  of  the  Christian  religion  must  be  true.  Well,  then, 
my  postulate  is,  that  the  Christian  religion,  as  well  as  the  Jewish, 
being  predicated  upon  matters  of  fact,  it  follows,  logically,  that,  if 
these  facts  are  proved  to  be  true,  .the  religions  predicated  upon  them 
are  thereby  demonstrated  to  be  equally  true.  In  producing  our  deduc¬ 
tions  concerning  the  truth  of  Christianity,  it  is  necessary  first  of  all 
to  have  respect  to  the  Jewish  religon.  This  is  not  an  inquiry  into 
any  matter  of  abstract,  or  philosophical,  or  mathematical,  or  political 
speculation.  The  seven  sciences  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  ■  with  it. 
The  subject  of  inquiry  is  now,  What  is  or  is  not  matter  of  fact?  We 
are  fully  warranted  in  premising  that  the  question  concerning  the 
verity  of  Christianity  is  exclusively  a  question  of  fact,  to  be  tried  by 
all  the  rules  of  evidence  which  govern  our  decision  upon  any  question 
©f  historical  fact  derived  from  times  of  equal  antiquity.  We  contend 
that  every  faculty  of  mind  and  every  mode  of  reasoning  that  can  he 
brought  to  bear  upon  any  question  of  fact,  may  be  legitimately 
exercised  upon  all  Jthe  facts  connected  with  the  Christian  religion. 
Let  us  then  adduce  these  facts. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  recorded  that  in  the  days  of  Moses  the 
children  of  Israel  amounted  to  six  hundred  thousand  fighting  men 
exclusive  of  the  old  men,  the  females,  and  the  children;  most  pro¬ 
bably  the  whole  Jewish  population  at  that  period  did  not  fall  short 
of  two  millions.  At  any  rate  we  have  the  fact  that  six  hundred 
thousand  fighting  men  passed  out  of  Egypt  and  walked  fhrough  the 


DEBATE. 


im 


lied  Sea;  that  they  reached  Mount  Sinai;  that  there  they  saw  a 
visible  manifestation  of  Deity;  that  they  heard  his  voice  proclaim 
the  decalogue ;  that  they  were  fed  with  manna  in  the  wilderness  for 
forty  years;  that  they  had  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire 
by  night,  to  guide  them  through  the  wilderness;  that  they  were  fed 
with  quails,  and  drank  limpid  water  from  a  rock  of  flint,  smitten  by 
the  rod  of  Moses;  and  that  they  passed  through  the  river  Jordan  as 
over  dry  land.  These  are  the  matters  of  fact  which  constitute  the 
foundation  of  the  Jewish  religion.  And  these  being  proved  to  be 
matters  of  fact,  it  follows  that  the  religion  predicated  upon  them  is 
true.  I  presume  that  my  friend  and  opponent  would  admit  that  if  it 
were  proved  to  him  that  these  six  hundred  thousand  men  passed 
through  the  Red  Sea  as  over  dry  land — heard  the  voice  of  God,  and 
witnessed  the  awful  symbols  of  his  presence  from  Mount  Sinai — that 
they  gathered  manna  in  the  wilderness — drank  the  living  water  which 
issued  from  the  rock  smitten  by  the  rod  of  Moses — passed  through 
the  refluent  waters  of  Jordan — I  presume,  I  say,  that  all  these  things 
being  proved  to  my  opponent  to  be  facts,  he  would  admit,  without 
scruple,  that  the  religion  built  upon  them  is  true . 

Now  I  do  assert  that  of  the  verity  of  these  facts  we  have  every 
species  of  evidence  that  human  reason  requires,  that  the  most  scep¬ 
tical  mind  could  require  upon  any  other  subject  of  equal  antiquity, 
or  that  the  nature  of  the  case  permits  to  be  adduced  in  attestation  of 
the  verity ,  of  undent  historic  facts.  I  have  asserted  that  we  have 
every  species  of  evidence  of  the  Verity  of  these  facts,  and  of  this 
religion,  that  right  reason  requires.  In  order  to  prove  these  facts, 
we  must  lay  down  certain  criteria  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  de¬ 
cide  with  certainty  upon  all  questions  of  historic  fact.  In  the  first 
place,  then,  you  will  observe  that  we  have  certain  criteria  by  which 
we  are  enabled  to  discriminate  between  the  truth  and  fallacy  of 
testimony ;  and  it  is  our  every  day  practice,  in  the  ordinary  concerns 
of  life,  to  avail  ourselves  of  these  criteria. .  We  do  not  believe  every 
thing  without  scruple.  We  are  often  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  exa¬ 
mining  oral  and  written  testimony,  and  we  generally  find  some  way  to 
elicit  the  truth  or  detect  the  fallacy  of  certain  reported  facts.  These 
criteria ,  when  applied  to  any  reported  fact,  force  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  is  either  true  or  false.  Were  it  not  for  these  criteria ^  by  which 
we  are  enabled  to  appreciate  the  value  of  testimony,  we  would,  in  the 
ordinary  intercourse  of  society,  be  liable  to  constant  deceptions,  in¬ 
asmuch  as  the  conscientious  speaking  of  the  truth  is  not  the  distin¬ 
guishing  virtue  of  the  present  age.  These  criteria  are  various ;  but 
wherever  there  is  a  perfect  consistency  and  accordance  between  the 
fact  reported  and  the  testimony  adduced  to  prove  it,  conviction  of  the 
verity  of  that  fact  necessarily  follows.  In  the- first  place  the  consist¬ 
ency  of  the  testimony  with  our  present  experience  in  matters  of  this 
rsort,  is  a  safe  criteria  wdiereby  to  test  the  verity  of  all  matters  of 
ordinary  occurrence,  i.  e.  taken  in  connexion  with  the  character  of 
the  reporter,  and  all  the  other  media  through  which  we  receive  the 
testimony .  All  these  are  scrutinized  in  order io  ascertain  the  truth  in 

15 


DEBATE. 


ordinary  cases ;  but  to  Facts  encrusted  with  the  venerable  rust  of  anti¬ 
quity — a  rust  which  has  been  accumulating  for  four  thousand  years — 
the  application  of  the  ordinary  criteria  of  more  recent  facts  would  be 
futile. 

The  desideratum  is  to  establish  certain  criteria  which  will  satisfac¬ 
torily  demonstrate  that  facts  reported  to  have  occurred  four  thousand 
years  ago  are  true.  And  these  criteria  I  now  propose  to  present  to 
you — not  the  criteria  of  facts  which  oecurred  yesterday,  or  to-day: 
but  of  facts  which  transpired  four  thousand  years  ago.  These  criteria , 
then,  are  resolvable  into  four  particulars.  (And,  by  the  way,  we  wish 
any  defect  or  imperfection  in  these  criteria  to  be  designated  by  any 
person  who  can  discover  it.)  First,  then,  we  allege,  that,  in  order 
to  judge  with  certainty  of  the  truth  of  facts  which  occurred  so  long 
agor  the  facts  reported  must  have  been  what  we  call  sensible  facts; 
such  as  the  eyes  of  the  spectators  and  all  their  other  senses  might 
take  cognizance  of.  Secondly,  that  these  sensible  alleged  facts  were 
exhibited  with  every  imaginable  public  and  popular  attestation ,  and 
open  to  the  severest  scrutiny  which  their  extraordinary  character 
might  induce.  The  facts  we  are  now  testing  by  these  two  criteria , 
were,  I  affirm,  in  the  first  place,  sensible  facts;  and  secondly^  they 
were  exhibited  under  circumstances  of  extraordinary  publicity. — 
Thirdly,  that  there  have  been  certain  momumental  and  cdmmeinora- 
live  institutions ,  continuing  from  that  time  to  the  present,  as  a  per¬ 
petual  attestation  of  these  facts-— that  each  of  these  observances 
was  instituted  in  pcrpetuam  mShoriam  rei.  Fourthly^,  that  these 
monumental  proofs  existed  simultaneously  with  the  transpiration  of 
the  facts  which  they  are  intended  to  perpetuate — that  they  continue 
in  existence  up  to  the  present  hour : — 

1.  The  facts  relied  upon  were  sensible  facts. 

2.  They  were  facts  of  remarkable  notoriety. 

3.  There  now  exist  standing  monuments  in  perpetual  commemora¬ 
tion  of  these  facts. 

Lastly ,  These  commemorative  attestations  have  continued  from  the 
very  period  in  which  the  facts  transpired,  up  to  the  present  time. 
The  facts  on  which  we  rely  have  all  these  four  criteria.  I  am  willing 
to  submit  them  to  all  the  tests  which  can  be  applied  to  arty  other  re¬ 
corded  facts  of  antiquity.  And  1  repeat,  with  a  confidence  that  fears  , 
no  refutation,  that  no  fact  accompanied  with  these  four  criteria,  ever  1 
was  proved  to  be  false.  Nay,  we  will  demonstrate  that  no  fact  which 
can  abide  these  criteria  can  be  false. 

Let  us  now  come  to  the  prominent  facts  on  which  the  Jewish 
religion  was  first  predicated.  1st.  I  have  stated  that  six  hundred 
thousand  men  are  said  to  have  wTalked  through  the  Red  Sea  as  over 
dry  land,  in  consequence  of  Moses’  rod  being  extended  over  it;  they 
are  said  to  have  stood  still  upon  the  opposite  shore,  whilst  the  Egyrp- 
tians  their  pursuers  were  drowned  by  the  returning  of  the  waters. 
The  question  is,  Was  this  a  sensible  fact?  We  will  say  nothing  at 
present  concerning  the  ten  plagues  ot  Egypt,  but  will  now  advert  to 
another  fact  intimately  connected  with  this  subject.  On  the  night 


i 


DEBATE. 


171 


immediately  preceding  the  departure  of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  it  became  necessary,  before  the  hard  heart  of 
Pharaoh  would  relent  so  far  as  to  let  these  people  go,  to  send  forth  a 
destroying  angel,  by  whom  the  first-born  of  the  land  were  slain.  This 
was,  most  certainly,  a  sensible  fact,  of  such  paramount  and  engross¬ 
ing  interest  as  to  arouse  every  sense,  and  call  forth  every  faculty  in 
the  thorough  investigation  of  it.  These  two  facts,  to  pass  over  all 
others,  are  of  the  character  promised.  They  are  not  only  sensible 
facts,  but  they  are  facts  of  a  character  to  take  hold  of,  and  to  make 
an  indelible  impression  upon,  every  faculty  and  sense  belonging  to 
mankind.  Well,  now,  so  far  these  facts  correspond  with  our  first 
criterion.*  The  next  question  is,  Were  they  publicly  exhibited  in 
open  day  and  in  the  face  of  witnesses  ?  I  only  propose  this  question 
in  order  to  fix  your  attention.  Every  man  who  has  heard  of  these 
facts,  knows  that  they  were  exhibited  in  the  face  of  the  most  enlight¬ 
ened  realm  of  antiquity — many  of  them  in  the  very  court  of  Pharaoh, 
which  was  crowded  with  the  greatest  statesman  and  scholars  that  then 
existed.  The  people  to  be  delivered  were  themselves  six  hundred 
thousand  in  number,  each  of  them  individually  and  deeply  interested; 
so  that  all  the  recollections  connected  with  their  state  of  vassalage; 
all  their  national  feelings  of  hostility  towards  their  oppressors;  in 
short,  every  sort  of  feeling  which  belongs  to  man,  was  called  into 
exercise  to  the  very  highest  degree  of  excitement  ;  and  all  these  con¬ 
curring  to  impress  their  minds  indelibly  with  the  marvellous  and  stu¬ 
pendous  character  of  the  fact.  Therefore,  there  is  no  matter  of  fact 
cn  record  more  notorious  than  these.  In  like  manner,  the  eating  of 
the  manna  and  drinking  of  the  waters  from  the  rock,  are  sensible  facts, 
and  in  their  nature  must  have  been  most  notorious.  In  them  all  there 
is  not  a  single  matter  of  fact  on  which  the  Jewish  religion  is  predicated, 
that  is  not  in  its  nature  sensible  and  notorious. 

We  next  ask,  Are  there  any  commemorative  institutions  now  ex¬ 
isting  in  attestation  of  these  facts?  Yes,  for  the  whole  Jewish  nation 
exists  at  this  day.  Notwithstanding  all  the  mighty  empires  of  antiqui¬ 
ty,  which  once  flourished  in  history,  and  in  their  turns  controlled 
the  temporal  destinies  of  the  world,  have  sunk,  one  after  another, 
into •  dust-r-have  so  crumbled  to  atoms,  as  to  leave  no  trace  behind 
them — not  even  a  living  man,  who  can  say  one  drop  of  Grecian  or 
Roman  blood  flows  in  his  veins— one  nation,  one  monumental  nation 
of  antiquity,  yet  remains — a  nation  who  can  trace  their  lineage  up 
to  its  source — a  monumental  nation,  with  monumental  institutions, 
which  prove  them  to  be  the  legitimate  seed  of  Abraham,  and  which 
stamp  the  seal  of  verity  upon  the  historic  facts  recorded  of  this  people. 
Do  not  their  circumcision  and  their  passover  still  exist  ? 

We  have  now  applied  three  of  our  criteria  in  attestation  of  the  facts 
relied  upon.  The  fourth  is,  that  the  commemorative  monuments  insti¬ 
tuted  simultaneously  with  the  transpiration  of  the  facts  to  be  preserv¬ 
ed  and  perpetuated,  have  never  been  out  of  existence  from  that  period 
up  to  the  present  hour?  Moses  tells  them  on  the  very  night  preceding 
iheir  departure  from  the  land  of  E^ypi,,  lamb,  to  be  called 

BOSTON  COUX^'ua  „  ■  ■ 

wVNUT  HIIUo 


DEBATE. 


172 

the Paschal  Lamb,  and  to  dress  and  eat  it  in  a  peculiar  mating!^ 
dnis  festival  was  to  be  observed  on  that  night,  and  under  circum¬ 
stances  calculated  on  every  return  of  its  anniversary,  to  excite  the 
recollections  and  the  feelings  of  the  Jewish  nation.  He  tells  them 
jhat  they  must,  on  every  anniversary  of  this  festival,  eat  the  passove? 
with  a  strict  observance  of  all  rites  and  circumstances;  that  they 
must  eat  with  their  loins  girded,  and  with  such  other  adjuncts  as 
vhould  remind  them  of  the  sorrows  of  their  captivity  in  Egypt. 
Vow  we  are  able  to  show  that  there  never  has  been  an  interval  from 
that  period  down  to  the  present,  in  which  the  anniversary  of  the  feast 
of  the  passover  has  not  been  solemnly  celebrated.  This  feast  was 
instituted  on  that  memorable  night,  and  has  continued  unchanged 
down  to  the  present  period.  But  this  is  only  an  item  of  the  monumen¬ 
tal  evidences  of  historic  truth  pervading  the  singular  annals  of  this 
most  interesting  people.  This  signal  deliverance  from  the  house  of 
bondage,  is  commemorated  by  institutions  attended  with  such  peculiar 
ad  juncts  as  entwine  themselves  round  the  hearts  of  men — adjuncts, 
which,  in  the  very  act  of  commemorating,  call  into  exercise  all  the 
feelings  incident  to  human  nature.  Of  this  character  is  the  institution 
which  devotes  the  first  born  of  the  land  to  the  Lord. 

The  Jews  were  not  permitted  to  consider  their  first-born  as  their 
own,  but  as  belonging  to  the  Lord,  as  given  to  him  in  memory  of 
their  redemption  from  the  house  of  bondage.  It  is  now  not  simply 
the  passover  which  commemorates  the  fact  of  deliverance  from  the 
'and  of  Egypt;  but  this  separation  and  appropriation  of  the  first-born 
of  the  land  to  the  Lord,  perpetuates  the  fact.  This  devotion  of  the 
hrst-born  to  the  Lord,  is  calculated  in  its  nature  to  engross  the  whole 
heart  of  man.  Men  are  not  to  be  persuaded  to  part  with  their  children, 
or  their  substance,  except  by  the  most  cogent  reasons.  These  people, 
proverbially  avaricious,  not  only  observed  the  passover,  but  resigned 
all  property  in  the  first-born  of  the  land  to  the  Lord.  In  process  of 
time,  when  the  nation  was  brought  into  a  state  of  municipal  order,, 
and  under  a  national  covenant,  it  was  then  so  ordered  that  one  tribe 
was  selected  to  be  given  to  the  Lord  in  lieu  of  the  first-born.  And 
here  we  see  the  whole  nation  agreeing  to  support  that  tribe  for  ever. 
This  selection  was  made  from  the  tribe  of  Levi.  To  superficial  ob¬ 
servers  the  ingenuity  displayed  in  the  erection  of  this  monument  in 
perpetuation  of  the  memory  of  a  leading  .fact  in  Jewish  history,  may 
not  appear;  but  it  is  a  monumental  institution,  eminently  calculated 
in  its  nature,  to  keep  the  recollection  of  the  fact  which  it.  commemo¬ 
rates  fresh  and  vivid  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  Israelites.  The 
whole  number  at  that  time  of  the  first-born  of  the  whole  twelve  tribes, 
was,  twenty-two  thousand  two  hundred  and  seventy-three.  Moses 
was  commanded  to  calculate  the  number  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  which 
was  twenty-two  thousand.  The  whole  tribe  of  Levi  was  taken  head 
for-head ;  and  the  two  hundred  and  seventy-three  of  the  first-born,  over 
and  above,  were  redeemed  at  five  shekels  per  head.  Observe  the 
exactitude  and  particularity  of  this  arrangement.  First,  the  instituT 
tion  of  the  passover — next,  the  segregation  of  the  first  born  of  the  land 


DEBATE. 


ves  the  Lord’s ;  ami  after  this  an  arrangement  to  appropriate  the  whole 
tribe  of  Levi — two  hundred  and  seventy-three  lacking  in  number 
were  to  be  redeemed  at  one  hundred  oboli  a-piece. 

Thus  the  avarice-,  the  gratitude,  and  every  other  passion  of  the 
Jewish  nation,  were  made  to  co-operate  in  attestation  and  perpetua 
*  tion  of  this  leading  fact.  Here  we  may  remark,  that  as  these  sensible 
demonstrations,  and  the  very  manner  of  their  exhibition,  exclude  the 
possibility  of  imposition  upon  the  minds  and  senses  of  the  first  actors 
and  original  witnesses  of  these  facts ;  so  the  criteria  of  these  monument 
tal  and  commemorative  facts  equally  preclude  the  possibility  of  impo¬ 
sition  upon  us.  Let  us  dwell  for  a  moment  upon  the  influence  of  this 
commemorative  institution  of  the  passover,  and  the  conventional 
segregation  of  an  entire  tribe  to  be  supported  for  ever  by  the  great 
body  of  the  people-— a  tribe  who  were  to  have  cities  built  for  them— 
who  were  made  proprietors  of  all  the  circumjacent  lands,  and  who 
were  exonerated  by  the  new  social  compact  of  the  nation  from  all 
personal  care  and  anxiety  concerning  their  own  support.  The  tribe 
of  Levi,  and  all  their  personal  property,  were  segregated  to  the  service 
of  the  Lord.  This  was  a  concession  demanded  of  this  people  as  a  con¬ 
dition  precedent  to  their  enjoyment  of  the  new  national  covenant. 
And  thus  has  divine  wisdom  perpetuated  a  standing  monument  in 
commemoration  of  the  miracles  of  Moses.  To  bring  this  matter 
home  to  every  man’s  business  and  bosom,  I  would  ask  all  of  you  if  it 
would  be  possible  to  induce  you  to  sanctify  and  segregate  one  child  of 
your  family,  or  one  lamb  of  your  fold,  or  to  celebrate  a  certain  annual 
festival  in  commemoration  of  a  fact  which  never  occurred  ?  Does  the 
widest  range  of  human  experience  warrant  the  supposition  that  any 
people,  under  any  circumstances,  could  be  induced  to  do  this  ? 

We  are  uow  to  try  this  matter  by  the  tests  of  reason,  and  to  examine 
whether  it  were  possible,  in  the  first  instance,  to  fabricate  these  monu¬ 
mental  evidences.  Let  us  ask  ourselves  seriously  if  any  nation  under 
heaven  could  be  induced  to  celebrate  a  solemn  annual  festival  in 
commemoratiou  of  a  false  fact — a  fact  which  never  did  occur?  Could 
all  the  magi,  sorcerers,  and  wonder-mongers  of  eastern  antiquity,  if 
they  were  now  alive,  compel  the  North  American  nation  to  observe  the 
first  day  of  January  in  commemoration  of  their  declaration  of  inde¬ 
pendence,  when  the  whole  nation  knew  that  its  anniversary  was  the 
fourth  day  of  July?  To  suppose  such  an  absurdity  as  this — to  admit 
for  a  moment  the  possibility  of  such  a  national  extravagance — is  to 
suppose  men  to  be  very  differently  constituted  now-a-days  from  what 
all  former  experience  has  ever  demonstrated  them  to  be. 

If  these  mighty  miracles  of  Moses  had  been  performed  in  a  dark 
corner  of  the  earth,  in  the  presence  of  only  a  few  wandering  tribes* 
or  of  a  rude,  unlettered  nation,  without  records,  some  sceptical  scruples 
might  arise  in  our  minds.  But  the  Most  High  has  so  contrived  it  as 
to  leave  no  room  for  any  cavil  of  this  nature. 

These  facts  transpired  in  an  age  when  the  human  faculties  were 
highly  cultivated — Moses  himself  was  brought  up  in  all  the  learning 
of  the  Egyptians — a  nation  at  that  period  pre-eminently  distinguished 

15* 


DEBATE. 


w,'  j 

i  M 

for  scientific  acquirements.  Who  is  not  acquainted  with  the  scientific 
reputation  of  ancient  Egypt?  Who  lias  not  heard  of  her  proficiency  in 
the  arts,  particularly  in  the  art  of  embalming,  of  which  we  are  igno¬ 
rant?  Standing  monuments  of  the  scientific  attainments  and  luxu¬ 
rious  refinement  of  this  people  abound  at  the  present  day.  From 
their  own  annals  it  appears  that  they  were  quite  as  sceptical  as  the 
people  of  the  present  day.  Here  I  will  take  occasion  to  remark  that 
the  facts  on  which  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religions  have  been  pre¬ 
dicated,  have  been  wisely  arranged  so  as  to  transpire  in  the  presence 
of  nations  as  bold,  daring,  politic,  ambitious,  and  intelligent  as  our¬ 
selves.  We  are  wont  to  think  slightly,  and  to  speak  disparagingly  of 
the  intellectual  powers  of  the  ancients.  But  there  were  a  great  many 
highly  polished  and  severely  disciplined  minds  amongst  them.  And 
it  was  in  the  presence  of  such  a  people,  shrewd,  keen,  and  sceptical — 
in  their  metropolis,  within  the  precincts  of  the  court,  in  the  face  of 
king,  courtiers,  sages,  and  statesmen,  that  these  evidences  were 
adduced — these  miracles  were  wrought,  and  these  monumental  com¬ 
memorative  institutions  were  erected.  Every  thing  was  so  ordered 
in  relation  to  these  facts,  as  to  remove  forever  all  rational  ground  of 
doubt  or  scepticism.  So  far,  then,  I  have  proceeded  to  give  a  general 
idea  of  the  argument  which  I  am  now  to  submit  in  attestation  of  the 
facts  on  which  the  Jewish  religion  is  predicated. 

In  the  further  prosecution  of  the  argument,  we  shall  illustrate  other 
facts  analogous  to  the  preceding,  embracing  similar  objects,  and,  like 
them,  perpetuated  by  monumental  commemorative  institutions.  We 
shall  briefly  analyse  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath,  the  celebration  of 
the  Passover,  and  other  festivals  of  the  Jewish  ritual.  To  support 
these  monumental  commemorative  institutions  a  levy  became  neces¬ 
sary  to  a  greater  amount  than  ever  was  exacted  by  the  fiscal  polity  of 
any  other  nation;  and  such  was  the  veneration  of  this  people  for 
their  ritual,  that  this  enormous  taxation  was  submitted  to  without  a 
murmur.  I  have  been  calculating  the  amount  of  property  necessary 
to  the  support  of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  have  elaborated  this  result  : 
that  one  half  of  the  time  and  money — a  full  moiety  of  the  whole 
resources  of  the  nation  was  exacted;  and  one  chief  object  was  to 
keep  these  miracles,  with  their  monumental  attestations,  in  perpetual 
remembrance.  The  cheerful  relinquishment  of  one  half  of  their 
whole  personal  property,  goes  to  repudiate  the  idea  that  this  people 
were  cajoled  by  intrigue  into  submission  to  such  an  oppressive  taxa¬ 
tion.  We  shall  further  show  that  all  the  other  facts  on  which  religion* 
is  predicated,  have  been  accompanied  with  the  same  commemorative 
and  perpetuating  attestations  from  the  moment  of  their  transpiration 
down  to  our  present  times.— [Half  hour  out.] 

Adjourned  to  Thursday  morning. 

Note — We  have  found  some  difficulty  in  ascertaining  exactly  how  much  of 
Mr.  Owen’s  manuscript  was  read  at  each  time  during  this  day.  The  Reporter 
generally  states  the  page  on  which  Mr.  Owen  began  and  ended;  but  in  one  or 
two  cases  this  was  omitted,  or  so  ambiguously  done,  that  we  are  not  certain  that  ’ 
we  have,  ia  every  instance,  given  tlie  exact  amount  read.  Another  difficulty 


DEBATE. 


175 

jf&s  that  some  remarks  interspersed  with  these  readings  were  difficult  to  place 
in  their  proper  places.  None  of  these  difficulties,  however,  in  the  least  affect¬ 
ed  the  argument.  But  as  there  were  a  few  remarks  which  were  not  ushered  in 
their  proper  places,  we  shall  give  them  here,  that  every  word  of  the  report  of 
Mr.  Owen’s  speeches  may  be  published.  These  remarks  were  made  some 
w  here  while  Mr.  Owen  was  reading  his  code  of  laws.  We  put  the  numbers  of' 
the  laws  under  which  we  suppose  these  remarks  were  made.- Ed . 

Mr.  Chairman — I  do  not  discover  any  thing  in  my  friend,  Mr. 
Campbell’s,  last  address,  that  requires  an  immediate  reply.  I  shall, 
therefore,  proceed  further  to  demonstrate,  from  my  manuscript,  the 
ignorance  which  has  pervaded  the  world  up  to  the  present  time.  I 
had  proceeded  to  the  sixth  law  when  my  half  hour  expired.  I  now 
come  to  the  seventh.  [Here  Mr.  Owen  begins  to  read ,  commencing  on 
ilie  subject  cf  the  ascertainment  of  the  standard  number  of  individuals 
to  be  congregated  in  social  union ,  so  as  to  give  to  each  the  greatest  ad - 
' vantages  with  the  fewest  inconveniencies.] 

[Mr.  Owen  reads  to  the  15 th  law ,  and  here  remarks: 

And,  therefore,  there  will  be  no  selection  or  election  to  office,  and 
every  one  at  an  early  age  will  discover  that  at  the  proper  period  of  life 
he  will  have  an  equal  right  with  all,  to  be  in  possession  of  his  full  ana 
fair  share  of  the  government  of  society;  there  will  he  no  electioneer¬ 
ing  artifices;  no  detraction  of  private  character;  no  jarring  of  inter¬ 
ests,  or  collision  about  the  distribution  of  office. 

[Mr.  Owen  gets  to  the  23d  law ,  and  here  he  remarks ;] — 

You  will  observe,  my  friends,  that,  by  these  arrangements,  we  shall 
save  the  enormous  waste  of  time  and  money  to  which  religion  now  sub¬ 
jects  us,  and  we  shall  be  relieved  from  the  still  more  enormous  expense 
of  all  its  vice  and  injustice. 

[Mr.  Owen  reads  to  the  2bth  law ,  and  observes:] — 

These,  my  friends,  will  make  in  our  new  state  of  existence,  just 
Jwenty-seven  laws,  very  plain  and  easily  to  be  understood,  and  most 
effectual  for  all  the  purposes  of  society.  You  will  presently  learn 
that  truth  is  always  simple ;  that  there  is  so  much  harmony,  unison, 
and  consistency  in  all  its  parts,  that  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in 
comprehending  and  acting  upon  it. 

When  we  remove  the  priests,  lawyers,  warriors,  merchants,  &c. 
what  a  happy  state  of  society  shall  we  enjoy!  None  of  us  shall  have 
©ccasion  to  be  employed  more  than  two  hours  per  day;  yet  we  shall 
all  have  an  abundance  of  the  best  of  every  thing!  I  now.  proceed  to 
the  Appendix,  which  is  the  last  part  of  the  subject  I  have  written  out. 
And  this  additional  explanation  is  only  for  the  sake  of  a  more  full 
developement  of  the  subject.  I  have  merely  glanced  at  the  nine 
requisites  for  happiness — it  would  require  too  much  of  your  time  to 
proceed  to  its  extent.  Can  any  of  you,  my  friends  form  an  idea  of 
any  thing  necessary  for  human  happiness  beyond  these  nine  condi¬ 
tions.  All  I  can  say  on  this  part  of  the  subject,  is,  that  my  mind  has 
not  been  able  to  discover  any  thing  for  the  heart  of  man  to  desire, 
beyond  what  these  arrangements  provide,  and  for  what,  if  consum- 


m 


DEBATE 


mated,  they  must  secure — except  your  future  fanciful  ideas  of  happi¬ 
ness,  which  I  leave  with  each  of  you. 

[Immediately  before  Mr.  Owen’s  rising  this  time,  a  man  arose 
and  said,  that  he  would  suggest  to  the  Moderators  if  those  individuals 
who  had  come  (voluntarily  he  would  admit)  hundreds  of  miles  to  at¬ 
tend  this  debate,  had  not  a  right  to  complain.  They  had  been  in 
attendance  on  the  debate  for  two  days,  and  yet  heard  nothing  about 
religion,  which  was  the  only  subject  they  came  to  hear  discussed* 
The  Moderators  took  no  notice  of  this  individual’s  suggestion.] 

Thursday ,  9  o'clock ,  A.  M.  April  16. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. — 

1  have  now,  my  friends,  to  show  you  in  detail  that  all  the  religions 
of  the  world  have  been  founded  in  ignorance.  To  those  who  have 
been  accustomed  to  reflect  deeply  on  these  subjects,  the  outline  stated 
in  the  twelve  fundamental  principles  which  have  been  advanced,  is 
amply  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  come,  at  once,  to  a  conclusion  upon 
the  subject.  But  as  there  are  many  who  never  had  their  minds  direc¬ 
ted  to  these  subjects,  it  becomes  necessary  to  proceed  point  by  point 
in  order  to  show  the  discrepancy  between  these  twelve  laws  and  all 
religions.  It  is,  however,  first  requisite  that  I  should  state  what  the 
religions  of  the  world  are,  according  to  my  views  of  them.  If  I 
make  a  wrong  statement,  Mr.  Campbell  or  the  gentlemen  Moderators, 
will  set  me  right.  According  to  my  views,  then,  all  religions  of  the 
civilized  world  are  predicated  upon  the  assumption  that  man  has  a 
free  will,  forms  his  own  character,  and  determines  his  own  conduct; 
has  the  power  of  believing  or  disbelieving  w  hether  a  God  exists,  and 
of  ascertaining  his  qualities,  and  is  punished  for  not  doing  so.  These 
religions  assume  that  man  is  accountable  for  his  feelings,  his  thoughts, 
his  will,  and  his  conduct;  that  if  he  believes  according  to  the  religious 
dogmas  in  which  he  has  been  trained,  and  acts  up  to  that  belief,  he 
shall  be  eternally  happy;  but  that  if  he  do  not  believe  in  a  God,  he 
shall  be  eternally  tormented,  notwithstanding  the  most  virtuous  and 
and  exemplary  conduct  through  life.  They  assume  that  the  favor  of 
God  is  to  be  obtained  by  the  observance  of  forms  and  ceremonies,  and 
by  contributions  of  ftioney ;  and  that  those  w  ho  do  not  believe  in  these 
things,  are  infidels,  and  worse  than  the  Devil,  because  he  believes  and 
trembles.  It  becomes  necessary,  Mr.  Campbell,  to  ask  you  if  this 
be  a  true  and  fair  outline  of  the  Christian  religion?  [Mr.  Campbell 
ansivcrs^No.]  Then,  Mr.  Chairman,  before  I  can  proceed  systemati¬ 
cally,  it  will  be  necessary  for  Mr.  Campbell  to  explain  what  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion  is.  I  cannot  proceed  without  I  have  his  Christian  religion 
before  me.  Each  different  sect  will  tell  me  that  Mr.  Campbell’s 
religion  is  not  theirs.  At  present  I  have  nothing  to  combat;  I  am 
fighting:  against  shadows. 

Mr.  Campbell  rose  and  said — The  Christian  religion  is  contained 
in  the  New  Testament.  Mr.  Owen  ought,  to  have  made  himself  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  New  Testament  bef  re  he  challenged  this  contro¬ 
versy,  I  have  no  other  answer  to  Mr.  Owen’s  query  but  that  the 


DEBATE. 


m 


Christian  religion  is  fully  developed  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  ;  that  its  evidences  are  to  be  examined  by  all  the  rules  by  which- 
we  examine  other  historical  facts;  that  the  rules  of  interpretation 
are  the  same  which  are  to  be  adopted  in  the  interpretation  of  other  an¬ 
cient  writings. 

Mr.  Oicen  rose  and  said — Gentlemen :  If  I  take  Mr.  Campbellfs 
account  of  Christianity  to  be  correct,  a  great  many  Christians  will  op* 
pose  Mr.  Campbell,  and  say  he  knows  nothing  about  Christianity ; 
therefore  it  will  not  be  sufficient  for  me  to  show  that  Mr.  Campbeli’s 
notions  of  Christianity  cannot  be  reconciled  with  these  fundamental 
laws  of  human  nature.  But  perhaps  we  may  come  at  the  matter  in 
another  direction :  Has  man,  according  to  Christianity,  a  free  will-, 
and  the  power  to  form  his  own  character?  I  cannot  proceed  without 
an  answer  to  this  question. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises — Gentlemen  Moderators :  If  it  be  the  order  of 
the  day,  that  my  opponent  and  I  shall  enter  into  a  catechetical  exam¬ 
ination  of  each  other,  by  way  of  question  and  answer,  1  shall  make  no 
objection  to  such  an  arrangement.  In  engaging  in  this  controversy, 
the  sole  object  I  proposed  to  myself,  was,  the  fair  elicitation  of  truth. 
But  the  immediate  question  is,  whether  interrogatories  are  to  be  mu¬ 
tually  and  reciprocally  proposed  and  replied  to,  or  shall  our  interroga¬ 
tories  be  propounded  in  our  respective  half  hour  addresses,  and  the 
answers  deferred  until  the  respondent  rises  to  address  the  audience  ? 
I  make  this  point  here  simply  as  a  question  of  order. 

Mr.  Omen  rose  and  said — I  do  not  see  how  the  argument  can  be 
Conducted  on  the  original  plan  of  alternate  half  hours.  We  must 
come  to  close  quarters;  but  unless  I  know  what  the  Christian  religion- 
is,  I  cannot  know  what  I  am  to  disprove.  I  have  n\pde  fair  tenders  to 
Mr.  Campbell  in  order  to  find  out  what  his  Christian  religion  is.  I 
cannot  conceive  that  the  Christian  religion  consists  in  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament,  but  tha+  :,L  contained  in  some  general  princi¬ 
ples,  which  might  be  stated  in  a  very  few  words. 

Mr.  Campbell  rose  and  said — As  my  opponent  seems  to  be  at  a  loss 
how  to  proceed  without  documents,  perhaps  we  may  expedite  our  pro¬ 
gress  by  presenting  a  recapitulation  of  our  premises  by  way  of  posting 
our  books  up  to  this  morning. 

The  Hon.  Chairman  rose  and  said — The  Moderators  are  prepared 
to  decide  the  question  of  order  submitted  by  Mr.  Campbell.  They 
are  of  opinion,  from  the  nature  cf  Mr.  Owen’s  proposition,  he  is  not 
entitled  to  call  on  Mr.  Campbell  for  any  concession;  he  is  only  enti¬ 
tled  to  call  on  Mr.  Campbell  for  a  definition  of  bis  terms.  We  view 
the  matter  in  this  light: — Mr.  Owen  states,  by  implication,  that  he 
has  examined  all  the  religions  cf  the  world;  this  implication  results, 
necessarily,  from  Mr.  Owen’s  affirmation  that  all  religions  in  the 
world  are  founded  in  ignorance.  We  cannot,  for  a  moment,  presume 
that  Mr.  Owen  has  passed  sentence  of  condemnation  upon  all  reli¬ 
gions,  without  having  examined  these  religions,  and  ascertained  what 
t’qey  are.  Inasmuch  as  Mr.  Owen  holds  the  affirmative  cf  the  pro¬ 
position  that  all  religions  are  false ;  the  Moderators  think  that  it  would 


7  8 


DEBATE. 


be  exceedingly  discourteous  in  them  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Owen  has 
not  studied  all  religions.  The  Moderators  conceive  that  it  would  be 
taking  from  Mr.  Owen’s  opponent  an  advantage  to  put  him  upon  the 
affirmative.  We  must  take  it  for  granted  that  there  are  many  individ¬ 
uals  in  this  assembly  who  have  full  faith  in  the  truth  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion,  and  yet  would  not  agree  perhaps  writh  any  other  in¬ 
dividual  of  this  congregation  in  every  minute  particular.  Courtesy 
to  Mr.  Owen  compels  us  to  suppose  that  he  has  ascertained  the  funda¬ 
mental  principles  of  ail  religions,  and  has  here  proposed  to  demon¬ 
strate  that  all  are  founded  in  ignorance  and  error.  This  is  Mr. 
Owen’s  affirmative  proposition,  and  according  to  all  controversial 
rules,  he  is  therefore  bound  to  establish  it  in  evidence.  The  adoption 
of  any  other  course  in  the  conducting  of  this  argument  by  Mr.  Owen, 
we  conceive,  would,  in  another  point  of  view,  be  imposing  upon  his 
opponent  an  unfair  difficulty.  For,  if  it  should  be  ascertained,  at  the 
termination  of  this  discussion,  that  Mr.  Owen  has  formed  erroneous 
conceptions  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  has  proceeded  to  condemn 
it  under  these  mistaken  ideas  of  its  real  character,  it  would  not  be  fair 
to  place  Mr.  Campbell  in  a  logical  predicament  which  might  deprive 
him  of  an  opportunity  to  demonstrate  that  his  opponent’s  conceptions 
of  Christianity  were  erroneous,  and  thereby  to  disprove  his  conclu¬ 
sions.  This  would  he  to  throw  Mr.  Campbell  off  the  vantage  ground, 
which,  as  the  challengee ,  he  now7  legitimately  holds.  Courtesy  to¬ 
wards  Mr.  Owen,  therefore,  compels  us  to  take  for  granted  that  he  has 
thoroughly  examined  every  religion,  which  he  has  undertaken  to 
condemn:  and  that  the  reasons  of  his  condemnation  are  applicable 
to  his  peculiar  conceptions  of  these  religions. 

The  Board  are/urfher  of  opinion,  that  Mr.  Owen  cannot  be  fairly 
called  upon  to  admit  that  religion  is  what  Mr.  Campbell  supposes  it 
to  be.  It  may  be,  that  Mr.  Owen  may  assent  to  Mr.  Campbell’s  view  s 
of  religion,  yet  this  assent  wTould  not  . prove  Mr.  Campbell’s  views  to 
be  correct.  It  would  not  be  doing  justice  to  Mr.  Campbell  to  require 
him  to  state  his  views  of  Christianity,  and  authorize  Mr.  Owen  to  ar¬ 
gue  from  them  as  the  only  correct  standard ;  because  Mr.  Owen  would 
thereby  be  deprived  of  all  opportunity  of  demonstrating  that  Mr, 
Campbell’s  views  of  Christianity  were  not  warranted  by  the  Christian 
scriptures.  Therefore,  the  opinion  of  the  Board  is,  that  Mr.  Owen’s 
proper  course  is  to  state  his  views  of  religion,  assign  the  reasons  upon 
which  his  opinions  are  predicated,  and  draw  his  conclusions  from  the 
premises  which  he  may  establish,  and  if  his  opponent  can  show'  that 
religion  is  not  the  thing,  which  Mr.  Owen  has  condemned,  then  the 
cause  of  religion  remains  safe  and  uninjured  by  this  argument. 

Mr.  Ouien  again  rises — Mr.  Chairman :  It  appears  then,  from  this 
decision,  that  I  must  form  my  own  notions  of  religion,  from  all  that  I 
have  read,  seen,  and  heard — and  I  am  quite  willing  so  to  do: 

My  belief  then  is,  that  in  all  religions  of  the  world,  it  is  a  funda-  . 
mental  principle,  that  man  has  a  free  will,  forms  his  own  character,  ’ 
and  determines  his  own  conduct;  that  he  has  the  power  of  believing 
ojr  disbelieving  in  a  God,  of  ascertaining  his  attributes  and  qualities,  j 


DEBATE, 


179 


and  that  he  shall  be  punished  hereafter  if  he  does  not  believe  in  a' 
God,  and  ascertain  these  attributes  and  qualities,-  that  he  is  account¬ 
able  for  his  will,  his  conduct,  his  feelings,  and  his  thoughts;  and  if  he 
believes  according  to  the  dogmas  of  his  religion,  and  acts  up  to  that 
belief,  he  shall  be  happy  after  death;  but  that  if  he  does  not  believe 
in  God,  in  his  qualities  and  attributes,  he  shall  after  death  be  eternal¬ 
ly  tormented.  I  believe  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  in  all  religions, 
that  prayers,  and  forms,  and  ceremonies  are  necessary  to  enable  the 
individual  to  know  God ;  and  it  is  moreover  necessary  that  he  should 
•contribute  money  for  all  godly  purposes ;  that  in  all  these  religions, 
whoever  disbelieves  is  an  infidel.  Therefore,  I  am  an  infidel,  for  I 
believe  none  of  them.  I  have  then  to  show,  in  detail,  that  man  has  not 
a  free  will,  that  he  does  not  form  his  own  character,  nor  determine  his 
own  conduct.  I  have  to  show,  in  detail,  that  no  man  has  the  power 
of  believing  or  disbelieving  in  a  God;  that  he  has  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining  the  qualities  and  attributes  of  any  being  whose  mode  of  exis¬ 
tence  cannot  be  cognizable  by  his  senses.  I  shall,  therefore,  endeavor 
to  show,  in  detail,  what  a  monstrous  absurdity  it  is,  to  suppose  that 
man,  constituted  as  he  is,  can  be  accountable  for  his  feelings,  thoughts, 
will,  or  conduct.  I  mean  also  to  prove  that  there  cannot  be  one  par¬ 
ticle  of  merit  or  demerit  in  any  man’s  believing  the  doctrines  of  the 
religion  in  which  he  has  been  trained.  I  intend  also  to  demonstrate 
the  utter  fallacy  of  the  notion  that  man  will  go  to  heaven  for  his  be¬ 
lief,  or  to  hell  foi  his  disbelief.  1  intend  further  to  show  that  religious 
forms  and  ceremonies  are  most  useless;  and  that  if  men  were  not 
more  ignorant  than  the  beasts  of  the  field,  they  would  never  pay  money 
to  a  priest  for  showing  them  the  way  to  heaven. 

I  also  mean  to  prove  that  the  opprobrious  meaning  generally  an¬ 
nexed  to  the  epithet  infidel^  is  most  irrational  and  absurd :  How  can 
an  infidel,  if  any  of  you  attach  any  definite  meaning  to  the  term,  pre¬ 
vent  himself  believing  as  he  does,  any  more  than  he  can  help  being 
warmed  by  the  sun,  or  cooled  by  the  breeze.  Now,  my  friends,  these 
are  the  points  I  mean  to  prove.  I  might  indeed  go  much  further.  I 
anight  attack  some  of  the  details  of  the  Christian  system  which  are 
not  to  be  found  in  any  other  systems  of  religion.  I  might  tell  you 
that  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  in  the  Christian  religion  to  believe 
bthat  Christ  is  the  son  of  God;  that  he  came  down  from  heaven  to 
.save  sinners,  or  a  certain  portion  of  them,  called  the  elect;  that  he 
was  crucified,  rose  and  ascended  to  heaven ;  and  that  now  he  is  cer¬ 
tainly  interceding  for  us  there.  But,  my  friends,  after  having  been, 
so  long  a  faithful  student  of  the  laws  of  nature;  and  after  the  mental 
collisions  which  I  have  encountered  with  the  first  minds  in  Europe 
and  America.  I  should  feel  ashamed  seriously  to  attempt  any  opposi¬ 
tion  to  such  monstrous  absurdities — such  a  ridiculous  incongruity. 
But  I  know  that  we  are  beings  so  organized  as  to  receive  our  early 
impressions,  however  absurd  they  maybe.  We  are  compelled  by  an 
unchanging  law  ol  our  nature,  to  receive  our  ea*  ly  impressions,  how¬ 
ever  monstrous  and  absurd,  from  our  parents,  our  nurses,  and  other 
,,early  itistructer?.  This  is  an  indisputable  truth,  therefore  there  can* 


\ 

1 


180. 


DEBATE. 


act  be  a  more  simple  process  than  to  force  into  the  mind  of  any  child 
doctrines,  notions,  and  chimeras,  the  most  wild,  extravagant,  and  fan¬ 
ciful,  and  at  the  same  time,  compel  him  to  receive  them  as  divine 
truths.  This  being  a  law  of  our  nature,  I  cannot  be  surprised  at  the 
variety  of  absurd  notions  which  I  every  where  meet  with.  It  was 
only,  I  think  about  two  months  ago  that  I  very  unexpectedly  found 
myself  in  the  middle  of  the  great  square  of  the  city  of  Mexico.  Sud¬ 
denly  I  heard  the  tinkling  of  a  little  bell,  which  was  in  the  hands  of  a 
man  preceding  the  host.  My  friend,  who  was  with  me,  said  to  me,  Mr. 
Owen,  you  must  kneel  down  till  that  bell  passes,  or  you  will  endanger 
your  life.  Hearing  this,  I  looked  out  for  the  cleanest  place  I  could 
find,  spread  my  handkerchief  upon  it,  and  knelt  down.  [The  audience 
here  laughed  heartily .]  But  why  laugh  at  this,  my  friends  ?  these 
Mexicans  were  as  sincerely  conscientious  in  performing  and  execu¬ 
ting  this  act  of  adoration  to  their  host  as  you  are  in  going  to  any  place 
of  worship. 

The  whole  difference  is  this  that  you  have  been  trained  in  one  set 
of  religious  notions,  and  they  have  been  trained  in  another — and  if 
rationality  could  be  estimated  by  numbers,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether 
those  who  believe  in  the  importa  nce  and  necessity  of  this  act  of  pros¬ 
tration  do  not  outnumber  you  who  disbelieve  and  laugh  at  it.  But  th^ 
great  stumbling  block  of  the  metaphysicians  is,  that  man  is  formed  to 
have  a  free  will ;  and,  therefore,  by  his  will  can  control  his  belief  and 
his  conduct.  Nov/  I  have  stated  it  to  be  one  of  the  fundamental  laws 
of  human  nature  that  the  infant,  when  born ,  has  no  knowledge  of 
his  organization  ;  but  he  then  comes  into  the  world  a  highly  compound¬ 
ed  being,  made  up  of  a  great  variety  of  propensities,  faculties,  and 
qualities — and  upon  this  foundation  of  his  organization  his  intellect, 
morals,  and  will,  are  formed  for  him.  Now  these  propensities  are 
made  either  good  or  bad,  these  intellects  and  morals  are  made  superior 
or  inferior;  but  whether  the  one  or  the  other,  how  is  it  possible  that 
the  infant  can  be  held  accountable  for  it  in  any  degree  whatever? 
When  we  see  a  little  child  obeying  the  impulse  of  its  nature,  and  there¬ 
by  acting  contrary  to  our  notions  of  right  and  wrong,  we  say  that  child 
is  bad  by  nature;  we  punish  it,  and  call  it  hard  names  for  acting  in 
opposition  to  our  notions,  when  the  real  cause  of  all  the  evil  is  the 
ignorance  in  which  we  have  been  trained.  I  dare  say  many'  of  you 
have  now  in  your  eye  the  children  of  different  families  of  your  ac- 
-quaintance,  and  the  difference  in  the  characters  of  these  children;. 
You  know  that  these  children  have  been  trained  very  differently. 
That  the  children  of  the  one  family  have,  according  to  your  notions, 
been  well  brought  up,  while  those  of  the  other  have  been  badly  train 
ed,  and  you  have  witnessed  the  consequent  difference  of  character  in 
these  two  families.  Are  not  these  inferior  children  unfortunate  in 
being  under  the  direction  of  the  ignorant  and  vicious?  and  is  it  not 
fortunate  for  the  superior  children  that  they  have  been  placed  in  the 
care  of  the  more  virtuous  and  intelligent  ?  But  who  shall  sayr  that 
either  merit  or  demerit  attaches  to  either  set  of  children  on  account  of 
•their  difference  of  character.  To  illustrate  how  little  depends  upon 


DEBATE. 


161 

the  power  of  the  infant  itself  in  the  formation  of  its  character,  observe 
the  effects  produced  upon  the  children  brought  up  by  the  people  called 
Quakers.  I  am  not  so  competent  to  speak  of  this  sect  as  it  exists  in 
this  country,  but  in  England  I  am  well  acquainted  with  the  first  fami¬ 
lies  among  them,  and  I  have  uniformly  found  the  children  of  these 
Quaker  families  brought  up  very  differently  from  the  children  of  other 
families:  but  no  merit  or  demerit  can  attach  to  these  children  for 
having  been  thus  fortunately  born  and  educated.  In  my  frequent 
visits  to  London  I  have  made  a  part  of  my  business  to  go  frequently  to 
that  part  of  the  city  called  St.  Giles.  This  division  of  the  city  is 
extensive,  and  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  considerable.  I  have 
there  seen  many  children  of  parents  reduced  to  the  lowest  depths  of 
poverty,  and  yet  obliged  to  support  themselves  and  their  parents; 
they  nave  no  means  to  do  this  except  by  thieving;  and,  therefore, 
from  earliest  infancy,  they  compel  their  children  to  believe  that  they 
perform  a  most  meritorious  action  when  they  can  dexterously  steal. 
And  when  they  succeed,  and  bring  home  their  plunder,  they  are  called 
good  children,  and  rewarded  by  their  parents  with  something  they 
think  will  gratify  them.  But  if  they  do  not  succeed  in  their  day's 
prowling,  and  come  home  empty-handed,  their  parents  call  them  very 
bad  children,  and  punish  them  severely.  Now  these  children  are 
compelled  to  believe  that  to  steal  is  very  meritorious,  and  not  to  steal 
is  very  wicked.  These  children  never  hear  any  thing  of  what  is 
called  good  moral  instruction.  With  what  justice,  then,  can  they  be 
condemned  for  their  vices?  It  is  with  these  unfortunate  children  as 
with  all  others — some  of  them  are  born  with  organizations  greatly 
superior  to  others;  but  they  are  all  equally  compelled  to  imbibe  the 
same  early  lessons  of  depravity. 

But  the  truth  is,  that  no  child  can  have  the  forming  of  himself,  any 
more  than  he  can  have  the  selection  of  his  parents.  When  we  reflect 
upon  this  matter,  we  shall  discover  that  the  child  has  just  as  much 
control  in  the  one  case  as  the  other.  How  absurd,  then,  must  be  the 
invention  of  a  system  which  leaves  the  child  at  the  mercy  of  chance, 
and  then  exacts  responsibility  from  him! 

I  do  say,  that  nothing  but  the  grossest  ignorance  could  have  led  to 
the  introduction  of  a  system  which  supposes  this  to  be  right !  ft  is 
contrary  to  nature,  and  not  in  the  least  degree  calculated  to  effect  the 
purposes  which  it  contemplates!  It  is  any  thing  but  a  rational  method 
of  operating  upon  the  human  mind! 

I  conclude  that  there  are  intelligent  medical  gentlemen  present 
who  have  made  it  their  business  to  study  minutely  the  human  frame. 
They  well  know  that  all  children  are  born  with  different  degrees  of 
powers  and  feelings.  They  know  also  that,  probably  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  time  no  two  individuals  ever  had  any  two  senses  formed 
alike;  that  there  are  no  two  who  see,  or  feel,  or  taste,  or  hear,  or 
smell  alike.  Each  individual  has  a  distinct  natural  character  at 
birth,  arising  from  the  peculiar  combination  which  has  entered  into 
each  of  his  senses.  Those  gentlemen  well  know  that  when  the 
organization  is  perfect  the  human  being  becomes  superior;  that 

16 


182 


DEBATE. 


when  it  is  imperfect,  the  child  must  ever  be,  to  a  certain  extent,  an 
inferior  human  being,  if  placed  under  similar  circumstances  with 
the  former.  Now  if  we  had  the  power  to  form  our  organization  and 
characters,  can  we  suppose  that  beings  possessing  one  particle  of 
reason  would  not  make  these  perfect  ?  I  ask  you  whether  every  male 
and  female  would  not  make  themselves  perfect?  The  only  reason 
that  we  are  not  perfect  beings,  is,  because  we  have  no  power  over 
the  formation  of  our  organization  and  circumstances.  Yesterday 
Mr.  Campbell  said  a  great  deal  upon  the  subject  of  language.  Now 
no  child  has  the  power  of  deciding  what  language  it  shall  be  taught, 
and  he  can  only  derive  oral  instruction  through  that  language  which 
he  has  learned  to  understand.  No  child  can  determine  what  religion 
he  shall  be  taught  to  believe,  or  whether  he  shall  retain  his  belief. 
No  child  can  determine  what  shall  be  the  character  of  his  circum¬ 
stances  from  birth  to  death,  (except  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  and 
xn  that  case  he  has  been  influenced  to  endeavor  to  effect  some  change 
by  the  previous  circumstances  to  which  he  was  compelled  to  submit.) 

We  very  well  know  (if  we  did  not,  we  might  all  easily  try  the  expe¬ 
riment)  that  over  the  power  of  belief  or  disbelief  no  man  ever  has  had, 
or  ever  can  have,  any  control.  As  Mr.  Campbell  has  very  well  ex¬ 
plained,  we  know  that  of  which  our  senses  take  cognizance;  but  in 
like  manner,  we  are  compelled  to  believe  according  to  the  strongest 
^repressions  made  upon  us;  and  so,  too,  of  opinions;  we  receive  them 
according  to  the  evidence  offered  to  us  for  their  foundation,  and  we  are 
compelled  to  receive  them.  Our  liking,  indifference,  or  dislikings, 
are  also  in  like  manner  equally  beyond  our  control.  We  must  be 
indifferent  to  that  which  makes  no  impression  upon  our  senses,  and 
dislike  that  which  offends  our  senses.  It  is  futile,  useless,  and  inju¬ 
rious  to  contend  against  these  laws  of  our  nature.  My  half  hour,  I 
perceive  is  out.  I  will,  therefore,  merely  add,  that  if  these  ar e  facts, 
and  I  will  prove  them  to  be  such,  that  nothing  but  the  grossest  igno¬ 
rance  could  ever  have  permitted  any  such  system  as  the  Christian,  or 
any  other  religion,  to  have  been  introduced,  and  that  nothing  but  this 

ignorance  causes  it  or  them  to  be  now  tolerated , 

** 
v  » • 

Mr.  Campbell  rises,  book  in  hand. 

Mr.  Chairman — In  the  first  place  I  beg  leave  to  post  up  the  argu¬ 
ment  so  far  as  prosecuted.  I  therefore  submit  the  following  items  by 
way  of  recapitulation — Imprimis :  We  have  shown  that  my  friend’s 
system  of  necessity  renders  men  as  incapable  of  society  and  of  moral 
and  civil  government,  as  if  they  were  trees,  stones,  or  machines.  To 
this  refutation  of  his  system,  Mr.  Owen  has,  as  yet,  paid  no  attention. 
2d.  We  have  shown  that  Mr  Owen’s  system  is  not  predicated  upon 
any  philosophic  analysis  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  or  moral  man. 
3d.  We  have  shown  that,  so  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  Mr.  Owen’s 
opposition  to  it  has  been  principally  predicated  upon  a  palpable  error 
. — viz.  that  man’s  volition  has  no  power  over  his  belief.  To  this  ar¬ 
gument  he  has  not  thought  proper  to  reply.  4th.  That  his  system  is 
radically  defectivo  in  this- — that  it  leaves  entirely  out  of  view  our 


DEBATE* 


183 


power  of  acquiring  information  through  testimony.  ^th0  That  his 
system  ascribes  to  imagination  a  creative  power  which  it  does  not 
possess.  6th.  That,  according  to  Mr.  Owen’s  views,  it  was  impossi¬ 
ble  to  account  for  the  derivation  or  existence  of  the  spiritual  ideas  and 
language  now  prevalent  in  the  world.  7th.  That  his  twelve  facts, 
admitting  them  to  be  true,  fall  far  short  of  presenting  a  view  of  the 
whole  man;  and  consequently,  that  every  system  predicated  upon 
them  must  fail  to  furnish  objects  commensurate  with  man’s  capacity 
of  enjoyment,  or  the  dignity  of  Iris  intellectual  nature.  To  not  one 
of  these  capital  items  has  Mr,  Gwen  replied.  As  Mr.  Owen  has  very 
courteously  presented  me  with  a  copy  of  his  twelve  facts,  I  now  pre¬ 
sent  him  with  some  notes  in  writing,  in  the  shape  of  objections  to 
some  of  his  fundamental  points. 

The  objection  that  my  friend  has  been  urging  this  morning  against 
Christianity,  reminds  me  of  certain  objections  which  I  have  heard  to 
the  revolution  of  this  globe  round  the  centre  of  the  planetary  system. 
In  speaking  of  the  sphericity  of  the  earth,  i  have,  in  language  adapted 
to  vulgar  apprehension,  informed  the  uninformed  and  illiterate,  that 
this  earth  was  as  round  as  a  ball.  They  have  replied  that  they  were 
very  sure  this  statement  was  untrue,  because  they  perceived  hills, 
mountains,  valleys,  and  a  very  uneven  surface,  which,  as  they  con¬ 
ceived,  were  altogether  irreconcileable  with  the  rotundity  of  this  globe. 
In  like  manner  they  have  objected  to  the  immobility  of  the  Sun. 
They  reply,  ‘We  see  the  Sun  move ;  we  see  it  rise  in  one  place  and 
set  in  another;  and  if  the  earth  moved  round  the  Sun,  the  position  of 
our  plantations  and  houses  must  necessarily  be  shifted :  your  theory 
about  the  Earth  and  Sun,  then,  is  contrary  to  our  experience  and 
observation.’  Now  it  is  just  in  a  similar  style  of  objection  that  my 
friend  attacks  the  Christian  religion.  Mr.  Owen,  it  seems,  wants  to  » 
elicit  my  opinion  on  what  constitutes  the  Christian  religion.  Does 
he  suppose  that  Christianity  consists  in  matters  of  opinion?  I  am  free 
to  declare  that  neither  the  Jewish  nor  the  Christian  religion  was  ever 
designed  by  their  Author  to  consist  in  any  matter  of  opinion  what¬ 
ever.  I  hesitate  not  also  to  aver,  that  this  error  is  the  root  from  which 
all  sectarianism  has  sprung,  and  has  given  rise  to  all  the  scepticism 
which  now  prevails.  Mr.  Owen  informs  us  that  he  became  a  sceptic 
from  the  jarring  sectarianism  and  irreconcileable  discrepancies  in  the 
different  dogmas  of  Christianity.  This  would,  indeed,  be  an  unprofita¬ 
ble  discussion  were  it  to  be  confined  to  a  mere  war  of  words  concern¬ 
ing  the  opinions  which  constitute  this,  that,  or  the  other  system  of 
religion.  This  would  suit  iny  friend’s  scheme  well  enough;  but  1 
hardly  think  he  will  be  able  to  seduce  us  into  a  discussion  upon  the 
subject  of  free  will ,  a  topic  on  which  he  himself  is  so  fond  of  ex¬ 
pressing  his  opinions.  But  I  was  proceeding  to  observe,  that  if  we 
had  no  other  proof  of  the  scriptures  being  divine  oracles  than  just  the 
contents  of  the  book,  ( Biblos that  alone  would  warrant  us  in  the  con¬ 
clusion,  for  we  see  the  handwriting  of  the  Almighty  indelibly  inscribed 
in  the  pages  of  this  volume.  The  same  grand  developements  display¬ 
ed  in  the  “pillar’d  firmament,”  are  to  be  found  in  the  sacred  volume; 


DEBATE, 


kS4 

and  they  both  proclaim  with  equal  emphasis,  that  “the  hand  which 
made  them  is  divine?”  In  the  physical  organization  of  the  material 
universe,  we  discover  that  the  laws  of  attraction  and  repulsion  are 
r.he  most  operative.  We  see  the  Great  God  of  Nature  continually  pro- 
during  most  wonderful  results  by  the  simple  operation  of  one  single 
law.  What  philosopher  does  not  know  the  power  of  the  centrifugal 
and  centripetal  forces  in  balancing  our  globe  ?  Who  does  not  know 
fhat  the  successive  change  of  the  seasons  results  from  one  single  un¬ 
erring  law  laid  down  by  the  Great  Creator  himself?  Now  in  expelling 
from  the  human  heart  that  darkness  in  which,  without  the  light  of 
revelation  it  must  ever  have  remained,  in  elevating  the  human  mind 
to  the  contemplation  of  spiritual  things,  the  Almighty  acts  by  a  few 
general  laws.  He  raises  man  to  heaven  by  the  simple  operation  of 
two  or  three  fundamental  principles.  Were  this  point  in  argument 
now,  I  would  boldly  hazard  the  assertion  that  the  sacred  volume 
contains  intrinsic  evidences  of  being  come  from  God — because  the 
same  plan  and  consummate  wisdom  displayed  in  the  construction  of 
the  material  universe,  are  equally  developed  in  these  holy  oracles 
in  the  renovation  of  man.  But  if  the  contents  of  the  volume  of  reve* 
lation  and  the  constituent  principles  of  religion  therein  inculcated  are 
10  become  the  subjects  of  investigation  in  this  debate,  they  should  be 
taken  only  from  the  book  which  contains  them. 

In  such  an  investigation  I  apprehend  that  Mr.  Owen  cannot  be 
permitted  to  travel  out  of  the  record.  But  we  will  take  the  book 
( Biblos )  and  examine  what  is  written  there  by  the  same  criteria 
which  we  would  apply  in  an  analysis  of  the  writings  of  Cicero,  of 
Demosthenes,  of  Sallust  or  of  Xenophon.  But  the  time  has  not  yet 
come  for  me  to  reply  to  my  friend's  religious  opinions  and  social 
*  views  in  his  own  favorite  style. 

There  was,  however,  one  point  on  which  my  opponent  had  nearly 
staggered  upon  the  truth.  He  asked  if  Christianity  consisted  in  the 
whole  of  the  New  Testament,  or  primarily  in  a  few  general  principles 
and  leading  facts  therein  contained?  He  apprehended  the  latter,  and 
that  these  might  be  stated  in  a  very  few  words.  I  presume  he  must  have 
had  reference  to  the  historic  facts  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  the  salva¬ 
tion  of  sinners,  that  he  rose  from  the  dead,  and  ascended  to  heaven, 
*$£.c.  Now  this  is  the  only  legitimate  mode  of  arguing  this  topic. 

Yesterday  we  discussed  the  evidences  of  the  Jewish  religion.  We 
have  been  pursuing  the  very  plan  which  our  opponent  suggests.  Has 
it  not  been  repeatedly  affirmed  that  both  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
religion  are  predicated  upon  historic  facts — facts  triable  by  the  same 
criteria  as  all  other  historic  facts?  After  proceeding  a  little  farther 
in  the  argument,  I  shall  be  perfectly  willing  to  conform  strictly  to 
Mr.  Owen’s  plan.  I  have  asserted  that  the  Christian  religion,  as  well 
as  the  Jewish,  was  predicated  upon  facts.  And  I  will  rest  the  whole 
merits  of  this  controversy  upon  my  ability  to  prove  the  three  leading- 
facts  on  which  Christianity  is  based,  and  the  consequent  inability  of 
mv  opponent  to  disprove  them.  1st.  That  Jesus  Christ  was  crucified 
upon  Amount  Calvary,  as  attested  by  the  four  Evangelists.  2d.  That 


«• 


DEBATE. 


185 


Ins  body  was  deposited  in  the  tomb  of  Joseph  of  Arimatliea.  And  3dly, 
That  he  did  actually  rise  from  the  dead,  and  appeared  upon  the  earth 
for  forty  days,  having  during  that  time  repeated  intercourse  with  his 
disciples,  ancHnsJ  at  the  end  of  that  period  he  did  actually  ascend  to 
heaven.  Now  this  tender  closes  every  avenue  to  the  introduction  of 
metaph}"sical  subtlety,  or  mere  opinions  about  Christianity  into  this 
argument.  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  it  was  the  simple,  sub¬ 
lime,  and  majestic  design  of  him  “whose  ways  are  not  as  man’s  ways,” 
to  effect  an  entire  moral  revolution  in  mankind  by  the  simple  opera¬ 
tion  of  the  intrinsic  weight,  validity,  and  moral  energy  of  these  facts. 

I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  all  the  principles  necessary  to  make 
man  happy,  and  elevate  his  nature  to  its  highest  point  of  dignity,  and 
to  enable  him  to  meet  death  fearlessly,  are  native  to,  inherent  in,  and 
inalienable  from,  these  facts — I  mean  the  facts  that  Jesus  Christ  was* 
crucified,  buried,  and  that  he  rose  again  on  the  third  day.  The  influence 
of  these  facts  is  irresistible.  No  man  ever  did  honestly  believe  them 
who  did  not  in  consequence  thereof  experience  that  all  his  powers 
and  faculties  were  exalted  and  refined.  And  thus,  in  the  wonderful 
wisdom  of  God,  has  the  w  hole  moral  and  religious  revolution  which 
he  designed  to  effect  over  the  world,  been  predicated  upon  the  opera¬ 
tive  moral  energy  of  these  facts. 

Mr.  Owen  speaks  of  the  endless  varieties  of  religion;  but  the  world 
has  never  had  but  three  divine  religious  dispensations :  the  first  adapt¬ 
ed  to  the  primitive  state  of  man — the  second  adapted  to  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  a  people  living  under  social  and  municipal  institutions,  and 
prophetic  and  typical  of  the  advent  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  founder  of  Christianity.  And  these  three  divine  developements  of 
religion  all  concentrate  themselves  upon  the  fact  that  Jesus  rose  from 
the  dead,  ascended  to  heaven,  and  was  there  received  as  the  Son  of 
God.  We  do  know  that  all  the  superstitions  in  the  world  have  grown 
out  of  these  three  developements  of  divine  authority  in  matters  of 
religion.  What  is  Mahometanism  but  a  corruption  of  Christianity? 
I  would  not  call  the  Persian,  the  Roman,  nor  the  Egyptian  religions, 
different  religions,  but  different  sects  of  the  same  religion,  just  as  I 
would  call  Mahometanism  a  corruption  of  Christianity.  There  is  not 
a  single  supernatural  truth  in  the  Koran,  that  is  not  borrowed  from 
the  Testaments.  Whatever  may  have  been  invented  by  the  licenti¬ 
ousness  of  human  imagination,  there  never  has  been  but  one  divinely 
revealed  religion.  Hence  in  all  these  superstitions  we  find  capital 
ideas,  sentiments,  and  terms  which  could  not  have  been  originated 
by  human  imagination,  or  derived  from  any  other  source  than  an  im¬ 
mediate  and  direct  divine  revelation.  We  can  show  that  all  the 
national  records  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  times  of  the  highest 
antiquity,  embrace  the  outlines  of  the  Mosaic  account  in  the  hook  of 
Genesis.  We  can  show7  that,  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Chaldeans,  there  was  not  a  circumjacent  nation 
that  had  not  all  the  knowledge  possessed  by  Abraham,  save  with 
regard  to  his  own  posterity.  It  was  in  consequence  of  the  defection 
of  the  Chaldeans  that  Abraham  was  commanded  to  depart  into  a 

16* 


186 


DEBATE, 


strange  land,  because  that  people  were  apostatizing  and  falling  off 
from  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  to  the  worship  of  idols.  So  fa* 
we  have  submitted  the  outlines  of  this  matter  with  a  reference  to  the 
past  and  present.  Yesterday  I  introduced  an  argument  predicated 
upon  the  historic  evidences  in  support  of  Judaism  and  Christianity. 
1  presented ,  in  the  first  instance,  certain  criteria  by  which  we  are 
enabled  to  decide  whether  historic  facts  are  credible,  and  gave  an- 
anatysis  of  these  evidences  and  their  criteria.  With  a  reference  to 
the  true  merits  of  this  controversy,  we  have  laid  down  four  criteria 
of  the  verity  of  historic  facts: — 1st.  That  the  recorded  facts  on  which 
we  may  rely  with  safety,  must  be  cognizable  by  the  senses.  2d.  Have' 
been  exhibited  in  the  face  of  day.  3d.  That,  in  perpetual  commemo¬ 
ration  of  these  facts,  monumental  institutions  were  adopted  simul¬ 
taneously  with  their  occurrence.  And,  4th.  Continued  down  to  the 
present  day.  We  did  affirm  and  adduce  some  proofs  that  no  fact 
possessing  these  four  criteria  of  its  verity,  could  possibly  be  false; 
that  it  was  entirely  out  of  Mr.  Owen’s  power  to  select  a  single  fact, 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  any  nation  of  the  world,  which,  possessing 
these  four  criteria  of  verity,  ever  was  proved  to  be  false.  But  we 
intend,  before  coming  to  the  point  more  immediately  at  issue,  to 
show  that  these  matters  of  fact  were  not  (as  sceptics  affirm)  greedily 
believed  by  merely  a  few  friends  and  partisans;  but  that  these  stu¬ 
pendous  facts  were  exhibited,  not  for  the  purpose  of  confirming  the 
belief  of  friends,  but  to  overcome  the  disbelief  of  enemies.  Moses 
(for  example)  was  sent  to  lead  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  but  this  people  were  as  unwilling  to  leave  the  land,  as 
Pharaoh  was  to  let  them  go.  Hence  the  ten  stupendous  miracles 
exhibited  by  Moses  were  as  necessary  to  persuade  the  people  to  de¬ 
part,  as  they  were  to  coerce  Pharaoh  to  permit  them.  The  necessary 
inference  is,  that  the  enactment  of  these  ten  wonders  was  as  necessa¬ 
ry  for  the  conviction  of  the  Israelites  as  their  oppressors.  Moses 
himself  demurred  when  the  conduct  of  the  Israelitish  host  was  cast 
upon  him;  the  people  were  unwilling  to  quit  the  land  of  their  captivity, 
and  Pharaoh  strenuously  opposed  their  departure;  but  by  the  resist¬ 
less  influence  of  these  ten  wonderful  facts,  all  were  made  conform¬ 
able  to  the  divine  will.  These  facts  were  designed  to  be  of  such  high 
import  as  to  reconcile  Moses  to  his  responsible  undertaking,  to  over- 
■'ome  the  pertinacity  and  avarice  of  Pharaoh,  and  inspire  the  Israelites 
with  a  courage  which  enabled  them  to  pass  fearlessly  through  the 
bed  of  the  Bed  Sea.  You  perceive,  then,  that  all  circumstances 
concurred  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  any  deception  in  regard  to 
he  truth  of  the  facts  as  well  as  the  possibility  of  their  reception  upon 
any  slight  and  superficial  evidence.  They  were  in  their  nature  cal¬ 
culated  to  arouse  every  energy,  and  to  take  fast  hold  upon  every 
feeling  of  man.  They  must,  therefore,  bp;  egarded  as  facts  of  the 
sublimest  character,  the  most  momentous;  import,  and  the  most  irre¬ 
sistible  influence.  The  course  adopted  by  mv  opponent  in  this  debate 
has  compelled  me  to  introduce  at  this  stage  of  the  argument  the  evi¬ 
dences  that  not  only  the  institutions  of  the  passover*  circumcision, 


DEBATE, 


187 


the  redemption  of  the  first-born,  but  that  divers  other  commemorative 
institutions  and  ritual  observances  of  the  Jewish  law  warrant  us  in 
the  conclusion  that  the  whole  system  of  the  Jewish  religion  is  an 
antetypical  symbolic  attestation  in  proof  of  the  divine  mission  of  the 
Messiah.  And  now,  as  I  do  not  wish  immediately  to  introduce  another 
part  of  the  subject,  I  resign  the  floor  to  my  opponent. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. — 

My  friends — Our  debate  is  to  be  published,  and  therefore  the  mat* 
ter  advanced  by  the  disputants  ought  to  be  such  as  to  command  seri¬ 
ous  reflections,  and  to  exercise  the  most  discriminating  powers  of  our 
judgment;  for  this  sole  reason  have  I  on  divers  and  sundry  occasions 
in  the  course  of  this  discussion,  pretermitted  all  reply  to  my  friend, 
Mr.  Campbell’s  catechisms.  Being  quite  familiar  with  the  whole 
range  of  my  friend’s  arguments  and  topics,  I  have  been  perfectly 
aware  that  the  further  they  were  pursued,  the  more  mazy,  intangible, 
and  interminable  the  argument  would  become;  and  I  have  therefore 
been  most  desirous  to  keep  your  attention  riveted,  if  possible,  to  plain, 
simple,  tangible  matters  of  fact,  and  to  those  things  from  which  we 
may  derive  the  highest  practical  benefit  and  utility  to  ourselves  and 
to  our  posterity — I  wanted  to  keep  your  judgment  and  discrimation 
constantly  in  exercise,  and  your  imagination  out  of  play.  But  were 
I  to  recognize,  even  indirectly,  that  a  dissertation  concerning  Pharaoh 
and  his  host — the  God  who  created  Pharaoh  and  hardened  his  heart, 
so  that  he  would  not  let  the  people  go — who  descended  from  heaven 
to  cover  the  earth  with  all  sorts  of  loathsome  and  noxious  vermin — - 
were  1,  I  say,  to  recognize  a  dissertation  of  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and  the  causing  of  the  uncongealed  water  to  stand  up  per¬ 
pendicularly,  on  each  side  of  its  margin,  like  parallel  stonewalls  in  a 
lane;  were  I  to  recognize  the  narrative  of  these  and  other  marvels, 
with  which  we  have  been  edified,  as  at  all  relevant  or  pertinent  to  the 
point  of  debate  at  present  before  us,  I  should,  upon  reflection  on  my 
conduct,  certainly  come  to  the  conclusion,  that,  when  I  consented  to 
waste  my  time  and  yours,  in  this  puerile  w  ay,  I  was  out  of  my  senses. 
Once,  for  all,  my  friends,  I  wish  to  state  distinctly  that  I  cherish  sin¬ 
cere  good  feelings  towards  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell.  I  am  sure  hg 
is  entirely  conscientious,  and  that  he  is  with  an  honest  zeal  exerting 
himself  to  maae  you  to  believe  what  he  thinks  the  truth;  but  I  also  { 
discover  that  Mr.  Campbell’s  mind,  (powerful  as  it  is,)  has  from  infan-  j 
cy  been  filled  and  vitiated  with  an  accumulation  of  ancient  and  fab-  ; 
ulous  legends  concerning  Pharaoh  with  his  hardened  heart ;  the  im-  J 
mobility  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  a  variety  of  other  such  novelties,  which,  \ 
unfortunately  for  the  true  interest,  happiness,  and  virtue  of  mankind, 
has  been  delved  out  of  the  rubbish  of  antiquity,  from  which  none  but 
the  most  ungoverned  inclination  would  ever  have  thought  of  extract¬ 
ing  them.  My  friend,  iw'r. Campbell,  possesses  a  lively  imagination; 
an  imagination  which  has  been  deeply  involved  in  these,  to  him,  high 
mysteries;  nature  has  been  bountiful  to  him  in  his  organization,  end 
many  of  his  talents  have  been  highly  cultivated;  but  what  have  the1 


188 


DEBATE. 


circumstances  of  his  learned  education  in  the  old  seminaries  of  Em 
rope  done  for  him?  why,  simply  this,  they  have  placed,  (if  I  may  be  ■? 
allowed  to  use  the  figure.)  a  Chinese  shoe  upon  a  mind  vigorous  from  - 
its  birth,  and  which  nature  formed  capable  of  being  expanded  to  the 
largest  and  most  capacious  dimensions;  but  what  mind  can  reach  its 
natural  developement,  when  those  who  have  the  forming  of  it,  rivet  a 
Chinese  shoe  upon  it,  believing  all  the  while  that  they  are  improving 
it  so  as  to  bring  forth  the  most  wholesome  and  abundant  harvests  of  J 
Utility  and  benefit  to  mankind  ?  Mr.  Campbell  possesses  the  power 
of  combining  and  generalizing  with  great  rapidity ;  he  brings  his  ideas 
before  you  in  a  very  imposing  shape ;  but  I  have  something  more  val¬ 
uable  to  adduce  than  legends  about  Pharaoh  and  the  Red  Sea.  It  is 
my  high  duty  to  place  before  the  world  that  which  may  enable  them 
to  think  rationally,  and  consequently  to  adopt  a  wholesome  and  ben¬ 
eficial  practice.  1  have  undertaken  to  prove  that  it  is  impossible 
that  any  religion  can  be  true,  because  all  religions  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  immutable  laws  of  nature  as  exhibited  in  man. — I 
will  further  undertake  to  prove  that  the  combined  and  aggregate 
influence  of  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  have  not,  through  all  past 
ages'up  to  the  present  hour,  effected  so  much  for  the  improvement 
of  mankind  in  virtue,  and  consequent  happiness,  as  the  general  adop¬ 
tion  of  these  principles,  when  properly  applied  in  practice,  will  effect 
in  five  years.  I  have,  therefore,  something  to  lay  before  you  highly 
important  to  yourselves  and  posterity,  and  this  causes  me  greatly  to 
deprecate  any  distraction  or  confusion  of  your  minds  by  any  useless 
metaphysical  disquisitions  which  are,  in  their  nature,  almost  inter¬ 
minable,  and  which  never  can  lead  to  any  beneficial  practical  result. 
Five  senses  have  been  afforded  us,  and  we  know  of  a  certainty  no  faets 
beyond  what  these  senses  teach  us ;  and  these,  my  friends,  are  amply 
sufficient  to  enable  us  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  whole  merits 
of  this  discussion.  Were  I,  my  friends,  sofar  to  forget  myself  and 
the  dignity  of  the  subject  which  you  have  been  convened  to  hear  dis¬ 
cussed,  as  to  bestow  the  slightest  degree  of  notice  upon  any  of  those 
fanciful  notions,  miracles,  marvels,  and  fabulous  legends,  with  a  crit¬ 
ical  dissertation  upon  which  my  friend  has  edified  us,  I  should  con¬ 
ceive  that  my  time  and  faculties  were  just  as  much  wasted  and  misap- 
pied  as  if  I  were  to  recognize  the  historic  winders  enacted  by  “Jack, 
the  Giant-Killer,'5  as  pertinent  or  relevant  to  the  subject  matter  of 
this  debate.  Indeed  I  conceive  the  narration  of  Jack's  exploits  to  be 
less  s^per-natural,  and  therefore  more  instructive. 

My  friends,  I  well  know  that  many  of  you  have,  from  the  earliest 
infancy,  been  trained  to  cherish  the  utmost  reverence  for  these  absur¬ 
dities;  you  reverence  them,  not  only  because  they  are  encrusted  with 
the  venerable  rust  of  antiquity,  but  you  pay  still  greater  adoration 
to  them,  because  they  have  been  handed  down  to  you,  claiming  to 
have  the  sanction  of  that  fearful  and  mysterious,  yet  unmeaning, 
phrase,  “sacred  and  divine  tradition.5'  But  that  same  sense  of  duty 
which  prompted  me  to  cross  so  many  longitudes  and  latitudes,  in  or¬ 
der  to  give  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  this  meeting,  compels  me  to 


DEBATE, 


186 


“cry  aloud  and  spare  not;”  to  speak  out  boldly  and  fearlessly  the 
truth.  It  is  contrary  to  all  my  feelings,  sentiments,  and  professions  to 
outrage  where  it  is  avoidable,  on  prejudice,  or  to  cause  the  slightest  de¬ 
gree  of  pain  or  irritation  to  the  feelings  ol  any  of  my  fellow7 -bemgs ;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  the  irrelevancy  to  the  subject  before  us  of  Mr, 
Campbell’s  dissertation  upon  the  fables  of  antiquity,  I  should  not  have 
been  compelled  to  put  your  feelings,  patience,  and  prejudices  to  so 
severe  a  trial,  as  I  much  fear  a  just  and  conscientious  performance  of 
my  high  duty  will  now  compel  me  to  do.  Because  if  I  had  been  per¬ 
mitted  to  pursue  my  intended  course  in  this  matter,  it  would  be  like 
proving  that  one  and  one  made  two,  and  consequently  that  in  proving 
this  position,  I  at  the  same  time  demonstrated  that  one  and  one  could 
never  make  three.  For  if  I  prove  man  to  be  what  I  state  him  to  bef 
I  thereby  remove  the  entire  foundation  on  which  all  religions  have 
been'  erected.  By  thus  simply  stating  facts  in  such  a  manner  that 
you,  my  friends,  experience,  feel,  and  recognize  them  to  be  such; 
the  falsehood  of  all  religions  necessarily  becomes  manifest.  By  this 
course,  had  I  been  permitted  to  have  adopted  it,  I  should  have  avoid¬ 
ed  coming  into  immediate  collision  with  your  early  and  deep-rooted 
prejudices. 

I  have  said  that  man,  at  birth,  is  ignorant  of  every  thing  relative  to 
his  own  organization,  and  is  not  permitted  to  create  any  part  of  his 
physical  or  intellectual  organization;  therefore  that  he  cannot  be  bad 
by  nature.  He  is  exactly  what  nature  has  made  him;  you  may  be 
sure,  therefore,  that  all  religions  which  assume  that  man  is  bad  bv 
nature,  are  false,  and  founded  in  ignorance  of  human  nature.  And 
secondly,  that  no  two  infants  have  ever  yet  been  knoivn  to  possess 
an  identity  of  organization,  and  that  all  these  organic  differences 
between  individuals  have  been  created  without  the  knowledge  or  corn 
sent  of  the  individuals.  Now7  this  is  either  true  or  false;  Mr.  Camp^ 
bell,  ifhe  proceeds  logically,  will  either  admit  or  disprove  this  first 
principle ;  which,  if  true,  renders  it  impossible  for  any  man  to  be  bad 
by  nature.  Again,  Mr.  Campbell,  in  order  to  proceed  logically,  must 
admit  or  disprove  the  second  position :  that  the  organization  of  no 
two  children  have  ever  been  created  precisely  alike;  which,  if  true^ 
demonstrates  that  there  can  neither  be  merit  nor  demerit  in  either,  on 
account  of  this  diversity  of  birth.  After  these  two  points  have  been 
acceded  to  or  disproved^  we  may  then  logically  proceed  to  the  discus¬ 
sion  of  the  third.  Now,  I  aver  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world 
presuppose  that  children  are  to  be  blamed  and  praised,  punished 
or  rewarded,  according  to  their  characters,  1  maintain  that  this 
supposition  is  a  gross  absurdity,  and  that  nothing  but  the  wander¬ 
ings  of  the  imagination  could  have  led  us  into  this  error.  I  assume 
that  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to  disprove  the  two  first  positions. 
3.  VVeaffirm  that  each  individual  is  placed  without  his  knowledge  or 
consent,  under  circumstances  which  irresistibly  influence  and  control 
him;  yet  that  the  influence  of  these  circumstances  is  somewhat  mod¬ 
ified  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  individual’s  organization.  Now  we 
perceive  that  the  foundation  of  human  character  is  in  our  organization^ 


190 


DEBATE. 


and  that  in  the  creation  of  this  organization*  we  have  had  no  manner 
of  agency  or  control.  The  further  developement  of  our  character  de¬ 
pends  upon  our  circumstances  at  birth. 

If.  we  had  been  born  among  the  Romans,  we  would  necessarily  have 
had  our  religious  faith  built  upon  the  mysteries  and  traditions  of  their 
mythology,  and  should  have  thought,  felt,  and  acted  in  all  things  as 
they  did.  Had  we  been  bom  at  the  time  it  is  said  Jesus  Christ  lived, 
we  might  have  assisted  to  crucify  him,  or  been  among  his  disciples. 
But  it  does  not  depend  upon  us  when  we  shall  come  into  the  world 
although  our  future  character  depends  so  materially  upon  it,  as  well 
as  upon  the  particular  place  or  country  in  which  we  receive  our  im¬ 
pressions.  Did  any  of  us  prevent  ourselves  from  being  born  in  the 
city  of  Constantinople?  Could  any  of  the  Turks  who  have  been  born 
in  that  city,  have  prevented  it  from  being  their  birthplace?  or  could 
they  help  being  taught  the  Mahometan  religion?  Now  is  there  a 
man  in  this  assembly  who  blames  a  native  of  the  city  of  Constantinople 
for  having  been  born  a  Turk,  and  consequently  educated  a  Mussel- 
men  ?  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  merit  or  demerit  can  attach  to  the 
individual  on  account  of  the  place  of  his  nativity  or  the  peculiarity  of 
his  education.  It  is  too  gross  a  folly  to  attempt  to  reason  in  contradic¬ 
tion  of  such  facts  as  these.  Nothing  but  the  overwhelming  effects  of 
early  and  continued  impressions  could  induce,  or  rather  compel  any 
one  to  contend  against  such  facts  as  these.  No,  my  friends,  ’tis  an 
immutable  law  of  nature  that  man  shall  not  decide  when  or  where  he 
shall  be  born,  or  what  religion  he  shall  be  taught.  We  well  know 
with  what  tenacity  the  great  mass  of  ^mankind  retain  their  early  im¬ 
pressions.  There  is  no  more  merit  in  being  a  Christian  than  a  cannibal ; 
both  are  what  their  organization  and  circumstances,  over  neither  of 
which  they  can  be  supposed  to  have  had  the  least  control,  have  com¬ 
pelled  them  to  be.  Is  not  the  whole  matter  as  obvious  as  that  two  and 
two  make  four  ? 

I  may  also  remark  that  no  child  can  be  supposed  to  have  the  least 
influence  in  deciding  who  shall  be  its  parents.  Now  what  an  import¬ 
ant  circumstance  in  formingthe  character  of  each  individual  is  this! 
Whether  the  child  shall  come  into  existence  in  the  midst  of  a  vicious 
and  degraded  family;  or  whether  he  shall  be  born  into  a  family  of  the 
purest  habits,  the  highest  intelligence,  and  the  most  virtuous  and  ami¬ 
able  dispositions.  The  opposition  between  the  circumstances  of  two 
children  thus  differently  ushered  into  the  world  is  immense.  But  ought 
the  child  that  has  been  thus  fortunate  in  its  parentage  to  be  praised  for 
the  consequences  which  proceed  from  it?  or  is  the  offspring  of  vice 
and  iniquity  to  be  blamed  for  the  vicious  impression  received  from  its 
parentage?  This  is  a  case  in  which  it  is  easy  to  suppose  the  two  ex¬ 
tremes.  But  the  child  which  has  been  most  unfortunate  in  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  its  birthplace  and  education,  claims  more  of  our  care, 
pity,  and  attention,  than  the  child  around  whose  cradle  the  most 
propitious  circumstances  have  shed  their  influence  from  the  hour  of  * 
its  tprth.  You  see,  therefore,  that  the  individual  has  no  choice  as  to 
his  country,  his  parentage,  his  language,  or  any  of  those  things 


DEBATE. 


191 


which  constitute  the  whole  foundation  of  his  character.  And  thus 
his  character  is  entirely  formed  for  him,  without  his  knowledge,  will, 
or  consent;  and  we  all  know  the  influence  which  our  early  impres¬ 
sions  exercise  over  our  future  lives  and  conduct.  Have  I,  my  friends, 
said  enough  to  convince  you  of  the  errors  of  all  religions  which  pre~ 
suppose  quite  the  reverse  of  all  this,  and  give  a  very  different  tlirec- 
tion  to  all  our  thoughts  and  feelings?  If  not,  I  will  go  on,  for  the 
subject  is  inexhaustible. 

The  fifth  fundamental  law  of  human  nature  is — “That  each 
individual  is  so  created  that,  when  young,  he  may  be  made  to 
receive  impressions,  to  produce  either  true  ideas  or  false  notions, 
and  beneficial  or  injurious  habits;  and  to  retain  them  with  great 
tenacity.”  Suppose  all  the  children  in  the  world  were  placed  under 
circumstances  to  receive  false  notions,  and  the  fact  is  so,  for  I 
believe  the  minds  of  the  present  and  all  past  generations  have  been 
placed  under  circumstances  in  which,  instead  of  receiving  the  truth, 
they  have  been  compelled  to  receive  false  notions  upon  every  subject 
in  which  their  happiness  is  the  most  involved ;  and  this  has  arisen 
from  our  imagination  having  been  much  more  cultivated  on  all  reli¬ 
gious  and  moral  subjects,  than  any  of  our  other  faculties.  The 
whole  world  has  been  governed  alone  by  imagination,  on  all  these 
subjects.  We  have  been  so  much  deceived  in  consequence  that  we 
have  called  ourselves  reasonable  beings ;  but  there  never  was  a  greater 
misnomer*  What  is  there  that  is  reasonable  now  in  the  private  and 
public  conduct  of  mankind?  I  have,  for  forty  years,  been  trying  to 
discover  what  nation  or  people  thought  or  acted  in  a  rational  manner. 
Everywhere  have  I  sought  to  find  a  reasonable  population,  but  my 
search  has  been  fruitless.  I  have  found  them  all  governed  up  to  this 
hour  by  the  most  irrational  notions,  directly  contrary  to  right  reason 
and  their  own  interests  and  happiness.  It  is  not  for  the  interest  or 
happiness  of  any  portion  of  mankind  to  act  as  they  now  do.  By 
their  present  mode  of  proceedings  mankind  are  just  as  much  opposing 
their  real  interest,  as  the  child  who  would  spurn  from  him  the  most 
strengthening  food  or  the  most  salutary  medicine.  All  your  arrange¬ 
ments  denote  the  absence  of  reason.  Look  to  those  of  government, 
religion,  law,  commerce,  war,  and  domestic  purposes,  and  they  all 
partake  of  this  character — they  all  tend  to  counteract  your  object, 
which  is  to  be  as  happy  as  the  nature  of  your  organization  will  per-* 
mit.  My  friends,  consider  the  nature  of  the  duty  which  I  have  to 
perform.  Knowing  that  you  have  from  infancy  imbibed  the  most 
erroneous  notions  derived  from  the  wildest  imaginations,  what 
measures  can  I,  a  stranger,  take  to  enable  you  so  far  to  unassociate 
the  ideas  which  have  been  forced  into  your  minds  as  to  enable  you  to 
rc-create  those  minds,  to  be  born  again,  and  thus  become  rational 
beings?  This,  my  friends,  is  no  light  task.  It  requires  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  patience,  and  perseverance,  and  self-devotion  to 
the  happiness  and  well  being  of  my  species  alone,  which  can  enable 
me  to  disregard  all  that  you  may  say  or  think  of  me,  all  that  you 
do  to  me,  for  the  sake  of  doing  you  good.  I  can  have  no  individual 


*92 


DEBATE. 


•interest  in  removing  your  prejudices.  What  private  emolument, 
aggrandizement  or  remuneration  could  I  ever  have  promised  myself 
from  the  beginning  of  my  arduous  course  up  to  the  present  moment? 

I  was  deeply  affected  by  the  degraded  state  in  which  I  discovered  all 
nations  to  be,  and  interested  for  the  happiness  of  my  species,  or  I 
never  would  have  come  forward  to  combat  the  darling  prejudices  of, 

I  may  say,  the  whole  world.  But  I  well  knew  that  unless  somebody  | 
•would  stand  in  the  gap  and  expose  himself  to  the  risk  of  being  sacri-  \ 
Seed,  mankind  must  ever  remain  creatures  influenced  and  governed  \ 
only  by  the  errors  of  their  early  impressions  which  render  them  daily  j 
and  hourly  liable  to  every  kind  of  suffering  and  misery,  for  which 
there  exist  no  other  necessity  than  ignorance  of  our  nature.  Had  I  not 
been  thoroughly  convinced  that  I  could  only  influence  you  to  direct 
your  attention  to  simple  facts,  and  discard  the  illusions  arising  from 
early  impressions,  made  through  the  imagination,  and  that  you 
could  all  thereby  attain  to  a  high  degree  of  virtue  and  happiness,  I 
would  never  have  put  my  all  to  hazard  by  coming  forward  as  I  have 
done.  I  only  ask  you,  my  friends,  when  your  passions  are  calm  and 
your  judgment  cool,  to  take  these  twelve  laws  of  our  nature  undef 
your  consideration;  to  examine  them  with  the  severest  scrutiny,  and 
to  read,  learn,  mark,  and  inwardly  digest  them  until  you  fully  com¬ 
prehend  them.  For,  my  friends,  it  does  require  time  to  penetrate 
into  the  subject  so  as  to  understand  it  fully.  Not  that  the  subject  is 
intricate  in  itself,  but  the  excessive  and  extravagant  cultivation  of 
your  imaginations  in  opposition  to  existing  facts,  have  almost  destroyed 
your  judgments.  This  is  the  only  reason  why  you  cannot  follow 
me  as  rapidly  as  I  wish  to  proceed  with  my  deviopements  and  demon¬ 
strations  of  these  twelve  laws,  and  of  the  highly  beneficial  practice 
to  which  they  will  lead.  No,  my  friends,  before  you  can  follow  me 
in  my  illustrations  with  that  intensity  of  interest  which  the  subject  is 
so  pre-eminently  calculated  to  inspire,  these  twelve  laws  must  have 
previously  occupied  your  most  serious  and  mature  reflections.  They 
are  adapted  to  secure  your  health,  your  comfort,  your  peace  of  mind, 
and  they  will  open  human  nature  to  your  perusal  in  like  manner  as 
you  would  unfold  a  topographical  map. 

After  you  once  thoroughly  understand  these  twelve  laws,  and  shall 
be  informed  to  what  country,  class,  sect,  and  party,  any  individual 
belongs,  you  will  know,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  what  that  indi-  _ 
vidual  is.  His  general  thoughts,  views,  and  feelings  will  be  familiar 
to  you.  It  may  appear,  my  friends,  presumptuous  and  assuming 
when  I  state  the  fact  that  the  whole  of  human  nature  lies  as  palpably 
open  to  my  perusal  as  ever  the  map  of  any  country  was  presented  to 
you.  Therefore  I  cannot  be  snrprized  at  any  thing  I  hear  or  see.  I  ; 
can  immediately  trace  the  effect  to  its  cause;  and  if  you  too,  my  \ 
friends,  only  possessed  this  knowledge,  so  easily  to  be  attained,  it 
would  minister  to  you  a  joy,  peace,  and  consolation,,  that  you  would 
cot  exchange  for  all  the  world  possesses. 


'DEBATE.  195 

=  *  ~  /A 

Air.  Campbell  rises — 

Mr.  Chairman — My  friend,  Mr.  Owen,  in  his  last  address,  has  ad- 
vanced  a  great  many  assertions,  the  bearing  of  which,  upon  the  subject 
before  us,  I  cannot  perceive,  unless,  indeed,  Mr.  Owen’s  experience 
is  to  be  received  as  tantamount  to  incontrovertible  proof.  But  my 
opponent,  numerous  as  his  assertions  are,  advances  nothing  tangible; 
he  avers,  indeed,  that  he  has  no  attachment  to  metaphysics;  that  he 
contemns  metaphysical  speculations; and  seems  plainly  to  insinuate 
that  I  wished  either  in  whole  or  in  part  to  predicate  my  defence  of 
Christianity  upon  hair-breadth  metaphysical  subtleties.  Now  I  con¬ 
fidently  appeal  to  every  individual  in  this  assembly,  whether  my 
principal,  my  sole  aim,  lias  not  been  to  disentangle  the  evidences  of 
Christianity,  and  every  point  connected  with  this  controversy,  from 
what  was  metaphysical  or  abstract.  In  the  course  of  this  discussion 
have  I  not  tendered  an  issue  to  my  opponent  upon  several  points? 
So  vague  and  indefinite  is  my  opponent  in  the  use  of  his  terms  that  X 
do  not  even  know  what  he  means  by  the  word  fact.  [ Here  Mr.  Owen % 
defines  a  fact  to  be  that  which  exists.]  Well,  now,  we  have  my 
friend’s  definition  of  the  word  fact ;  he  tells  us  a  fact  is  that  which 
exists;  but  I  apprehend  that  no  philologist  will  assent  to  this  definition 
of  the  word.  At  this  time  my  opponent  relies  upon  twelve  facts, 
which  are  to  subvert  all  other  historic  facts  and  evidences,  in  the 
world .  These  twelve  facts,  then,  must  be  more  puissant  than  Aaron’s 
rod;  than  the  ten  categories  of  Aristotle;  than  the  twelve  tables 
of  the  Decem-viri ;  than  the  precepts  of  the  decalogue ;  or  any  code 
of  laws  or  system  of  legislation  ever  invented.  For,  by  these  twelve 
facts,  every  religious  impression  is  to  be  obliterated;  every  religious 
idea  is  to  be  annihilated.  Upon  these  twelve  facts  are  predicated  au 
entirely  new  theory  of  man,  and  a  universal  moral  renovation.  Some¬ 
times  these  are  twelve  divine  laws  of  human  nature ;  sometimes  twelve 
logical  propositions  to  be  demonstrated;  and  then  twelve  facts  more 
potent  than  the  rod  of  Moses.  But  out  of  all  these  twelve  wonderful 
facts,  where  is  the  tangible  fact  before  us?  We  have  been  told  that 
a  fact  is  that  which  exists ;  but  a  stone  exists,  and  so  does  a  tree,  an 
idea,  an  opinion.  But  can  we  logically  say  that  an  opinion  is  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  fact?  Definitions  of  this  character  are  to  be  found  in  the  wri¬ 
tings  of  the  commentators  upon  the  Justinian  code;  definitions 
which  serve  no  other  purpose  but  to  obscure  the  text.  We  must  have 
a  more  logical  definition  than  this :  a  fact  is  that  which  exists.  Stones, 
trees,  and  opinions  exist,  and  are  all  these  alike  to  be  considered  as 
mattersjof  fact?  But  my  friend  has  conceived  twelve  imaginations; 
he  has  had  twelve  pretty  dreams  about  human  nature ;  and  on  these 
he  has  ventured  to  predicate  every  thing  necessary  to  the  happiness 
of  man.  Now  suppose  Mr.  Owen  should  attempt  to  prove  that  there 
never  was  such  a  man  as  General  Washington,  and  no  such  historic 
fact  as  the  American  Revolution,  and  no  such  monumental  commem¬ 
orative  institution  as  the  annual  celebration  of  the  fourth  of  July  ; 
that  there  never  existed  an  Emperor  Augustus,  or  an  Emperor  Napo¬ 
leon  ;  suppose,  I  repeat,  that  he  should  undertake  to  prove  that  Wash- 

IT*  ' 


DEBATE. 


lU' 

ington,  the  father  of  his  country,  the  great  moral  hero,  never  existed, 
and  that  the  United  States  have  never  been  emancipated  from  the 
thraldom  of  the  parent  country;  it  would,  I  contend,  be  just  as  logi¬ 
cal,  as  pertinent,  and  as  rational  in  Mr.  Owen  to  adduce  these  twelve 
facts  in  evidence  that  all  these  matters  of  history  were  mere  fictions 
and  fables,  as  to  attempt  to  prove  by  the  adduction  of  his  twelve  laws 
of  human  nature,  that  the  facts  on  which  religion  is  predicated,  never 
had  existence.  There  appears  to  me  to  be  just  as  much  logic,  rea¬ 
son.  and  good  sense,  in  the  one  process  of  demonstration  as  in  the 
other. 

All  my  anticipations  have,  in  the  course  of  this  discussion,  been 
entirely  disappointed.  I  did  expect  to  have  matters  of  fact  plainly, 
rationally,  and  logically  presented.  I  did  expect  to  witness  a  power¬ 
ful  display  of  that  reason  which  sceptics  so  much  adore.  Now  judge 
of  my  mortification  in  finding  nothing  presented  to  me  but  intangible 
yerbiage;  in  discovering  that  my  friend  uses  terms  and  phrases  in  a 
eense  entirely  at  variance  with  their  received  interpretation  and  com¬ 
mon  acceptation;  in  a  sense  irreconcileable  to  what  we  call  the  com¬ 
mon  sense  of  mankind.  I  see  plainly  that  there  is  nothing  left  for 
me  but  to  proceed  to  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  of  presenting  the 
true  grounds  and  solid  reasons  on  which  we  Christians  build  our 
faith. 

Christianity  is  universally  represented  to  be  matter  of  belief — and 
belief  always  requires  testimony.  Now,  the  question  is,  whether  the 
Christian  belief  is  rationale  Christianity  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  treatise 
on  chemistry,  or  botany,  or  mathematics ;  but  it  makes  a  demand  upon 
our  faith ;  and  is,  simply,  belief  predicated  upon  testimony.  All  that  it 
requires  is,  to  examine  its  evidences;  and  the  principal  end  and  aim 
proposed  in  this  discussion  to  which  the  public  has  been  invited,  was 
an  examination  into  the  evidences  of  Christianity. 

It  is  conceded  that  our  religion  is  built  upon  faith,  and  therefore  all 
that  can  be  legitimately  inquired  into,  on  this  topic,  is,  whether  this 
is  a  faith  which  a  man,  in  possession  of  his  intellectual  powers,  and 
his  five  senses,  can  rationally  entertain;  whether  a  man  of  a  sound 
mind  can  reasonably  be  a  Christian.  I  presume  this  to  be  the  true 
pridicament  of  this  discussion  in  its  present  stage.  The  question  is. 
Whether  to  be  Christians  we  must  become  dreaming  enthusiasts,  and 
the  mere  creatures  of  wild  imagination?  or,  on  the  other  hand,  Can 
we  be  Christians  on  rational  evidence  and  irrefutable  testimony?  I 
think  I  should  be  almost  willing  to  leave  it  to  a  jury  of  twelve  scep¬ 
tics  to  decide  whether  or  not  this  is  the  legitimate  question  to  be  dis¬ 
cussed  here.  The  question  before  us  is,  whether  or  not  testimony  on 
which  Christianity  is  built,  is  of  a  character  to  carry  conviction  to 
rational  minds;  if  so,  every  rational  man  must  believe  Christianity; 
if  otherwise,  he  must  reject  it,  I  maintain  that  there  is  no  other 
question  at  present  before  us.  Now,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  inqui¬ 
ry,  I  have  laid  myself  fairly  open  to  the  detection  of  any  fallacy  into 
which  I  may  chance  to  fall.  I  have  invited  any  gentleman  who  may 
^e  in  possession  of  any  historic,  philosophic,  or  logical  objection,  to 


DEBATE. 


195 


my  argumentlo  adduce  it  either  orally  or  in  writing;  and  I  now  reiter¬ 
ate  the  pledge  to  meet  fairly,  every  fair  and  logical,  objection.  I  con¬ 
tend  that  I  now  stand  upon  the  proper  ground.  I  am  not  afraid  that 
if  all  the  lights  of  science  were  radiated  upon  Christianity,  that  any 
fallacy  could  be  detected;  but  I  contend  this  is  no  scientific  question 
for  scientific  men  to  differ  and  speculate  upon.  I  contend  that  the 
legitimate  grounds  on  which  Christianity  is  to  be  founded,  are  those 
which  have  been  stated.  We  yesterday  progressed  so  far  in  the  ar¬ 
gument  introduced,  as  to  inquire  at  you,  if  there  were  an  individual 
nmong  you  who  could  be  induced  to  set  apart  one  hour  of  his  time, 
or  one  lamb  of  his  flock,  or  to  plant  a  single  straw  in  the  ground,  i:i 
perpetual  commemoration  of  a  fact  which  never  did  occur. 

I  will  venture  to  assert  that  if  the  people  of  Cincinnati  were  to 
erect  twelve  stone  pillars  upon  the  bank  of  the  Ohio,  commemorative 
of  the  fact  that  the  first  founders  of  this  city  passed  over  the  refluent 
waters  of  the  Ohio,  as  over  dry  land;  took  possession  of  this  cite,  and 
here  located  themselves  permanently ;  Isay,  these  twelve  stones  erect¬ 
ed  in  perpetual  attestation  of  this  supposed  matter  of  fact  would  not 
be  permitted  to  stand  for  one  year.  Such  monuments  would  shock 
the  common  sense  of  little  boys,  and  they  would  prostrate  them.  I 
do  not  believe  they  could  keep  their  monuments  standing  even  a  sin¬ 
gle  day.  But  there  is  a  nation  now  existing,  which  derives  its  origin 
from  a  period  of  more  remote  antiquity  than  that  in  which  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  the  Chaldean,  the  Medo-Persian,  the  Grecian,  Roman,  or 
any  other  empire  of  antiquity  was  laid.  Every  living  vestige  of  these 
once  great  and  mighty  empires  of  antiquity  has  disappeared ;  and 
there  does  not  now  exist  the  man  who  can  trace  up  his  lineage  to 
any  Greek  or  Roman  progenitors,  notwithstanding  the  ample  means 
possessed  by  these  nations  of  perpetuating  the  memory  of  their  national 
existence  and  grandeur. 

But  the  Jewish  nation  is  still  in  existence,  and  we  see  them  still 
holding  fast  their  venerable  oracles,  which  were  delivered  to  them 
four  thousand  years  ago,  and  able  to  trace  up  their  ancestry  to  old 
Abraham  and  Sarah.  We  discover  them  still  devotedly  attached 
to  a  religion  so  admirably  contrived  that  it  does  not  contain  a  type 
nor  a  symbol  which  was  not  designed  for  its  perpetuation,  and  which 
does  not  prove  it  to  be  divine. 

The  Jewish  is,  indeed,  a  nation  sui generis,  the  only  nation  we  know 
of,  whose  records  are  coetaneous  with  their  primitive  origin.  These 
records  were  most  solemnly  deposited  in  that  sacred  chest,  under  the 
cherubim  ot  glory,  which  none  but  the  consecrated  high  priest  dare 
approach.  In  this  sacred  chest  were  deposited  the  two  tables  of  the 
covenant  in  the  hand-wri  ring  of  Jehovah.  These  records  not  only  con¬ 
stituted  all  the  religion  of  the  country,  but  the  whole  of  the  civil  and 
municipal  polity  of  their  repository  was  that  sacred  chest,  which  was 
awful  and  terrible,  and  calculated  to  inspire  reverence  in  the  minds 
of  the  men  and  women  who  had  witnessed  every  important  fact  that 
was  therein  inserted;  persons  who  had  witnessed  two  millions  of  their 
countrymen  passing  through  the  dry  channel  of  the  Red  Sea ;  who 


1®, 


DEBATE. 


had  heard  the  voice  of  God  and  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  ';  who  had 
seen  two  millions  sustained  in  the  wilderness  for  forty  years  by  £ 
miracle;  who  had  witnessed  the  miraculous  passage  over  the  Jordan. 
These  were  facts  which  caused  the  hearts  of  the  natives  to  quake  be- 
jfore  the  army  of  the  Israelites,  so  that  they  gave  up  their  possessions 
ip  them  almost  without  resistance.  The  annals  of  this  nation,  coe- 
taneous  with  their  existence,  have  been  wonderfully  preserved ;  their 
religion  alone  has  preserved  these  records.  Moreover  the  Jews  have 
been  made  to  .hold  these  oracles  in  such  a  manner  as  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  any  collusion  between  them  and  Christianity. 

Never  was  there  such  a  climax  of  evidence  presented.  I  am  now 
looking  back  four  thousand  years ;  and  am  showing  that  from  the  re¬ 
motest  periods  of  antiquity  there  never  has  existed  the  possibility  of 
imposition  in  regard  to  these  facts;  in  proof  of  this,  I  contend  that  it 
is  impossible  to  impose  upon  any  people  the  solemn  and  perpetual  ob¬ 
servance  of  an  institution  commemorative  of  a  circumstance  that 
never  did  occur.  I  defy  Mr.  Owen  to  produce  the  instance  on  record 
which  goes  to  refute  this  position ;  or  the  historic  fact  possessing  the 
|bur  criteria  which  can  be  proved  to  be  false.*  But  all  the  evidences 
are  not  yet  before  you. 

What  is  the  philosophic  character  of  this  religion  ?  Previously  to 
the  patriarchal  revelations,  it  is  presumable  that  there  was  not  in  the 
whole  vocabulary  of  human  speech  terms  expressive  of  the  character 
and  purposes  of  God  or  of  spiritual  ideas.  In  revealing  religion  to 
5 nan  it  became  necessary  to  give  him  also  a  new  vocabulary.  This 
Yvas  executed,  as  we  teach  children  by  signs,  the  arts  of  reading  and 
writing.  We  will  take  our  illustration  from  the  philosophy  of  a 
child’iT primer  book.  There  we  find  the  picture  of  a  house,  a  tree, 
lamb,  &c.  &c.  Now  what  does  this  mean?  Is  it  intended  merely 
to  amuse  the  child?  No:  it  is  predicated  upon  the  philosophy  of  his 
nature — upon  the  supposition  that  the  infant,  in  order  to  associate 
ideas,  must  have  the  aid  of  sensible  characters.  There  is  much 
philosophy  implied  in  the  invention  of  a  child’s  primer.  The  idea  or 
a  house  is  presented  to  the  child  in  a  diagram  ol  an  inch  square. 

•Mr.  Dennison  of  Cincinnati,  a  learned  and  intelligent  teacher  of  the  Christian 
religion,  gave  me  the  following  statement — UA  sceptical  gentleman,  in  Scot¬ 
land,  spent  twenty  years  in  scrutinizing  the  history  of  all  nations  and  all  reli¬ 
gions,  to  obtain  the  knowledge  cf  facts,  or  miracles,  which  might  be  tested  by 
the  same  criteria  by  which  the  advocates  of  Christianity  test  the  facts  adduced 
to  sustain  the  credibility  of  the  scriptures  composing  the  Old  and  New  Testa¬ 
ments.  He  imagined  that  he  could  subvert  the  whole  system  of  Christianity, 
by  showing  that  the  fictitious  miracles,  alleged  by  the  Pagans,  Mahometans 
sod  others,  to  have  been  performed  in  attestation  of  the  truth  of  religions  ac¬ 
knowledged  by  Christians  to  be  false,  are  as  well  entitled  to  credence  as  those 
facts  on  which  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion  is  predicated.  But  his  labori¬ 
ous  researches  and  investigations,  during  this  long  period,  resulted  in  an  inge* 
nious  confession  of  his  total  inability  to  accomplish  his  design,  in  a  complete 
assurance  of  the  truth  and  divine  origin  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  in  a  pub¬ 
lic  profession  of  faith  in  Christ.  Such  is  the  force  of  truth  on  minds  po^ 
entirely  blinded  by  prejudice,  theory,  or  preconceived  opinions.” 


DEBATE. 


Yd  1 


Thus  the  child  discovers  that  a  house  can  be  represented  artificially 
in  so  small  a  compass ;  and  thus  the  way  is  prepared  for  introducing 
into  its  mind  the  use  ofliteral  characters;  the  letter  A  being  as  per¬ 
fectly  artificial  as  the  picture  of  a  house.  In  this  way  a  child  is 
taught  to  discriminate  the  elementary  artificial  characters  of  written 
language,  and  then  we  teach  it  the  influence  of  these  characters  in 
combination.  The  introduction  of  the  pictured  primer  book  was  pre¬ 
dicated  upon  such  views  of  the  philosophy  of  the  infant  mind.  And 
what  was  the  picture  presented  by  the  Almighty  in  the  gradual  de- 
velopement  of  those  oracles  of  which  the  Jewish  nation  was  designed 
to  be  the  repository?  It  was  an  altar — then  a  lamb — and  then  a 
Mediator.  The  whole  was  developed  by  pictures  and  symbols. 
What  were  the  altar,  sacrifice,  lamb,  and  priest,  but  so  many  pictures 
presented  to  the  mind?  It  was  therefore  necessary  that  God  should 
proceed  on  this  plan,  and  teach  this  people  a  new  language,  different 
from  that  in  which  Adam  was  instructed.  It  now  became  necessary 
that  a  language  of  symbols  should  be  adopted ;  and  for  this  purpose 
God  presented  these  pictures  to  their  minds.  Hence  a  house  was 
erected  and  filled  with  these  symbols.  There  was  not  a  pin  in  that 
house,  nor  any  article  of  furniture,  nor  any  garment,  nay,  not  a  loop, 
or  a  button,  that  was  not  prefigure  J  to  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai — and 
all  exhibited  to  him,  as  Paul  says,  as  patterns  of  things  in  the  heavens. 
These  their  religion  taught  them  to  regard  with  the  deepest  rever¬ 
ence.  But  the  Jews  did  not  understand  the  import  of  the  symbols 
which  they  thus  reverenced ;  and  this  proves  the  absence  of  all  fraud 
and  collusion.  If  they  had  understood  the  meaning  of  these  symbols 
and  could  have  reasoned  clearly  from  them  to  the  things  symbolized, 
there  might  he  some  ground  to  suspect  collusion.  But  the  striking 
fact  is,  that  the  nation  which  built  the  temple  did  not  understand  the 
symbols  which  it  contained ;  and  nothing  could  open  their  under¬ 
standings  to  the  apprehension  of  their  import  until  one  stood  in  that 
temple  and  took  the  veil  which  separated  the  visible  from  the  invisible, 
and  rent  it  in  twain ;  showing  them  afterwards  what  Moses  and  the 
prophets  did  mean.  If  sceptics  understood  this,  they  could  no  longer 
doubt  the  truth  of  Christianity.  All  plausible  objections  I  am  willing 
to  examine;  but  those  reasonings  and  speculations  of  Mr.  Owen  upon 
the  social  system  are  no  more  objections  to  the  truth  of  Christianity 
than  are  the  Allegany  protuberances  to  the  theory  cf  the  earth’s 
sphericity.  They  are  objections  analogous  in  character  to  those  of 
the  old  woman  who  would  not  believe  in  the  revolutions  of  our  planet 
because  she  never  yet  saw  her  garden  round  to  the  front  of  the  house. 
There  can  be  no  substantial  argument  urged  against  the  verity  of 
these  stupendous  facts  recorded  in  the  annals  of  God’s  chosen  people. 
The  existing  observance  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  is  of  i/self  suiiicient 


to  silence  all  cavillers,  and  to  convince  every  man  capable  of  appre¬ 
ciating  the  weight  of  historic  evidence,  that  there  could  not  have  l  ecu 
fraud,  or  collusion,  or  imposition,  in  the  recorded  facts  concerning 

This  evidence,  in  my  csti ma¬ 


ths  origin  and  roligi  m  of  this  nation 


ion 


5 


is- invested  with  a  solemn  dignity,  and  1  often  regard  it  as  the 


196 


©DEBATE, 


focus  into  which  all  the  divine  light  of  revelation  is  concentrated. 
Every  part  of  the  record  conveys  to  my  mind  irresistible  evidence  that 
Moses  was  commissioned  by  God,  and  that  the  Jewish  religion  is  a 
divine  revelation. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

My  Friends — -You  see  these  two  books  which  I  hold  in  my  hands; 
here  is  one,  and  here  is  the  other;  do  these  two  books  added  together 
make  three  books  or  two?  Now  do  you  suppose  that  if,  after  such 
demonstration  as  this,  I  were  to  preach  to  you  for  many  years,  I  could 
ever  succeed  in  convincing  you  that  one  added  to  one  made  three? 
Now  this  is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  difference  between  Mr.  Camp¬ 
bell’s  arguments  and  my  own.  I  place  most  distinctly  and  palpably 
before  you  the  fact  that  one  and  one  make  two— Mr.  Campbell,  in 
conformity  with  his  early  impressions,  is  exerting  all  his  rhetoric  to 
persuade  you  to  believe  that  one  and  one  make  three ;  and  this  errone¬ 
ous  belief  was  forced  into  his  mind  by  his  early  training  and  subsequent 
education — he  could  not  avoid  receiving  it,  and  how  can  he  help 
retaining  it.  He  has  truly,  therefore,  been  using  great  ingenuity  in 
attempts  to  convince  you  that  facts  are  not  facts,  as  we  see  them ;  but 
that  one  and  one  make  three. 

Let  us,  however,  my  friends,  try  and  get  back  to  the  investigation 
of  facts,  for  these  alone  can  give  us  real  knowledge.  We  will  there¬ 
fore  proceed  to  the  investigation  of  the  sixth  law  of  our  nature, 
which  is  one  of  those  divine  laws  that  we  are  now  to  analyze,  and 
which  is  moreover  one  of  those  stumbling  blocks,  one  of  those  diffi¬ 
culties  which  Mr.  Campbell  cannot  get  over;  one  of  those  things 
w  hich  he  calls  intangible ,  because  he  can  make  no  impression  upon 
them. 

This  sixth  law’  is,  “That  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  he  must 
believe  according  to  the  strongest  impressions  that  can  be  made  upon 
his  feelings,  and  other  faculties,  while  his  belief,  in  no  case,  depends 
upon  his  will.’5  Now  Mr.  Campbell  has  very  justly  told  you  that  reli¬ 
gion  is  predicated  entirely  upon  faith,  and  thus  we  come  in  direct 
contact  with  each  other.  We  cannot  escape  direct  collision.  When 
I  once  have  oeeular  proof  that  one  and  one  make  two,  there  is  no 
|ower  on  earth  that  can  convince  me  they  make  three.  After  our 
eccular  sense  has  become  fully  possessed  of  the  truth  of  this  simple 
■ferct,  we  may  go  farther,  and  say,  that  if  all  the  divines  and  all  the 
religions  in  the  world  were  to  say  that  one  and  one  make  three,  we 
would  find  it  impossible  so  far  to  control  our  will  as  to  believe  it. 
Now  when  I  know  that  [  have  not  one  particle  of  power  over  my 
belief;  that  what  I  shall  be  compelled  to  believe  has  never,  in  the 
slightest  degree,  depended  upon  my  will,  how  is  it  possible  for  me  to 
Relieve  that  the  being  who  formed  me  and  created  my  nature,  and 
subjected  it  to  the  resistless  influence  of  this  sixth  law,  can  even 
attribute  either  merit  or  demerit  to  any  belief  whatever?  I  could 
bring  this  discussion  just  now  to  a  very  short  point,  but  I  think  it 
Would  be  a  pity  to  have  it  closed  so  soon.  Now  the  question  is  really 


DEBATE. 


*99 


this,  Have  we  the  power  to  believe  or  disbelieve  at  our  will,  or  not? 
If  we  have  not  the  power  to  believe  or  disbelieve  at  our  will,  then 
surely  all  religions  are  false  and  originate  in  ignorance.  Now  if  we 
have  the  power  to  will  as  we  please,  and  if  we  have  the  power  to 
believe  at  will,  should  Mr.  Campbell,  to  whom  we  are  all  already 
so  much  indebted,  only  have  the  kindness,  in  addition  to  his  former 
good  offices,  to  believe  for  five  minutes  that  the  whole  of  Christianity 
is  false,  then  I  will  admit  that  we  have  the  power  to  believe  at  will. 
If  Mr.  Campbell,  with  all  the  energy  of  will  which  he  can  com¬ 
mand,  will  only  force  himself  to  believe  for  live  minutes  that  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  a  fable  and  a  falsehood,  I  will  give  up  the  contest,  and 
admit  that  I  have  not  proved  my  point.  But,  perhaps,  this  would  be 
tasking  his  feelings  and  prejudices  too  severely;  and  therefore  we 
will  only  ask  him  to  be  so  kind  as  to  believe  just  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  that  Mahomet  was  a  true  prophet  sent  of  God. 

But  all  jesting  apart.  Whenever  we  shall  rightly  understand  this 
subject,  and  shall  know  what  manner  of  beings  we  are,  we  shall  dis¬ 
cover  that  the  question  of  religion  or  no  religion  depends  entirely 
upon  our  power  of  belief  or  disbelief.  It  is  not  a  metaphysical  ques¬ 
tion.  Any  one  can  ascertain  the  real  merits  of  it  for  himself.  If  we 
have  the  power  of  changing  our  belief  at  pleasure  it  is  possible  that 
religion  may  be  true;  but  if  the  Christian,  like  the  Mahometan,  is 
compelled  to  believe  in  his  district  religion,  then  religion  must  be 
false,  and  the  first  gleam  of  right  reason  which  we  shall  acquire 
will  show  us  the  extent  of  the  errors  in  which,  on  these  subjects,  the 
world  has  been  involved. 

I  am  willing  to  rest  the  merits  of  the  whole  controversy  upon  this 
single  affirmative  proposition,  “That  no  human  being  ever  had  the 
power  of  belief  or  disbelief  at  his  will,  and  therefore  there  cannot  be 
merit  nor  demerit  in  any  belief.*’  This  is  now  the  isolated  point  of 
controversy  between  me  and  my  opponent.  This  is  the  real  battle 
ground,  and  the  only  arena  in  which  my  friend  and  myself’  can 
engage  in  combat.  Every  discussion  irrelevant  to  this  point  is  a 
mere  vain  and  useless  multiplication  of  words  to  amuse  our  fancy, 
to  darken  our  understanding,  and  to  waste  our  time. 

If  any  one  in  this  assembly  will  come  forward  and  adduce  any  fact 
to  prove  that  you  can  at  all  change  your  belief,  some  system  of  reli¬ 
gion  or  other  may  be  true — But  if  you  cannot  adduce  a  fact  of  this 
character,  your  belief  in  religion  proves  you  to  be  in  the  grossest 
darkness.  Until  you  can  trace  the  consequence  which  the  acquisition 
of  self-knowledge  leads  to,  you  can  know  nothing  with  regard  to 
yourselves.  Do  you  suppose  that  this  self-knowledge  will  be  injuri¬ 
ous  to  you?  No,  my  friends,  “Know  iky  self f  was  the  most  heavenly 
precept  the  world  has  ever  heard.  It  is  the  foundation,  and  the  only 
possible  foundation  for  a  pure  and  genuine  charity.  Tell  me  another 
source  from  whence  true  charity  can  be  derived.  Where  else  will 
you  look  for  the  principles  of  a  charity  that  “thinketh  no  evil that 
finds  an  immediate,  rational,  and  consolatory  excuse  for  the  opinions,, 
manners,  habits,  and  conduct,  of  all  without  one  exception. 


200 


DEBATE. 


If,  therefore,  you  want  to  possess  that  which  is  truly  divine,  get  this* 
charity — a  charity  so  pure  that  when  you  are  trained  in  the  full 
knowledge  of  it,  no  motive  to  crime  will  exist;  no  feeling  of  anger, 
irritation,  or  ill  will  on  the  part  of  any  human  being  towards  any 
other  of  his  race.  When  we  shall  be  trained  in  a  full  knowledge  of 
the  principles  in  which  this  beneficial,  this  admirable  charity  is 
founded,  we  shall,  in  consequence,  have  rational  countenances,  and. 
not  until  then.  Owing  to  the  lamentably  mistaken  manner  in  which 
we  have  been  trained,  we  are  now  filled  with  anger,  and  oftentimes 
with  malevolent  feelings  against  those  who  have  been  taught  to  differ 
from  us  in  sentiment.  What  have  I  not  heard  the  wrorld  unjustly  say 
of  me  and  of  the  motives  which  govern  my  conduct?  But  having 
had  the  knowledge  of  those  principles  given  to  me,  on  which  alone 
true  charity  can  ever  be  founded,  I  have  listened  to  all  these  things 
as  I  would  to  words  upon  any  other  subject.  I  cannot,  except  for  a 
moment,  be  angry  with  those  who  misconceive,  misrepresent,  or 
revile  me;  knowing  that  all  these  things  proceed  from  an  organization, 
and  local  circumstances  acting  upon  it,  which  create  irrational  pre¬ 
judices.  Where,  therefore,  is  the  rational  pretext  for  being  angry? 
From  whence,  then,  under  any  circumstances,  can  arise  the  rational 
pretext,  after  consideration,  for  being  angry  or  displeased  wfith  any 
of  our  fellow  beings?  They  are  coerced  by  a  law  which  they  cannot 
resist,  to  feel,  to  think,  to  act,  and  to  believe,  independently  of  their 
volitions.  r_.. 

These,  my  friends,  are  some  of  the  practical  results  which  I  have 
experienced  and  enjoyed  as  the  natural  fruits  of  a  knowledge  of  these 
divine  laws  of  nature.  The  charity  emanating  directly  from  this 
knowledge  has  given  me  a  patience,  an  equanimity,  and  a  self-pos¬ 
session,  under  a  concurrence  of  trying  circumstances  that  I  am  con¬ 
vinced  no  knowledge  derived  from  any  religious  considerations  could 
have  implanted  within  me.  Therefore,  my  friends,  do  not  suppose 
that  there  is  any  thing  pernicious  in  infidelity ,  so  called ;  for  you  may 
rest  assured  that  the  only  practical  moral  or  intellectual  motives 
capable  of  producing  important  and  permanent  ameliorations  in  soci¬ 
ety,  must  be  deri  ved  from  what  yon  have  been  taught  to  call  Infidelity  \ 
-—but  most  arbitrarily  and  irrationally  taught.  Not,  my  friends, 
that  infidels  of  modern  times  are  much  better  than  other  folks,  but 
the  Christian  shoe  has  been  unriveted  from  their  minds,  and  thus 
they  become  so  circumstanced  as  to  stand  some  chance  of  arriving  at' 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth*,  whilst  the  true  believes,  on  w  hose  minds 
the  shoe  still  remains  fast  riveted,  are  compelled  to  admit  into  them 
many  errors  which  give  a  false  and  in  jurious  direction  to  their  best 
feelings,  while  their  noblest  power,  their  faculty  of  judgment,  is 
suffered  to  lie  latent,  torpid,  buried,  or  misguided.  My  friends, 
would  we  not  be  better  and  happier  beings  if  we  could  remove  far 
from  us  all  anger  and  irritation? — and  wdiat  can  do  this  so  effectually 
as  the  conviction  that  those  who  act  in  the  most  direct  opposition  to 
our  notions  of  right,  are  not  the  objects  of  blame,  but  of  our  charity,  • 
our  sincerest  pity  and  compassion?  To  me  the  present  appears  a 


/ 

/ 


DEBATE, 


201 


most  singular  era.  The  annals  of  the  world  do  not  afford  a  parallel 
to  the  assembly  this  day  congregated  in  this  place^  Before  me  are 
hundreds  collected  together  from  various  quarters  of  the  world,  who 
have  all  been  trained  in  notions  peculiar  to  themselves ;  and  yet  they 
sit  here  quietly  and  decorously  to  hear  discussed  doctrines  in  direct 
hostility  to  all  their  early-taught  religious  prejudices  and  opinions. 
This  is  the  first  time  such  a  thing  has  occurred  in  the  annals  of  history. 
If. I  had  attempted  fifty  years  ago  to  have  addressed  a  popular  assem¬ 
bly  in  the  style  that,  prompted  by  a  love  of  truth  and  by  the  deep 
interest  I  feel  in  promoting  the  happiness  of  my  species,  I  have 
ventured  to  do  on  this  occasion,  it  is  most  probable  I  should  have  been 
torn  to  pieces;  and  yet  I  just  as  much  deserve  to  be  torn  to  pieces 
to-day  for  speaking  the  truth  without  fear  or  favor  as  fifty  years  ago. 
The  ignorance  and  bigotry  of  our  ancestors  were  so  gross  that  if  any 
individual  had  come  forward  with  the  purest  and  most  philanthropic 
motives  to  promulgate  the  truths  which  you  have  heard  from  me  in 
this  place,  he  would  most  certainly  have  been  burnt  alive  or  torn  to 
pieces.  The  advance  of  the  human  mind  in  certain  branches  of  real 
knowledge  since  that  period,  has  produced  this  difference  of  feeling* 
and  convinces  me  that  we  are  approximating  to  a  greatly  improved 
period  of  human  existence,  call  it,  if  you  please,  the  Millennium. 
What  I  mean  to  state  is,  that  our  minds  are  in  a  rapidly  progressive^ 
state  of  preparation  for  the  admission,  discussion,  comparison,  analy¬ 
sis,  and  thorough  comprehension  of  simple  facts,  a  knowledge  of 
which  can  alone  produce  intelligence,  virtue,  good  feelings  and  sin 
cere  affection  among  mankind.  Indeed,  I  see  very  plainly  every 
step  of  the  practice  by  which  this  state  of  general  happiness  is  to  be 
attained.  And  the  first  preparatory  step  is  that  all  men  should  be 
disabused  of  the  errors  implanted  by  their  early  local  circumstances 
and  instruction,  in  order  that  their  knowledge  should  be  all  founded 
in  facts,  and  not  derived,  as  now,  from  the  imaginations  of  our 
ignorant  ancestors  who  were  without  the  valuable  experience  acquired 
since  their  day.  If  I  could  so  far  impress  upon  the  people  of  Cincin- 
atti  the  value  of  the  knowledge  to  be  derived  from  the  twelve  funda¬ 
mental  principles  of  human  nature,  derived  from  daily  existing  facts, 
as  to  give  them  a  sufficient  degree  of  interest  to  examine  whether 
ihey  are  true  or  false ;  my  conviction  is  that  a  large  majority,  if  not 
the  whole  population,  would  be  convinced  that  they  are  true.  It 
would  not  then  be  difficult  to  direct  to  the  means  by  which  you  might 
all  become  virtuous,  intelligent,  independent  and  happy.  I  do  not 
sav  that  this  change  could  be  effected  in  you  to  the  same  extent  that; 
your  adoption  of  these  laws  in  practice  would  enable  you  to  effect  in 
your  children.  The  latter  would  have  so  little  comparatively  to  un¬ 
learn  in  habit,  and  to  unassociate  in  their  minds,  that  they  would  soon 
exhibit  to  you  a  §tate  of  human  happiness  and  enjoyment  of  which  it 
has  never  entered  into  the  heart  cf  man  to  conceive^— and  this  happi¬ 
ness  of  theirs,  after  a  short  time,  would  be  so  strongly  reflected  back 
upon  yourselves,  that  a  large  increase  of  happiness  would  accrue  to 
you.  My  friendst,  this  js  chimera  existing  only  in  my  imagine 


202 


DEBATE. 


lion.  No  \  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  this  beautiful  effect  pro¬ 
duced  upon  a  whole  population.  I  have  seen  the  children  of  some  of 
the  most  ignorant  and  deformed  in  their  habits  and  conduct  more 
amiable,  interesting,  and  happy,  than  the  most  sanguine  could  antici¬ 
pate  under  the  other  injurious  circumstances  in  which  they  were 
placed,  and  have  seen  that  happiness  and  the  influence  of  the  superior 
characters  which  were  formedybr  these  children,  most  strongly  and 
most  beneficially  reflected  back  upon  their  parents. 

Mr.  Campbell’s  next  address. 

That  my  opponent  labors  under  some  sort  of  mental  illusion  is  mos-t 
apparent  from  his  style  of  reasoning  and  argument.  He  has  held 
£avo  books  before  your  eyes,  and  asked  you  if  he  did  not  hold  one 
in  either  hand,  and  whether  one  plus  one  equal  three?  Nowr,  in 
the  name  of  common  sense,  what  bearing  had  this  occular  appeal 
upon  the  subject  matter  in  controversy  ?  What  is  the  extent  of  the 
mental  hallucination  exhibited  by  Mr.  Owen  ?  It  seems  to  me  to  be 
of  a  character  with  that  of  the  herbalist  who  wrould  attempt  to  ascer¬ 
tain  the  specific  gravity  of  his  simples  by  the  use  of  a  yard  stick ;  or 
like  that  of  the  vintner  who  should  attempt  to  ascertain  the  number  of 
cubic  inches  in  one  of  his  casks  by  the  use  of  pounds  avoirdupois. 
Of  such  a  character  is  the  illusion  which  perverts  Mr.  Chven’s  un¬ 
derstanding.  Is  it  an  arithmetical  question  that  we  have  before  us? 
Or  are  we  to  test  the  verity  of  historic  facts  by  the  use  of  mathema¬ 
tical  demonstrations?  Have  we  uttered  any  thing  so  absurd  as  the 
proposition  that  one  book  plus  one  book  equal  three  books?  But  what 
Was  the  argument  to  which  my  opponent  alluded,  as  involving  this 
absurdity  ?  So  far  from  attempting  any  refutation  of  our  arguments, 

I  cannot  discover  that  he  makes  the  slightest  allusion  to  them  in  his 
discourses.  He  does  not  deny  that  all  religion  is  built  upon  faith. 
Now,  is  this  proposition  as  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  our  senses,  as 
that  these  two  books  make  three  books?  I  repeat  that  all  religion 
purports  to  be  established  upon  testimony :  and  I  ask  again,  Wherein 
is  this  proposition  repugnant  to  reason?  Wherein  is  it  assimilated  to 
the  proposition  that  one  book  added  to  another  makes  three  books? 
Why  this  is  equal  ingenuity  to  the  boy  who  tried  to  convince  his  father 
by  his  logic  that  the  two  ducks  on  the  table  made  three;  and  after  the 
old  gentlemen  had  heard  the  demonstration,  he  said  to  the  lad’s 
mother,  “Do  you  take  one  duck,  and  I  will  take  the  other,  and  Bob 
may  have  the  third  for  his  logic!”  I  am  willing  to  concede  to  my 
opponent  equal  merit  and  reward  for  his  logic”  but  1  protest  against 
stas  altogether  impertinent  to  the  subject  matter  of  this  debate.  In¬ 
deed,  I  apprehended  from  the  confidence  of  my  friend’s  manner,  wrhen 
he  held  up  the  two  books,  that  he  was  about  to  apply  some  touchstone, 
cr  test,  whereby  I  might  be  discomfited ;  but  w  hat  was  mv  surprize  at 
only  finding  myself  opposed  by  this  same  old  sixth  fact !  And  w  hat 
is  the  mighty  import  of  this  sixth  law'?  It  does  not  even  purport  to  . 
be  any  thing  more  than  an  assertion  that  our  belief  is  independent  of 
one  volitions. 


DEBATE, 


•203 


Bat  my  opponent  seems  to  imagine  that  his  bare  assertion  of  this 
Ihctis  sufficient  to  carry  conviction  to  every  mind.  Mr.  Owen  has 
asked  me  to  believe  Christianity  untrue  for  five  minutes.  Now  look  at 
the  illusion  here.  The  question  is  not,  Are  we  able  to  disbelieve ,  or 
discard  our  pre-existing  belief  \  from  our  minds  at  will?  In  order  to 
see,  it  is  as  necessary  to  have  rays  of  light  as  the  organs  of  vision. 
Now  if  my  opponent  had  asked  me  to  believe  for  a  moment  that 
the  Sun  was  not  now  shining,  and  afterwards  triumphed  at  the 
impossibility  of  the  thing,  what  would  it  all  amount  to?  Would 
it  prove  that  the  fact  of  seeing  was  in  all  cases  independent  of 
volition?  But,  I  contend,  that  our  volitions  have  as  much  control 
over  the  mental  as  the  corporeal  eye.  I  admit  that  frequently  our 
eyesight  is,  perhaps,  involuntarily  exercised.  But  from  these  par¬ 
ticular  premises,  am  I  to  argue  to  the  general  conclusion,  that  in  no 
case  whatever  is  my  belief,  or  my  vision,  under  the  control  of  my 
volition.  Have  I  not  documented  with  proof  that  my  belief  in  testi¬ 
mony  is  as  much  under  the  control  of  my  volition,  as  are  my  ac¬ 
quisitions  in  any  department  of  science?  I  know,  indeed,  that  if 
I  am  sitting  in  a  room,  and  a  person  open  the  door,  and  suddenly 
present  a  mopkey  before  my  eyes,  I  cannot  help  seeing  it.  In  like 
manner,  a  person  may  suddenly  enter  my  room,  and  announce  to  me 
an  interesting  fact.  From  the  high  character  of  the  narrator,  and 
other  adjuncts  accompanying  the  fact,  I  may  not  be  able  to  withhold 
my  belief  in  it ;  but  is  it  a  logical  conclusion  from  these  particular  pre¬ 
mises,  that  I  must  necessarily,  in  every  instance ,  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  facts,  and  see  monkejrs,  without  the  least  exercise  of  volition.  It  Ls 
contrary  to  all  correct  principles  of  reasoning  to  argue  thus  from 
particulars  to  generals.  Who  does  not  know  that  we  may  occasion¬ 
ally  acquire  knowledge  without  the  exercise  of  volition?  But  our 
acquisitions  of  information,  made  in  this  way,  do  not  constitute  a 
thousandth  part  of  our  stock  of  knowledge  acquired  in  the  ordinary 
natural  way;  viz.  by  a  voluntary  exercise  of  our  senses.  Mr.  Owea 
cannot  sustain  his  position,  because,  for  one  case  which  he  may  ad¬ 
duce  wherein  belief  is  exercised  independently  of  volition,  we  can 
produce  hundreds  wherein  it  is  exercised  voluntarily. 

But  Mr.  Owen  affirms  that  this  is  not  a  metaphysical  question : 
nevertheless  a  metaphysical  question  it  certainly  is.  And  yet  my 
friend  says  he  will  rest  the  truth  of  his  theory  upon  a  metaphysical 
discrimination. 

[Mr.  Owen  said ,  “I  contend  that  it  is  a  question  of  fact^  and  not  * 
metaphysical  question.”] 

[Mr.  Campbell  resumes] — 

Then,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  will  be  necessary  to  have  a  new  vocabula¬ 
ry.  But  I  am  perfectly  willing  that  the  argument  should  be  read  by 
the  public  as  my  opponent  has  presented  it.  It  will  be  for  the  public 
to  decide  whether  it  be  metaphysical  or  not. 

In  the  prosecution  of  my  argument  I  had  advanced  so  far  as  to  de¬ 
monstrate,  1  trust,  that  the  Jewish  religion  Was  divine,  and  that  all  its. 
rites  were  in  their  nature  symbolical  and  prophetic ;  that  the  sacrifice 


204 


DEBATE. 


of  a  lamb,  the  building  of  an  altar,  the  consecration  of  the  priesthood, 
and  the  whole  ritual  of  Moses  were  symbolical  and  prophetic  of  Chris¬ 
tianity;  that  this  ritual  was  designed  to  have  a  two-fold  operation — 
first,  upon  the  generation  thei  living;  and  secondly,  upon  posterity. 
With  the  first  to  keep  up  the  constant  recollection  of  the  divine  insti- 
tions  of  their  religion.  Your  children,  says  Moses,  will  ask  you  what 
is  the  meaning  of  your  eating  the  paschal  lamb;  and  then  you  must 
tell  them  the  circumstances  by  which  you  became  a  nation.  And 
such  was  the  import  of  every  one  of  the  Jewish  institutions.  When 
they  paid  their  five  shekels  per  head,  for  the  redemption  of  the  first¬ 
born,  their  children  were  to  be  informed  that  these  first-born  were 
the  ransomed  of  the  Lord;  and  this  tribute  was  rendered  in  perpetual 
commemoration  of  that  event.  This  is  implied  in  the  rendition  of  this 
tribute  up  to  the  present  time.  Their  successors  were  also  to  be  in# 
informed  that  the|  Pentecost  was  solemnly  observed  as  commemo¬ 
rative  of  the  promulgation  of  the  law  from  Mount  Sinai;  the  feast  of 
the  tabernacles  for  so  many  days,  to  commemorate  that  they  once 
dwelt  in  tents  in  the  wilderness ;  that  on  the  fiftieth  day  after  their 
redemption  they  heard  the  voice  of  God  promulgating  the  law — had 
seen  all  the  accompaniments  of  the  divine  presence,  and  received 
the  autograph  of  their  constitution  from  the  Lord. 

All  these  things  the  children  of  the  Israelites  were  to  be  taught* 
and  they  were  so  contrived  as  to  be  equally  prospective  and  retro¬ 
spective,  so  as  to  preserve  and  conduct  forward  the  miraculous 
evidences  of  their  religion.  Hence  the  deliverance  of  the  children 
of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  their  Pentecost,  and  every  part 
of  their  ritual,  looked  forward  to,  and  anticipated  a  new  state  of 
things,  in  which  a  certain  system  of  existing  realities  was  to  corre¬ 
spond  with  the  past.  Was  there  ever  presented  an  exhibition  of 
wisdom  and  benevolence  comparable  to  this?  Every  part  of  the 
ritual  operates  as  a  commemoration  of  its  divine  institution,  and  to 
produce  faith  in  all  future  generations.  It  was  designed  to  stand  for 
a  perpetual  monument  of  their  miraculous  history  to  the  nations ;  and 
its  consummation  in  the  developement  of  that  order  which  enters  into 
the  constitution  of  the  Christian  religion,  was  as  natural  as  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  the  bird  from  its  shell.  And  thus  the  consummation  of  its 
every  type  is  portrayed  in  the  life,  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension 
of  Christ.  On  these  accounts  we  consider  these  memorials  as  of 
high  moral  power  and  dignity,  and  the  facts  which  they  commemorate 
as  rational  and  demonstrably  established.  You  have  seen  what  all 
the  gatherings  and  gleanings  of  my  opponent  during  a  period  of  forty 
years,  have  enabled  him  to  bring  forward  against  these  evidences. 

With  regard  to  the  means  employed  for  the  preservation  and  per¬ 
petuation  of  these  holy  oracles,  there  were  not  only  the  temple  and  t 
tabernacle,  but  men  set  apart  to  take  care  of  the  record.  And  the 
necessity  of  their  care  emphatically  impressed  upon  them.  This  was  ' 
the  way  to  preserve  it  from  interpolation.  No  man  dare  touch  it  at 
-peril  of  his  life;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  Uzzah  was  struck  dead 


debate. 


2G5 


for  touching  the  chest,  in  which  was  the  safcred  deposite,  to  represent 
the  majesty  of  that  power  which  guarded  it. 

Now,  in  process  of  time,  the  copy  of  this  record  began  to  be  read  in 
every  synagogue.  Their  land,  like  other  countries,  in  time,  became 
too  small  for  its  population.  In  consequence,  they  emigrated,  and 
carried  with  them  their  religion,  their  history,  and  law,  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  These  migrations  caused  the  Jewish  scriptures  to  be  trans¬ 
lated  into  the  Greek  language,  about  300  years  before  the  birth 
of  Christ.  By  the  order  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  the  whole  writings 
of  Moses  and  the  Prophets  were  translated  by  seventy-two  Jews,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  foreign-born  Jews,  and  of  the  proselytes  made  from 
other  nations.  Thus  by  this  singular  wisdom  were  these  oracles 
handed  to  every  nation  under  heaven;  insomuch  that  the  learned 
cages  of  Greece  beca  me  conversant  with  these  oracles.  7'iie 
traversing  all  parts  of  the  earth,  carried  along  with  them  their  reli¬ 
gious  peculiarities ;  thus  ail  nations  were  called  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth  of  these  sacred  scriptures.  This  singular  people  when  contrast¬ 
ed  with  the  philosophic  nations  of  Greece  and  Rome  in  their  notions 
of  God,  exhibit  a  phenomenon  which  can  only  bejexplainecl  on  the  ad¬ 
mission  of  a  supernatural  revelation  being  bestowed  upon  them.  1 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  had  cultivated  philosophy  very  extensive¬ 
ly.  Their  languages  exhibit  the  rpost  polished  intellectual  refinement, 
and  express  every  ramification  of  human  thought ;  they  not  only  in¬ 
vented,  but  compounded  and  remodified  words  so  that  any  idea 
whatever  could  be  forcibly  expressed  thereby.  They  had  cultiva¬ 
ted  science  to  an  extent  far  beyond  any  other  nations;  but  they  had, 
nevertheless,  a  thousand  foolish  superstitions  composing  their  my¬ 
thology.  But  here  were  a  people  called  Jews,  ignorant,  of,  and  con¬ 
temning  philosophy,  who  considered  the  Greeks  absolutely  stupid  and 
blind  in  matters  of  religion.  Yes,  the  acute,  the  polished,  and  re¬ 
fined  Greeks  were  sots  in  theological  matters;  but  the  Jews,  destitute 
of  philosophic  taste  and  acquirements  \yere  nevertheless  in  possession 
of  a  religion  every  way  honorable  to  the  character  of  the  Creator  and 
Governor  of  the  World.  Now  how  is  this  to  be  accounted  for?  A 
polished  nation,  like  the  Greeks,  embracing  a  system  full  of  theolo¬ 
gical  absurdities;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  rude  and  unlettered 
Jews  holding  the  only  rational  views  of  the  Creator,  and  contending 
for  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  God  I! 

But  this  same  people,  being  a  travelling  people,  carried  their  ora¬ 
cles  with  them  every  where;  and  by  this  universal  promulgation  of 
them  communicated  to  all  nations  tho  confident  expectation  that  some 
wonderful  person  was  to  be  born,  through  whose  influence  there  was 
to  be  brought  about  a  universal  revolution  in  society;  through  whom 
a  new  order  of  things  was  to  arise,  and  the  world  be  blest  thereby. — 
For  this  universal  promulgation  of  the  Jewish  record,  all  nations 
£ >ndlv  cherished  the  idea,  that  at  the  very  time  of  the  actual  birth  of 
.the  Messiah,  a  person  in  that  character  should  appear  in  the  land  ef 

18 


206 


DEBATE. 


Judea;  the  Roman  Poet*- sings  of  it;  all  nations  had  arrived  at  au 
uniformity  and  universality  of  anticipation  in  this  matter,  and  in  the 
reign  of  Augustus,  there  was  not  a  nation  which  was  not  as  fully 
prepared  as  the  Jews  to  anticipate  the  advent  of  the  Messiah . 

Adjourned  till  afternoon. 

Thursday ,  April  16,  3  o'clock i*,  P.  M. 

Mr.  Owen’s  next  address. 

My  friends — As  1  mentioned  this  forenoon,  I  might,  with  safety, 
rest  this  portion  of  this  discussion  entirely  upon  the  last  law  that  I 
have  read.  My  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  deems  it  a  metaphysical 
question.  I  conceive  it  to  be  entirely  a  question  of  fact.  And  I 
think  the  whole  point  was  conceded  when  Mr.  Campbell  discovered 
that  he  could  not  disbelieve  Christianity,  or  believe  Mahometanism 
at  will.  However,  it  is  necessary  that  the  subject  should  be  present¬ 
ed  in  every  varied  point  of  view,  in  order  to  enable  men  to  unasso¬ 
ciate  their  early  implanted  ideas  opposed  to  it.  Mr.  Campbell  was  a 
little  surprized  to  discover  that  this  was  one  of  the  old  laws  of  nature 
for  which  I  have  been  contending;  but  truth  is  immutable;  it  is  the 
same  to-day  that  it  ever  has  been,  and  will  ever  continue  to  be. 
Therefore,  in  all  future  preachings,  after  the  truth  shall  be  clearly 
and  fully  developed,  there  will  be  no  occasion  to  have  any  more  texts 
of  scripture  than  is  contained  in  these  twelve  law’s ;  for  they  will  ever 
remain  immutably  true,  and  be  a  foundation  for  an  ample  code  of 
moral  law,  sufficient  to  lead  us  unerringly  to  every  beneficial  practi¬ 
cal  result. 

There  were  a  great  number  of  statements  in  Mr.  Campbell’s  last 
half  hour’s  discussion,  which  I  might  very  easily  refute;  but  as  they 
do  not  in  the  least  concern  the  true  merits  of  the  argument,  I  deem  it 
an  unjustifiable  waste  of  time  to  do  more  than  merely  to  mention 
them.  For  example,  when  Mr.  Campbell  said  he  could  not  avoid 
seeing  the  Sun,  he  committed  a  mistake;  for  he  might  shut  his  eyes, 
and  then  he  could  not  see  it. 

The  last  law  on  w’hich  I  commented,  was  that  which  declares  that 
our  belief  is  involuntary,  and  therefore  all  religions  are  untrue,  as  they 
pre-suppose  our  belief  to  be  voluntary,  or  they  are  perfectly  needless, 
and  mean  nothing.  The  next  law  is,  that  each  individual  is  so  created, 

*Note  by  the  Reporter. — The  harmonious  genius  of  the  Mantuan  bard,  has 
taught  us  in  all  the  charms  of  his  exquisite  muse,  the  expectations  of  the  Roman 
world,  upon  this  subject.  A  few  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  virgil  sings 
of  him  like  one  inspired:  “The  last  age  (saith  he)  is  at  length  arrived,  predic¬ 
ted  by  the  prophetess  of  Cumee.  The  great  order  of  ages  begins  ,to  circle 
anew;  justice  returns  to  the  earth,  and  the  peaceful  reign  of  Saturn;  and  from 
heaven  descends  a  new  and  divine  offspring.  He  shall  rule  the  tranquil  world 
with  his  father’s  virtues.  Soon  the  great  months  shall  begin  to  roll  on,  and 
every  vestige  of  our  former  crimes  shall  be  effaced.  Enter  on  thy  mighty 
work,  O  Son  of  Supreme  Jove,  dear  offspring  of  the  gods.” 

Late  researches  into  the  antiquities  of  Judea,  Persia,  and  China,  show  that  the 
same  traditions  and  hopes  existed  in  the  most  distant  eastern  nations.  Vide 
Asiatic  researches,  Indian  antiquities.  Piere  Hu  Hold’s  history  of  China. 


DEBATE. 


207 


that  he  mast  like  that  which  is  pleasant  to  him,  or  that  which  produces 
agreeable  sensations  on  Ins  individual  organization;  and  he  must 
dislike  that  which  creates  in  him  unpleasant  or  disagreeable  sensa¬ 
tions;  while  he  cannot  discover,  previous  to  experience,  what  those 
sensations  shall  be.  A  large  portion  of  all  the  religions  of  which  I 
know  any  thing,  presuppose  that  man  is  so  created  that  he  can  love 
.or  hate  at  pleasure.  Now  the  law  of  our  nature  is  in  direct  contra¬ 
diction  to  this  notion.  There  are  no  individuals  in  this  assembly  who 
can  like,  be  indifferent  to,  or  dislike  ?ne ,  for  instance,  by  any  effort 
of  the  will  in  opposition  to  the  impressions  which  all  m37  proceedings 
have  already  made  upon  them.  They  are  obliged  to  receive  exactly 
the  impressions  which  my  exterior,  my  manners,  and  my  whole  con¬ 
duct  make  upon  their  individual  organizations;  and  whether  they 
like,  are  indifferent  to,  or  dislike  me,  I  cannot  in  consequence  blame 
them.  And  when  this  principle  of  human  nature  shall  be  understood, 
it  will  be  discovered  to  be  of  the  highest  practical  importance — it  will 
tend  (concurrent^  with  the  one  immediately  preceding)  to  implant 
and  to  root  principles  of  kindness  and  knowledge  so  deeply  in  the 
human  heart  and  understanding,  that  we  shall,  indeed,  have  unlimited 
charity  for  the  whole  family  of  man.  Then,  instead,  of  being  angry 
with  our  children  when  they  have  not  affection  for  us,  we  shall  scru¬ 
tinize  into  the  cause  why  they  clo  not  feel  as  much  love  as  we  wish 
them  to  entertain  for  us;  and  we  shall  look  for  that  cause  in  ourselves. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  scolding;  our  children,  or  of  quarrelling  with 
them,  we  shall  devote  our  attention  to  self-examination,  and  be 
patient,  calm,  kind,  and  affectionate  to  them.  This  is  another  of 
those  invaluable  practical  results  which  will  be  produced  by  our 
obedience  to  these  laws  of  our  nature.  Then,  my  friends,  we  shall 
cease  to  blame  our  children  for  their  feelings,  their  thoughts,  or  their 
actions.  On  the  contrary,  we  shall  be  taught  to  know  that  we  have 
efficacious  means  of  correcting  the  defects  of  our  children,  whether 
organic  or  superinduced  upon  their  defective  organization,  and  this 
without  the  slightest  emotion  of  anger  or  irritation.  And  a  know¬ 
ledge  of  these  laws  or  principles  will  force  the  same  rational  practice 
from  us  to  all  the  rest  of  our  fellow-beings  as  well  as  to  our  offspring. 
There  can  be  no  error,  no  irrationality  in  any  of  our  proceedings, 
when  we  understand  these  laws,  and  that  knowledge  will  compel  us 
to  act  upon  them, 

I  have  now,  perhaps,  proved  sufficiently  in  detail,  that  all  religions 
are  founded  in  direct  opposition  to  the  facts  which  now  exist,  ever 
have  existed,  or  can  exist.  I  am,  therefore,  quite  willing  to  rest  this 
part  of  the  subject  upon  what  has  now  been  presented  to  you  to  prove 
that  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  in  consequence  of  being  altogether 
irreconcileable  to  the  laws  of  human  nature,  are  founded  in  the  igno¬ 
rance  of  man.  The  next  part  of  my  duty  is  to  demonstrate  that  these 
religions  are  the  true  and  only  source  of  all  the  vice  and  misery  which 
have  been  experienced  in  the  world.  The  latter  clause  of  the  pro¬ 
position  is  so  intimately  connected,  so  inseparatety  interwoven  with 
the  former,  that  what  proves  the  one  must  necessarily  prove  the  other. 


:M  DEBATE 

Ffom  the  facts  exhibited  to  you  it  has  been  derribnstpated  that  all 
he*  rdigions  of*  the  world  are  directly  opposed  to  the  never-changing 
laws  of  our  nature*  arid  that  which  compels  men  to  act  unnaturally;, 
must  be  a  never-failing  source  of  error,  contradiction*  vice*  crime,  and 
misery.  In  the  nature  of  things,  as  we  find  them  actually  existing, 
tio  other  result  could  arise.  It  is,  perhaps,  sufficient  to  observe  that 
all  the  religions  of  the  world  are  unnatural, or  contrary  to  the  nature 
of  man  ;  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  all  which  I  have  undertaken  to 
prove,  when  I  show  the  facts,  capable  of  hourly  inspection,  every 
where,  that  man  is  not  the  being  that  all  these  religions  presuppose 
him  to  be.  It  is  here,  my  friends,  1  take  my  stand  upon  all  these 
important  questions.  And  it  is  my  deep-rooted  conviction,  after  forty* 
years  of  the  closest  investigation  of  this  subject,  that  it  is  not  in  the 
power  of  any  man  living  to  prove  any  of  these  facts  untrue,  or  any 
of  the  deductions  from  them  erroneous.  But  you  will  ask  me,  How 
can  religion  be  the  source  of  vice?  My  friends,  I  have  already  told 
you  that  that  which  opposes  the  immutable  laws  of  our  nature,  will 
be  sure  to  be  found,  in  its  consequences,  productive  only  of  vice, 
fleligion  lays  the  foundation  for  hypocrisy,  falsehood,  and  deception 
of  every  description.  Your  spiritual  pastors  tell  you  that  you  must 
believe  according  to  their  fanciful  notions,  and  the  laws  of  your 
nature  are  continually  impelling  you  to  rise  up  in  rebellion  against 
such  instructions.  No  man  likes  to  appear  singular  or  disagreeable 
hi  the  eyes  of  his  fellows,  and  still  less  to  have  the  means  of  his 
subsistence  withdrawn  from  himself  and  family  for  expressing  his 
h oughts ;  and  therefore  men  are  under  a  strong  necessity  to  say  they 
believe  as  their  neighbors  appear  to  believe,  and  to  feel  as  their 
neighbors  and  friends  think  they  ought  to  feel ,  and  from  this  begin¬ 
ning  a  complicated  system  of  falsehood  and  deception  takes  its  rise. 
And  whenever  falsehood  is  thus  implanted  in  our  nature,  it  soon  per¬ 
vades  the  whole  man,  making  his  whole  life  one  continued  lie  to  his 
genuine  thoughts  and  feelings;  his  conduct  and  conversation  are  one 
continued  lie  against  his  nature  ;  and  thus  there  is  an  end  of  all  real 
virtue  among  mankind.  Virtue  and  falsehood,  or  deception  can  never 
exist  well  together.  The  religions  of  the  world  have  produced  such 
an  accumulation  of  irrational  habits,  false  notions,  and  bad  feelings, 
arising  from  this,  as  circumstances  now  are,  unavoidable  hypocrisy, 
ihat  we  cannot  be  in  the  world  without  feeling  the  necessity  to  cover 
our  real  thoughts  and  feelings — without,  in  fact,  living  in  an  atmos¬ 
phere  of  perpetual  falsehood  and  deception.  Our  words,  looks,  and 
actions,  are  scarcely  any  thing  else  but  falsehood  and  deception. 
Who  dares  speak  his  real  sentiments  on  the  subject  of  religion  and 
affections,  without  being  subjected  to  injury  in  his  reputation  and 
property?  Are  not  these  fears  sufficiently  operative  to  deter  men 
and  women  from  speaking  their  real  thoughts  and  feelings?  Talk  not 
to  me  of  virtue  so  long  as  men  and  women  are  compelled,  by  the 
absurdities  of  your  institutions  and  erroneous  conceptions  of  all  things 
around  you,  to  be  insincere  in  their  language  and  deceptious  in  their 
conduct.  Falsehood  and  virtue  can  never  exist  together ;  and  now  your 


debate. 


209 


whole  system  is  false  from  its  foundation  upwards.  Every  profession, 
trade,  or  occupation,  supports  itself  by  its  deceptions.  Where  are 
the  individuals  now  to  be  met  with  who  speak  the  language  of  truth 
and  no  other  language  to  each  other  ?  Almost  the  first  thing  you  are 
compelled  to  teach  your  children  is  falsehood  and  insincerity.  Our 
language  to  our  little  ones,  when  they  are  about  to  speak  the  truth,  is, 
aO  my  dears,"  you  must  not  say  this,  that,  or  the  other  thing!”  The 
poor  children  cannot  imagine  why  they  should  be  inhibited  from 
speaking  the  truth ;  and  it  is  a  system  of  severe  training  to  the  infant 
mind,  before  we  can  give  children  that  degree  of  insincerity  and  de- 
ception  which  is  necessary  to  constitute  them  what  is  called  “rational 
in  society.”  But  I  trust  the  time  is  fast  approaching  when  no  child 
shall  be  (as  at  present)  systematically  instructed  in  falsehood  and 
insincerity— when  there  will  not  exist  a  motive  for  deceptions  conduct 
or  behavior. 

Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  do  more  than  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
extent  of  falsehood,  deception,  and  hypocrisy  which  is  every  where 
prevalent?  .Do  you  not  find  yourselves  surrounded  with  these  crimes 
•from  morning  till  night,  and  wherever  you  go?  I  appeal  to  your 
personal  knowledge  and  experience  of  what  is  passing  in  every  de¬ 
partment  of  life,  and  even  in  all  the  little  coteries  of  my  female 
friends.  But  when  we  discover  that  we  cannot  love  or  hate,  believe 
or  disbelieve  at  our  will,  1  shall  act  openly,  honestly,  and  consistent¬ 
ly  from  the  knowledge,  no  rational  being  will  discover  any  motive  for 
any  kind  of  deception  or  insincerity.  But  at  present  we  are  not  in  a 
situation  to  incur  the  hazard  incident  to  the  speaking  of  the  truth. 
What  would  be  the  consequences  if  all  these  young  ladies  now  before 
me  were  to  begin  to  speak  the  truth  and  nothing  but  the  whole  truth 
to-day  ?  What  would  the  stayed  and  grave  members  of  society  say  about 
them?  Why,  that  they  were  fit  only  for  a  lunatic  hospital!  So  would 
they  say  of  every  man  or  woman  that  dared  to  speak  the  truth ;  and 
this  derationalizing  and  corrupting  effect  has  been  produced  by  re¬ 
ligion  alone.  It  is  by  falsehood  and  deception  of  the  grossest  kind 
that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  have  been  established,  and  by  these 
arts  they  are  now  alone  supported.  Hypocrisy,  deception,  and  false¬ 
hoods  arc  the  floodgates  of  every  kind  of  vice.  They  destroy  all  con¬ 
fidence  between  man  and  man,  and  between  man  and  woman,  and 
they  create  a  large  portion  of  the  most  inferior  and  disagreeable  feel¬ 
ings  that  can  be  implanted  in  our  nature.  They  force  us  to  suppress 
and  disguise  the  expression  of  our  feelings  before  the  individual ;  but 
the  moment  his  back  is  turned,  we  launch  out  with  great  latitude  upon 
all  his  defects  and  peculiarities,  not  one  word  of  which  would  we 
ever  utter  to  his  face.  Such  we  know  to  be  almost  the  universal 
practice  of  mankind.  Now,  simply  because  I  have  dared  to  speak 
openly  exactly  what  I  feel  and  think,  for  the  benefit  and  happiness  of 
my  species,  and  thus  to  proclaim  my  convictions,  and  come  forward 
and  act  upon  them,  I  have  been  called  a  fool,  a  madman,  fit  only  for  a 
lunatic  asylum.  This  has  been  my  reward  for  having  the  moral 
courage  to  speak  the  simple  truth  as  nature  compels  me  to  compre- 

18* 


m 


DEBATE. 


head  it;  therefore,  my  young  friends,  you  cannot,  with  safety,  yet 
venture  to  speak  out  the  truth :  for  if  you  do,  you  will  assuredly  risk 
confinement  in  a  lunatic  hospital ! 

It  would  require  a  great  deal  of  time  and  reflection  to  trace  and 
deduce  all  the  other  vices  which  necessarily  flow  from  deception, 
hypocrisy,  and  falsehood.  I  leave  this  to  your  imagination,  because 
it  has  been  well  cultivated ;  but  it  would  occupy  too  much  time  for 
me  to  detail  them, 

The  next  evil  is  disunion.  All  religions  are  peculiarly  well  adapted 
to  disunite  the  human  family.  No  device  so  effectual  in  its  nature  to 
create  disunion  amongst  mankind,  as  religion.  At  the  same  moment 
when  a  system  was  introduced  and  adopted,  ascribing  merit  or  demerit 
to  any  particular  opinions,  likings,  or  dislikings,  was  the  foundation 
laid  few*  all  the  dissentions  amongst  mankind,  which  have  ever  dis¬ 
tracted  the  world.  1  need  not,  my  friends,  refer  you  to  the  religious 
wars  and  massacres  of  former  times,  or  to  the  angry  controversies  of 
our  forefathers,  when  they  were  debating  what  mysterious  or  absurd 
creeds  should  be  devised  to  be  forced  into  the  minds  of  human  beings 
from  their  birth ;  nor  need  I  refer  you  to  all  the  public  calamities 
which  religious  dissentions  have  caused  amongst  various  nations  of 
*he  earth.  I  need  only  to  refer  you  to  your  own  experience  of  the 
divisions  and  jarrings,  bad  feelings  and  passions,  which  occur  in 
families  and  neighborhoods,  solely  because  they  cannot  force  them¬ 
selves  to  think  alike  on  the  subject  of  religion.  You  find  mankind 
every  where  herding  in  sects  and  parties,  excluding  from  their  frater¬ 
nal  sympathies  all  who  possess  a  different  faith.  These  differing 
creeds  form  an  impassable  barrier  to  keep  asunder  the  various  reli¬ 
gious  sects  and  parties.  See  how  the  Christians  and  Turks  are  now 
contending  against  each  other.  Christianity  arrayed  on  the  one  side 
and  Mahometanism  on  the  other.  Why,  my  friends,  tigers  could  nqf 
be  more  savage  than  they  are,  or  exhibit  conduct  more  irrational. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

I  had  hoped,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  document  which  I  presented 
to  Mr.  Owen  on  the  subject  of  his  favorite  position,  would  have 
merited  his  consideration;  that  the  objections  which  I  there  offered 
to  his  favorite  thesis  would  have  commanded  some  attention;  that 
before  repeating,  and  rehearsing,  and  then  re-reciting  his  twelve 
propositions,  he  would  have  made  an  effort  to  reply  to  these  objections. 
But,  instead  of  such  an  attempt,  my  opponent  has  repeated,  almost 
verbatim,  what  he  had  antecedently  told  us  at  least  three  or  four 
times.  I  must  again  solicit  an  exposition  of  some  of  the  important 
terms  which  my  opponent  uses ;  for  example,  I  solicit,  and  I  have  -a 
right  to  claim  from  him,  his  definition  of  the  term  fact ,  the  term 
millennium ,  and  the  term  heaven .  These  are  terms  of  very  frequent 
recurrence  in  my  opponent’s  vocabulary ;  and  I  think  it  more  than 
probable  that  the  ideas  which  we  attach  to  these  names  differ,  toto 
codo,  from  those  which  are  attached  to  them  by  my  opponent.  That 
knowledge,  sincerity,  and  candor,  which  my  opponent  so  much1 


debate. 


2U 

extols,  would  not  appear  disadvantageous! y  in  himself,  on  this  occa* 
sion.  It  is  a  disingenuous  and  unfair  imposition  upon  us  to  use  terms 
except  in  their  current  application  and  according  to  their  usual  and 
most  known  signification.  My  opponent  has  given  us  a  terrific  picture 
of  Christianity,  To  the  triumphs  of  Christianity  has  he  attributed 
all  the  insincerity,  malevolence,  and  other  vices  of  society.  From 
the  address  which  you  have  heard  from  Mr.  Owen  you  would  natu¬ 
rally  conclude  on  opening  the  sacred  volume  to  find  it  filled  with  such 
beatitudes  as  these,  Blessed  are  the  slanderers, blessed  the  hypocrites; 
happy  the  liars,  happy  the  miscreants,  You  would  from  Mr.  Owen’s 
account  of  the  book,  expect  to  find,  at  least,  one  section  inculcating 
such  moral  precepts  as  these,  “Thou  shall  kill,  thou  shall  commit 
adultery,  thou  shall  bear  false  witness,  thou  shalt  hate  thy  neighbor, 
and  thou  shalt  live  in  discord  and  dissention  with  thy  fellows,  and  in 
the  practice  of  every  thing  calculated  to  destroy  human  happiness.” 
If  you  pay  any  attention  to  Mr.  Owen’s  libels  on  the  scriptures, 
what  else  could  you  expect  to  find  in  them  but  benedictions  of  such 
import?  He  has,  however,  given  us  some  idea  of  his  standard  of 
morality.  After  speaking  of  the  mischievousness  and  hypocrisy  of 
the  priesthood,  he  tells  us  that  he  would  not  displace  them.  He 
would  have  these  priests  supported  in  their  lying  and  deceptious  trade, 
lest  this  projected  revolution  should  deprive  them  of  bread.  He 
has  told  you  that  you  ought  not,  yet  awhile,  to  tell  the  truth  if  you 
expect  to  be  tolerated  in  society.  By  his  own  showing,  such  are  my 
opponent’s  views  of  morality  and  sincerity.  So  much  in  passing, 
with  regard  to  Mr.  Owen’s  last  address. 

-  In  the  prosecution  of  the  argument  we  have  before  us,  we  have 
arrived  at  that  period  of  Jewish  history  whichgave  to  the  whole  world 
(Jews  and  Greeks)  the  oracles  containing  the  religion  which  Moses 
taught  the  children  of  Israel.  We  have  alluded  to  the  effect  which 
the  dissemination  of  these  oracles  produced.  We  have  noticed  the 
universal  anticipation  of  a  new  order  of  society — insomuch  that  this 
Messiah  might  be  called,  as  he  is  in  ancient  prophecy,  the  “ Desire  of 
ALL  nations .”  This  is  the  very  name  which  the  ancient  prophet 
Haggai  so  significantly  and  so  emphatically  bestows  upon  him.  But 
it  was  now  become  necessary  that  these  oracles  should  be  universally 
disseminated  in  order  to  produce  such  a  desire  as  this.  When  wo 
come  to  speak  of  the  'prophecies  we  shall  more  fully  show'  that  such 
was  the  universal  desire  and  expectation,  and  that  it  sprang  from 
this  source.  Before  concluding  our  remarks  on  the  historic  eviden¬ 
ces  of  the  Jewish  religion,  we  asserted  yesterday  that  these  historic 
records  of  the  Old  Testament  were  not  only  written  and  read  to  the 
whole  congregation  ot  Israel  by  Moses,  that  an  exhortation  predicated 
upon  them,  was  delivered,  viva  voce ,  and  afterwards  written  by 
Moses,  during  the  last  month  of  his  life,  called  Deuteronomy,  and 
deposited  in  the  sacred  chest;  but  also  that  there  are  in  the  histories 
of  the  world  remotely  as  they  penetrate  so  many  allusions  to  these 
records  as  to  render  it  almost  absolutely  certain,  even  upon  Pagan' 


212 


DEBATE. 


testimony,  that  these  writings  are  genuine,  and  were  received  and ' 
venerated  by  the  nation,  from  the  earliest  notices  of  them  as  a 
people. 

It  is,  however,  enough  for  us  to  affirm  that  there  is  no  counter  tes5* 
timony  in  the  world.  There  is  no  way  to  set  aside  historic  testimony 
except  by  adducing  counter  testimony  of  greater  validity.  The 
sceptics  have  been  called  upon  for  their  counter*  testimony.  They 
have  been  coolly  and  calmly  requested  to  search  the  annals  of  the 
world  in  order  to  produce  it.  They  have  been  asked  whether  it  was 
possible  that  the  Egyptians  and  Israelites  could  have  existed  together, 
and  such  stupendous  miracles  falsely  asserted  concerning  the  mani¬ 
festations  of  divine  wrath  against  the  Egyptians,  and  of  divine  favor 
towards  the  Israelites;  and  yet  no  document  can  be  found  to  contra¬ 
dict  them.  The  sceptics  have  been  repeatedly  challenged  to  this 
investigation.  But  you  may  search  all  the  sceptical  books  in  the 
world  without  finding  even  an  attempt  to  produce  such  testimony. 
But  we  are  not  only  able  to  produce  these  documents  and  these 
criteria  as  sufficiently  attesting  the  truth  of  these  historic  facts ;  but 
we  can  also  show  from  all  ancient  history  that  there  are  many  referen¬ 
ces  and  allusions  to  facts  mentioned  in  them  which,  in  their  direct 
tendency,  go  to  attest  the  verity  of  the  Mosaic  account.  We  shall 
just  take  a  peep  into  the  most  ancient  Greek  historians,  and  see 
Whether  they  furnish  any  data  confirmatory  of  the  historical  records 
found  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 

It  is  universally  admitted  by  Deists,  Atheists,  and  all,  that  the 
Bible  is  the  oldest  book  in  the  world.  No  counter  testimony  can  then 
be  brought  against  the  facts  related  in  the  most  ancient  parts  of  the 
Jewish  history.  But  we  will  here  attempt  to  show  that  all  the 
ancient  historians  which  peep  into  the  depths  of  remote  antiquity  do, 
in  all  their  allusions,  confirm  the  sacred  history. 

1.  All  the  Greek  writers  acknowledge  and  represent  Egypt  as  the 
most  ancient  and  best  policied  empire  in  the  world. 

This  is  confirmed  by  Moses.  So  early  as  Abraham’s  time  we  find 
a  regular  dynasty  of  the  common  name  of  Pharaoh.  This  kingdom 
(Gen.  xii.  lb.)  is  represented  as  abounding  in  corn  and  having  a 
surplus.  \ 

It  appears  from  the  princes  of  Pharaoh’s  court,  his  pripcely 
presents  to  Abraham,  and  his  retinue  of  state,  that  his  court  at  that 
time  had  attained  to  great  splendor.  '  ,  , / 

From  the  caravans  of  Ishmaelitish  merchants  who  traded  in  spices, 
much  used  in  embalming  the  illustribus  dead,  and  the  Slaves  which 
they  carried  down  for  sale,  it  would  appear  that  -the  Egyptians  at 
that  time  were  refined  in  the  arts  of  opulence  and  splendor. 

From  the  standing  militia,  the  chariots,  and  the  cavalry,  too,  in 
Egypt,  the  time  the  Hebrews  were  in  bondage,  in  building  treasure 
cities,  it  appears  that  the  Egyptians  were  very  far  exalted  above 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  the  time  of  the  Pharaohs.  The  Greeks 
were  entirely  unskilled  in  cavalry  until  long  after  the  Trojan  war. 

2.  But  not  only  do  the  ancient  Greek  writers  speak  of  the  magni- 


DEBATE, 


licence  of  the  Egyptian  empire  in  that  early  period,  but  also  m 
detailing  the  civil  and  religious  institutions  of  that  people  they  afford 
additional  evidence  of  their  high  advances  in  ail  the  arts  of  refine¬ 
ment. 

Of  the  'priesthood  Diodorus  Siculus  thus  writes :  “The  whole  country 
being  divided  into  three  parts,  the  first  belongs  to  the  body  of  the 
priests,  an  order  in  the  highest  reverence  among  their  countrymen  $ 
for  their  piety  towards  the  gods,  and  their  consummate  wisdom  acquired 
by  the  best  education  and  the  closest  application  to  the  improvements 
of  the  mind.  With  their  revenues  they  supply  all  Egypt  with  public 
sacrifices.  They  support  a  number  of  inferior  officers  and  maintain 
their  own  families,  for  the  Egyptians  think  it  utterly  unlawful  to  make 
any  change  in  the  public  worship,  but  that  every  thing  should  be 
administered  by  their  priests  in  the  same  constant  and  invariable 
manner.  Nor  do  they  hold  it  at  all  decent  that  those  to  whose  care 
the  public  are  so  much  indebted  should  want  the  common  necessaries 
of  life.  For  the  priests  are  constantly  attached  to  the  person  of  the 
king  as  coadjutors,  counsellors,  and  instructers,  in  the  most  weighty 
matters.  For  it  is  not  among  them  as  among  the  Greeks  where  one 
single  man  or  woman  exercises  the  office  of  the  priesthood.  Here  a 
number  are  employed  in  sacrificing  and  other  rites  of  public  worship 
who  transmit  their  profession  to  their  children.  This  order,  likewise* 
is  exempt  from  all  charges  and  imposts,  and  holds  the  prime  honors 
under  the  king  in  the  public  administration.” 

Herodotus,  also,  to  the  same  effect  testifies,  he  observes:  “Of 
all  the  colleges  of  the  priesthood,  that  of  Heliopolis  was  the  most  famed 
for  wisdom  and  learning.”  Strabo  also  declares  that  in  his  time  very 
spacious  buildings  yet  remained  in  Heliopolis,  which,  as  the  report 
ran,  was  formerly  the  residence  of  the  priests,  who  cultivated  the  stu¬ 
dies  of  astronomy  and  philosophy.* 

N.  B.  The  Egyptian  word  chohen ,  which  the  Chaldaic  paraphras^ 
translates2?n/?cc/>s,  and  which  seems  to  be  the  same  as  the  Samothra~ 
cian  coes  denotes  both  a  prince  and  a  priest ;  this  is  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  privy  counsellors  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Egypt  were 
priests,  and  were  therefore  called  princes ;  and  as  Pharaoh  intended, 
to  place  Jeseph  at  the  head  of  the  nation,  he  could  not  have  allayed 
the  envy  and  prejudices  of  the  priests  and  privy  counsellors,  better 
than  by  causing  Joseph  to  marry  the  daughter  of  the  priest  of  Heliop¬ 
olis,  in  Hebrew,  On. 

The  priest  of  Heliopolis  was  the  most  illustrious  of  the  order,  for  as 
Diodorus  Siculus,  informs  us,  the  sun  and  moon  were  the  first  gods 
of  Egypt,  and  this  city  of  the  sun  was  so  called  because  he  was  prin¬ 
cipally  worshipped  there;  and  as  Strabo  informs  us,  the  priests  studied 
astronomy.  The  theology  of  the  Egyptians  made  it  peculiarly  fitting 
that  the  priests  who  resided  at  Heliopolis  should  direct  their  attention 
to  this  subject  naturally  and  religiously.  The  Egyptians  taught  either 
out  of  reverence  to  their  chief  god  the  sun,  or  from  astronomical 
observation,  that  the  sun  was  the  centre  of  the  whole  system,  Fronr; 

*Warburton,  vol.  2.  page  33* 


£14 


DEBATE. 


Egypt,  Plutarch,  in  his  history  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  says  that  Pytha¬ 
goras  obtained  this  knowledge  from  CEnuphis,  a  priest  of  On,  or  of 
Heliopolis,  the  city  of  the  sun. 

3.  The  religious  rites  of  the  Egyptians ,  as  described  by  the  Greek 
historian,  is  another  proof  corroborative  of  the  Mosaic  account.  He¬ 
rodotus  expressly  tells  us  that  the  Egyptians  held  it  a  profanation  to 
sacrifice  any  kind  of  cattle,  except  swine  and  bulls,  clean  calves,  and 
geese,  and  that  they  hold  heifers,  rams,  and  goats  sacred ;  for  at  this 
time  the  Egyptians  had  not  deified  animals.  This  explains  Moses’ 
saying,  “It  is  not  meet  so  to  do,  for  we  shall  sacrifice  the  abominations 
©f  the  Egyptians,  to  the  Lord  our  God ;  so  shall  we  sacrifice  the  abom¬ 
inations  of  Egypt  before  their  eyes.”  Herodotus  informs  us  that  such 
impiety  was  punished  with  deadly  hatred  by  the  Egyptians. 

4.  The  civil  rites  of  the  Egyptians.  Concerning  the  practice  of  phy¬ 
sic,  Herodotus  says  it  was  divided  among  the  faculty  thus:  Every  dis¬ 
tinct  distemper  had  its  owrn  physician,  wlio  confined  himself  to  the 
study  and  cure  of  that,  and  meddled  with  no  other;  so  that  all  places 
are  crowded  with  physicians ;  for  one  class  had  the  care  of  the  eyes., 
another  of  the  teeth,  another  of  the  belly,  and  another  of  the  occult 
distempers.  From  this  account,  it  does  not  appear  strange  that  Moses 
represents  the  household  of  Joseph  as  well  replenished  with  physicians. 
“And  Joseph  commanded  his  servants  the  physicians  to  embalm  his 
father,  and  the  physicians  embalmed  Israel.” 

There  is  also  a  remarkable  allusion  to  this  practice  of  the  Egyp¬ 
tian  skill  in  Jeremiah,  when  that  prophet  foretells  the  overthrow  of 
Pharaoh’s  army  at  the  Euphrates :  “Go  up  into  Gilead,  and  take  balm, 
O  virgin,  the  daughter  of  Egypt!  In  vain  thou  shalt  use  many  medi¬ 
cines,  for  thou  shalt  not  be  cured.”  The  same  prophet  under  the 
same  figure,  alludes  to  the  Egyptian  superstition  in  his  own  time.  He 
says,  “Egypt  is  like  a  fair  heifer,  but  destruction  comes  from  the 
north,  also  her  herdsmen  are  in  the  midst  of  her  like  fatted  bullocks, 
for  they  also  are  turned  back  and  fled  away  together.”  The  allusion 
here  is  most  apparent  to  the  worship  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  under  a  cow 
and  a  bull.  The  most  celebrated  of  all  the  Egyptian  ritual. 

The  medical  profession,  naturally  and  according  to  history,  is  divi¬ 
ded  into  surgery  and  pharmacy  and  the  diatetic  practice.  Surgery 
was  naturally  the  most  ancient,  pharmacy  was  next  to  it,  and  the  dia¬ 
tetic  the  last.  Hence  physic  must  have  been  far  advanced  in  Egypt 
at  the  time  to  which  Diodorus  alludes. 

5.  The  funeral  rites  of  the  Egyptians  are  thus  described  by  Hero¬ 
dotus  :  “Their  mourning  and  funeral  rites  of  sepulture  are  of  this  kind : 
when  a  principal  person  dies,  all  the  females  of  that  family  besmear 
their  heads  and  faces  with  loam  and  mire,  and  so  leaving  the  dead 
body  in  the  hands  of  the  domestics,  march  in  procession  through  the 
city,  with  their  garments  close  girt  about  them,  their  breasts  laid  open^ 
beating  themselves  and  all  their  relations  attending.  In  an  opposite 
procession  appear  the  males,  close  girt  likewise,  and  undergoing  the 
same  discipline.  When  this  is  over,  they  carry  the  body  to  he  salted 

'-there  are  men  appointed  for  this  business,  who  make  it  their  trade. 


DEBATE, 


2Vj 


and  employment;  they  first  of  all  draw  out  the  brain,  with  a  hooked 
iron,  through  the  nostrils.  After  this  they  hide  it  in  nitre  for  seventy 
days,  and  longer  it  is  not  lawful  to  keep  it  salted. 

Diodorus  Siculus  agrees  with  Herodotus  in  all  the  essential  circum¬ 
stances  of  mourning  and  embalming,  except  he  varies  in  one  particu¬ 
lar:  he  says  they  anoint  the  whole  body  with  gum  or  resin  of  cedar 
and  of  other  plants,  with  great  cost  and  care,  for  above  thirty  days ; 
and  afterwards  seasoning  it  with  myrrh,  cinnamon,  and  other  costly 
spices,  not  only  to  preserve  the  body  for  a  long  time,  but  to  give  it  a 
grateful  odor;  they  then  deliver  it  to  the  relations. 

All  this  scripture -history  confirms  and  explains,  and  does  more,  it 
reconciles  the  two  Greek  historians  concerning  the  number  of  days 
during  which  the  body  was  in  the  care  of  the  embalmers.  Moses  says, 
“And  the  physicians  embalmed  Israel — and  forty  days  were  fulfilled 
for  him;  for  so  are  fulfilled  the  days  of  those  who  are  embalmed;  and 
the  Egyptians  mourned  for  him  three  score  and  ten  days.”  Now  we 
learn  Irom  the  two  Greek  historians  that  the  time  of  the  mourning 
was  while  the  body  remained  with  the  embalmers,  which  Herodotus 
tells  us  was  seventy  days.  This  explains  why  the  Egyptians  mourned 
for  Israel  three  score  and  ten  days.  During  the  time  the  body  lay  in 
nitre,  and  when  in  the  compass  of  thirty  days,  this  was  reasonably 
well  effected,  the  remaining  forty  of  Diodorus  were  employed  in 
anointing  it  with  gums  and  spices  to  preserve  it,  which  was  the  pro¬ 
per  way  to  embalm  it;  and  this  explains  the  meaning  of  the  forty 
days,  which  were  fulfilled  for  Israel,  being  the  days  of  those  which 
were  embalmed.  Thus  the  two  Greek  writers  are  reconciled,  and 
they  and  scripture  are  mutually  explained,  and  supported  by  each 
other.* 

By  the  way  we  may  remark,  that  the  infidel  objection  against  Jo¬ 
seph  for  making  the  free  monarchy  of  Egypt  despotic,  is  without  foun¬ 
dation.  The  law-giving  power  Pharaoh  did  not  transfer,  but  reserved 
it  in  his  own  hands,  in  these  words:  u Only  on  the  throne  i  villi  be  greater 
than  thou ” — Joseph  as  prime  minister,  administers  justice,  but  Pha¬ 
raoh  guards  to  himself  the  prerogative  of  giving  law.  In  commanding 
the  people  to  give  their  money,  cattle,  and  lands  to  Pharaoh,  it  is  rea¬ 
sonable  to  conclude  that  the  law  emanated  from  Pharaoh. 

In  one  sentence,  we  may  affirm  that  the  farther  we  penetrate  into 
remote  antiquity,  the  more  reason  we  will  have  to  place  implicit  con¬ 
fidence  in  the  divine  mission  of  Moses. 

Mr.  Owen  rises — - 

My  friends:  Mr.  Campbell  has  very  correctly  informed  us  that  the 
Christian  scriptures  do  not  indirect  terms  command  us  to  tell  lies,  to 
steal,  and  to  commit  all  sorts  of  crimes.  But  if  we  are  told  to  do  one 
thing,  and  circumstances  of  our  nature  irresistibly  compel  us  to  ano 
ther  thing  directly  opposed  to  the  precept,  we  are  by  such  precepts 
compelled  to  speak  falsehood  continually.  The  fact  can  be  easily 
established,  that  throughout  all  Christendom  there  is  very  little  truth 

*Warburton,s  Divine  Legation  vol.  2.  pp.  46  &  47. 


DEBATE, 


•spoken  between  man  and  man;  and  it  is  the  Christian  religion 
which  has  created  the  Christian  character.  1  am  told  that  truth  is 
much  more  generally  spoken  among  the  Mussulmen  than  among  the 
Christians;  but  there  can  be  very  little  truth  spoken  by  either  party. 

1  recommend  to  my  young  female  friends  here  not  to  speak  the  truth 
upon  many  subjects  most  interesting  to  their  happiness  through  life, 
because,  if  they  did,  they  might  lay  their  account  in  meeting  all  man¬ 
ner  of  persecution  and  inconvenience.  Nor  did  I  recommend  in  a 
preceding  address  that  the  gospel  ministers  of  the  present  day  should 
be  paid  for  disseminating  and  perpetuating  falsehood,  which,  to  my 
certain  knowledge,  many  of  the  most  learned  and  enlightened  of  the 
cloth  know  and  believe  to  be  such.  I  meant  simply  to  give  utterance 
to  a  great  principle  of  justice;  to  state  that  those  who  had  been  train¬ 
ed  to  the  gospel  ministry  were  compelled,  by  circumstances,  to  adopt 
that  course  of  life;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  very  large  portion  of 
them  adopted  this  course  most  conscientiously;  therefore,  I  deemed 
it  unjufet  that  the  great  and  overwhelming  change  in  society  antici¬ 
pated  and  predicted  by  me  should  deprive  any  man  of  his  livelihood. 
But  if,  as  I  confidently  expect,  these  principles  shall  rapidly  pervade 
society,  another  and  a  better  employment  will  be  assigned  to  the 
reverend  clergy.  They  will  then  become  the  most  efficient  and  use¬ 
ful  oracles  to  promulgate  and  expound  the  divine  laws  of  human  na¬ 
ture,  and  demonstrate  their  high  importance  in  producing  irresistible 
motives  to  virtue  from  their  pupils;  and  after  much  calm  deliberation 
I  am  qu  ite  sure  that  this  will  be  the  most  economical  and  by  far  the 
best  mode  of  disposing  of  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy.  It  will  not 
only  be  the  most  economical,  equitable,  but  also  the  most  beneficial 
for  themselves  and  all  mankind,  I  have  told  you  that  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  deprive  any  individual  of  his  present  support  in  order 
to  effect  these  anticipated  changes;  because  there  exists  in  society 
an  artificial  producing  power  almost  immeasurably  beyond  the  wants 
of  man .  Although  still  rapidly  and  annually  increa  sing,  ttys  artificial 
producing  power  is  even  now,  if  it  were  well  understood  and  rightly 
directed,  greatly  beyond  our  wants— it  is  alread}-  far  more  than  equal 
to  the  supplying  of  every  child  that  shall  be  born  into  the  world  a 
most  ample  store  of  every  thing  that  is  best  for  human  nature.  But 
before  this  change  can  commence,  we  must  discover  the  true  principle 
and  the  true  bond  of  social  union — for  most  true  it  is,  that  there  can 
be  no  real  substantial  happiness  and  improvement  in  the  constitution 
and  frame  of  society,  until  men  do  really  and  strictly  learn  to  love 
one  another.  But  have  the  different  religions  inculcated  in  the  world 
yet  enabled  you  to  love  one  another?  In  this  very  city  are  you  not 
calling  yourselves  the  friends  and  acquaintances  of  each  other,  and 
at  the  same  tune  striving  and  contending  against  each  other  as  if  you. 
were  avowed  and  professed  enemies. 

Where  is  the  mercantile  man  to  be  found,  who,  if  he  learns  by 
pome  private  intelligence  that  certain  articles  of  merchandize  will 
greatly  enhance  in  value,  will  not  go  to  his  dearest  fiend,  and  buy 


DEBATE, 


217 

ail  that  he  has  of  those  articles,  at  the  lowest  price  lie  can  procure 
them.  Now  this  is  very  loving  to  be  sure! 

We  are  deceived  by  high  sounding  empty  words,  and  the  present 
state  of  commercial  society  is  any  thing  but  rational ;  and  all  socie¬ 
ty,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  in  all  countries,  is  becoming  com¬ 
mercial,  and  daily  more  and  more  ignorantly  selfish.  Our  circum¬ 
stances  compel  us  to  become  covert  enemies  to  each  other.  Instead  of 
endeavoring  to  promote  each  other’s  happiness,  we  are  straining  every 
nerve  to  take  from  others,  in  order  to  add  superfluities  which  we  can¬ 
not  enjoy,  to  ourselves.  Does  not  the  Christian  religion  in  many  other 
ways  create  dissentions  among  men?  What  say  ye  to  this, ye  people 
of  Cincinnati?  Are  all  the  religions  of  this  city  united  heart  and  soul 
together?  are  there  no  divisions  among  them?  are  they  always  wil¬ 
ling  to  accommodate  each  other?  are  there  not  divisions  and  dissen¬ 
tions  among  those  who  are  designated  by  the  same  name,  and  classi¬ 
fied  as  belonging:  to  the  same  sect?  Are  there  no  dissentions  among 
the  Baptists,  the  Quakers,  Presbyterians,  nor  among  the  Episcopal¬ 
ians?  My  friends,  there  is  nothing  but  dissentions  and  divisions  un¬ 
der  the  present  system,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other;  dissention 
pervades  the  whole  mass  of  society — it  leavens  the  whole  lump;  and 
as  the  march  of  mind  advances,  these  dissentions  will  increase,  and 
be  the  cause  of  their  ultimate  overthrow.  They  have  increased  alrea¬ 
dy  to  that  extent,  that  those  who  understand  the  signs  of  the  times, 
see  plainly  that,  ere  long,  religion  must  receive  its  death-blow.  In¬ 
stead  of  a  system  which  de rationalizes  the  human  race,  other  times 
are  approaching  when  we  shall  have  our  attention  and  our  faculties 
directed  to  what  we  can  comprehend — to  the  acquisition  of  real  know¬ 
ledge,  and  to  the  investigation  of  the  laws  of  matter;  and,  my  friends, 
for  us  to  attempt  the  investigation  of  any  other  laws  but  material  laws 
is  every  whit  as  futile  as  an  attempt  to  fly  from  the  earth  to  the  sun. 
Depend  upon  it  that  you  only  waste  your  time  in  such  searching  after 
immaterial  things;  such  search  can  only  lead  you  into  the  wildest 
regions  of  the  imagination,  and  then  you  will  find  it  very  difficult  to 
get  back  again  into  the  paths  of  common  sense.  Therefore  I  strong¬ 
ly  recommend  to  those  who  wish  to  acquire  real  knowledge  not  t» 
sacrifice  their  time  in  speculations  upon  subjects  beyond  the  compre¬ 
hension  human  faculties. 

When  we  direct  our  attention  to  an  investigation  of  the  laws  of  na¬ 
ture,  no  quarrels  are  originated;  and  why?  because  we  can  recur  to 
facts;  we  can  re-examine  and  discriminate  by  the  criteria  of  real 
knowledge  the  truth  from  error.  We  may  say,  indeed,  that  the  pres¬ 
ent  era  is  the  commencement  of  a  search  into  the  real  nature  of  exist¬ 
ing  facts  which  will  bring  about  the  Millennium ,  by  which  term  I 
simply  mean  a  rational  state  of  social  existence,  in  which  sincerity 
and  candor  shall  universally  prevail— when,  through  a  knowledge  of 
facts,  human  nature  will  be  laid  open  to  that  extent  that  we  shall 
know  ourselves  and  know  our  fellow-beings  even  as  we  are  known. 
J3at  the  only  way  to  commence  this  rational  state  of  existence,  is,  W 
fov  a  solid  foundation  for  genuine  charity  and  social  affection;  anft 

19 


DEBATE. 


%18 

there  are  no  principles  under  heaven  that  can  guide  us  to  these  desi¬ 
rable  results,  unless  it  be  the  knowledge  that  we  have  no  will,  power, 
©r  control  in  framing  our  belief  on  any  speculative  subjects  and  no 
free  agency  or  volition  in  the  matter  of  our  likings  and  dislikings. 
These  are  the  only  sure  foundations  for  a  genuine  love  and  universal 
charity  among  mankind.  When  these  admirable  principles,  old  as 
they  are,  shall  begin  to  be  comprehended,  love  and  charity  will  be 
sure  to  extend  themselves  even  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
Let  but  these  twelve  laws  be  once  generally  understood,  and  I  Know 
af  no  motive  which  could  actuate  any  human  being  to  enter  into  strife 
and  contention  with,  or  to  think  or  feel  uncharitably  towards,  any  of 
bis  species.  Therefore,  my  friends,  by  discarding  the  practices  of 
the  wild  imagination  of  our  easily  deluded  ancestors,  in  which  all  the 
religions  of  the  world  have  had  their  origin,  and  which  they  have  for- 
<ced  into  our  minds  by  the  means  ©f  the  mutual  laws  which  I  have  ex¬ 
plained,  you  will  in  lieu  thereof  adopt  the  laws  of  nature  for  your 
guides ;  and  these  w  ill  alwrays  lead  you  to  the  best  and  most  rational 
practice  that  can  be  adopted;  a  practice  of  those  amiable  virtues  and 
that  genuine  charity  which  will  better  prepare  you  for  heaven,  if  you 
are  destined  to  go  there,  than  any  thing  that  has  yet  been  taught  you, 
or  than  any  thing  that  has  yet  been  done  for  you;  and  I  cannot  con¬ 
ceive  it  possible  that  a  life  approaching  to  what  is  represented  by  your 
spiritual  teachers  to  be  a  heavenly  conduct  here,  can  unfit  those  who 
have  had  this  foretaste  of  heaven  in  this  life,  for  the  enjoyment  of  a 
superior  existence  hereafter.  But,  my  friends,  I  have  not  the  remotest 
idea  that  in  a  future  state  of  re-animation  we  shall  retain  the  least 
consciousness  of  our  former  state  of  vitality.  My  investigations  on 
this  subjest  have  convinced  me  that  it  is  a  speculation  in  which  no 
man  ever  has  or  can  arrive  at  any  thing  tangible.  1  believe  that  in 
pne  sense,  we  shall  live  forever,  for  I  cannot  suppose  that  the  particles 
aj f  which  we  are  compounded  have  ever  been  out  of  existence.  It 
seems  reasonable  that  the  material  particles  of  which  wre  are  compo¬ 
sed  are  uncreated,  that  is,  that  they  belong  to  the  original  stock  of 
matter  which  f  jrms  the  universe.  In  my  judgment,  there  is  nothing 
so  absurd  as  the  supposition  that  a  particle  of  matter  could  be  created 
6>ut  ofnothing.  If  you  are  prepared  to  swallow  such  an  absurdity  as 
this,  you  may  swallow  a  camel  or  any  thing  else.  I  have  said  that 
to  me  it  appears  the  greatest  of  all  impossibilities,  that  one  atom  of 
something  could  be  created  out  ofnothing;  but  it  also  appears  to  me 
an  equal  impossibility  that  one  atom  of  matter  consisting  of  something 
can  ever  be  reduced  to  nothing.  I  conceive,  therefore,  that  the  supreme 
power  consists  in  the  indestructible  vitality  pervading  the  whole  mate¬ 
rial  universe,  and  that  each  particle  of  this  universe  contains  within  it¬ 
self  everlasting  and  unchangeable  laws;  and  it  is  by  tfie  action,  the  har¬ 
mony,  and  the  co-operation  of  these  laws,  that  all  composition,  decom¬ 
position,  and  recomposition  i  >  the  universe  are  effected.  Let  us  not 
therefore,  waste  our  valuable  time  about  spiritual  nonentities  which 
cannot  interest  us — but  let  us  r  ither  dilligentlv  apply  all  our  facul¬ 
ties  to  discover  the  yet  unknown  laws  of  nature,  by  which  we  shall 


DEBATE. 


219 


Ascertain  the  means  to  make  onr  species  as  happy  and  prosperous  as 
the  materials  of  which  we  are  organized  will  permit.  If  we  will  adopt 
this  course  of  practice,  and  strictly  adhere  to  it,  I  can  sec  nothing 
than  can  possibly  prevent  our  attainment  to  a  very  high  degree  of  phy¬ 
sical  and  intellectual  perfection  and  happiness.  I  have  now  perhaps 
given  sufficient  details  to  prove  that  all  religions  tend  directly  to  pro- 
duce  vice  and  disunion  among  mankind,  1  have  now  to  show  that 
they  produce  the  natural  consequence  of  vice  and  dis-union;  viz?-: 
i misery . 

The  errors  which  the  various  religions  of  the  world  have,  for  ages 
past, forced  into  the  minds  of  the  human  race,  have  been  the  cause  of 
all  the  poverty  which  now  exists  in  the  world ;  and  these  religions 
have  generated  this  poverty  in  two  ways :  first,  by  creating  universal 
disunion  among  men,  so  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  any  cordial 
co-operation  for  their  reciprocal  benefit  and  advantage;  and  secondly, 
by  reason  of  the  very  large  appropriations  of  the  time  and  gains  of  the 
people,  which  the  clergy,  like  the  Levites  of  old,  have  engrossed  to 
themselves  and  their  mysterious,  and  therefore  useless  objects. 

I  discover  from  Mr.  Campbell,  that  the  Levites  could  not  be  con¬ 
tented  with  less  than  one  half  of  the  property  of  the  whole  nation. — * 
Now  it  really  does  appear  to  me  that  a  society  which  could  permit  a 
small  select  tribe  to  appropriate  to  their  own  use  one  half  of  the  whole 
revenue  of  the  nation,  and  allow  that  tribe  to  form  and  keep  the  re 
cords  of  their  mysteries  and  even  to  make  it  a  capital  crime  to  approach 
the  sacred  chest  which  contained  them,  must  be  in  the  extreme  of  ig¬ 
norance  and  easily  duped.  I  must  also  say  that  under  such  circum¬ 
stances  there  never  was  a  set  of  men  who  had  a  finer  chance  of  manu¬ 
facturing  and  perpetuating  fables  to  suit  their  own  purposes ;  and  of 
obtaining  the  means  to  degrade  and  enslave  their  fellow-beings,  than 
had  this  same  tribe  of  Lem.  There  is  nothing  more  true,  my  friends, 
than  that  religion  has  been  the  primary  cause  of  all  the  poverty  that 
has  for  ages  past  afflicted  the  world.  You  have  all  of  you  received 
your  religious  notions  at  an  age  so  early  that  your  reasoning  faculties 
have  been  thereby  not  only  injured,  but  in  the  majority  of  cases,  de¬ 
stroyed  to  an  extent  which  cannot  be  estimated  or  understood  by  the 
great  mass  of  the  present  adult  population.  In  consequence,  the  mind 
of  man  instead  of  being  rationally  directed  to  discover  what  is  best 
for  human  nature,  has  been  so  perverted  as  to  consider  the  acquisition 
of  wealth  as  the  fgrand  desideratum ;  and  to  appropriate  millions  to 
themselves  whilst  their  fellows  were  starving  around  them,  as  the 
summum  bonum  of  human  felicity.  Now  it  was  my  lot  to  commence  the 
world  with  no  property  at  all ;  and  since  that  time  I  have  experienced 
as  gradual  a  change  of  fortune  upwards  as  most  individuals,  but  I 
never  found  that  I  enjoyed  happines  as  wealth  increased,  or  in  propor¬ 
tion  to  any  expenditure.  I  never  found  that  I  could  eat,  drink,  or 
sleep  any  more  jn  a  state  of  affluence,  than  when  through  my  own 
industry  I  procured  the  simple  necessaries  of  life  in  comfort.  But  I 
Sound  by  experience  that  when  I  had  the  most  wealth  I  had  the  most 
£are  and  anxiety.  I  have  lived  on  intimate  terms  with  Some  very 


DEBATE 


220 

wealthy  men,  some  of  them  possessing  a  property  estimated  at  sever*-, 
al  hundred  thousand,  and  millions  sterling — these  men  I  have  studied 
closely,  and  I  think  them  and  their  families  less  happy  than  many 
Whom  I  have  known  with  little  more  than  barely  sufficient  to  supply 
the  necessary  wants  of  life.  If  it  were  not  for  the  abberrations  of  the 
human  mind  originating  in  the  errors  of  religion,  we  should  soon 
discover  the  means  of  creating  and  enjoying  an  ample  supply  of  the  best 
of  every  thing  for  human  nature,  and  of  cultivating  our  physical  and 
intellectual  faculties  to  a  compart  ive  high  degree  of  perfection. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

if  we  be  mere  particles  of  matter,  self-existing  or  derived  from  the 
great  whole,  or  entirely  material,  springingfrom  the  earth  and  return¬ 
ing  thereto  again,  and  that  the  less  of  this  world’s  goods  we  have  the 
better — let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die. 

I  must  correct  an  allusion  of  my  opponent  to  the  Levitical  priest¬ 
hood.  I  observed  that  the  consecration  of  this  priesthood  was 
designated  to  be  the  most  effectual  commemorative  monument,  because 
it  was  compelling  the  passions  of  the  people  to  attest  and  perpetuate 
the  remembrance  of  the  fact  of  their  redemption  from  Egypt.  The 
destroying  angel  passed  over  the  land  and  destroyed  the  first-born  of 
man  and  beast,  belonging  to  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Israelites  to  a 
man  escaped.  To  perpetuate  the  memory  of  this,  God  claimed  the 
first-born  of  that  nation  in  all  time  coming.  Subsequently,  in  lieu  of 
the  first  born,  one  tribe  of  the  twelve  was  set  apart.  This  tribe  was 
t'o  receive  so  much  real  estate,  and  be  supported  by  the  whole  nation. 
And  I  have  asked,  Would  any  nation,  except  under  divine  coercion, 
have  submitted  to  such  an  exaction  as  this  upon  their  time  and  their 
real  and  personal  property  ?  [Mr.  Often  says,  Yes ,  all  nations  have 
done  it!\  Mr  Campbell  resumes,  I  have  asked  if  any  nation  would 
have  submitted  to  such  a  heavy  taxation  as  this  in  support  of  their  reli¬ 
gion  had  they  not  been  absolutely  certain  of  its  divine  origin  and 
authority?  Mr.  Owen  says,  Yes,  they  have  all  done  it.  Well,  now, 
this  assertion  will  not  prove  that  the  first  nation  did  it  without  a  divine 
authority.  They  set  the  example- — And  we  can  easily  test  the  prin¬ 
ciple  whether  nations  will,  without  good  reasons,  submit  to  such 
imports,  by  bringing  the  case  within  our  own  experience.  Let,  then, 
such  an  experiment  be  attempted  in  this  country,  and  it  will  soon  be 
discovered  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  induce  us  to  support  a  reli¬ 
gion  so  onerous,  without  affording  the  most  incontrovertible  eviden¬ 
ces  of  its  divine  authority.  Mankind  part  with  money  and  property 
4'6r  religious  uses  only  when  conscientiously  convicted  of  a  divine 
obligation.  To  exact  it  from  them  without  presenting  some  plausible 
grounds  for  such  authority,  requires  compulsion .  And  however  easy 
it  may  be  to  perpetuate  such  a  usage,  it  never  could  have  commenced 
without  the  strongest  evidence  of  divine  authority.  But  to  test  this 
matter  I  appeal  to  universal  experience,  and  to  the  impossibility  of 
instituting  such  a  custom  now. 

I  protest  against  Mr.  Owen’s  objecting  to  any  part  of  these  writings 


DEBATE, 


003 

rTa  tact,  •without  acknowledging  the  whole  of  them  as  tact.  Does  he 
believe  that  there  was  an  Aaron  or  a  tribe  of  Levi?  If  so,  on  the 
same  authority  he  must  believe  that  there  was  a  Moses  and  twelve 
tribes,  led  by  him  through  the  Red  Sea.  It  is  unfair  to  garble  the 
document,  admitting  the  truth  of  one  part  and  objecting  to  the  truth 
of  another.  He  must  take  it  all  or  none.  Does  my  opponent  believe 
that  there  were  Levites;  that  there  was  a  Moses,  an  Aaron,  and  a 
Levitical  priesthood;  that  the  nation  were  convened  at  Sinai,  received 
the  law  there  attested,  and  that  there  was  a  place  of  deposit,  a  sacred 
chest,  first  in  the  tabernacle  and  then  in  the  temple,  containing  a 
copy  of  this  law?  Does  he  believe  these  things?  And,  if  he  does, 
why  not  believe  all  the  other  facts?  I  repeat  that  it  is  neither  a  fair 
nor  a  manly  style  of  reasoning  to  take  a  part  of  these  facts  and  pre¬ 
dicate  arguments  upon  them,  without  receiving  the  whole. 

Mr.  Owen  has  given  us  his  definition  of  the  term  millennium ,  but 
will  give  us  no  definition  of  fact ,  and  says  he  knows  nothing  about 
heaven — neither  will  he  take  any  notice  of  the  document  which  I 
presented  to  him.  I  wish  you  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  pretermits  all 
notice  of  this  document. 

Fact  is  derived  from  factum.  It  means  that  which  is  done.  Now 
it  is  not  a  fact  that  I  have  two  eyes.  This  is  not  a  fact ,  but  a  truth , 
It  is  a  fact  that  I  rose  up  or  sat  down.  Any  thing  I  may  have  done  is  a 
fact.  No  speculation  can  be  a  fact.  It  may  be  a  fact  that  a  man 
expressed  such  an  opinion ;  but  the  opinion  itself  is  no  fact.  It  is  a 
2  act  that  Mr.  Owen  conceived  these  twelve  positions,  wrote  them,  ex- . 
pressed,  or  read  them;  but  the  twelve  opinions,  assertions,  or  propo¬ 
sitions  are  not  facts. 

Christianity  is  a  positive  institution.  An  institution  built  upon 
facts.  So  was  Judaism.  The  Christian  facts  are  all  matters  of  record. 
The  record  or  testimony  is  the  object  of  faith.  Hence  faith  requires 
testimony,  testimony  concerns  facts,  and  facts  require  a  witness. 
The  historian  records  facts.  The  philosopher  speculates  upon  opin¬ 
ions  or  abstract  truths.  Mr.  Owen’s  system  is  the  system  of  a  phi¬ 
losopher^  it  is  not  the  work  of  a  historian.  He  confounds  speculations, 
assertions,  laws  of  nature,  and  facts;  and  from  a  fondness  for  the 
term  fact  he  calls  all  his  views  facts.  His  propositions  may,  or  may 
not,  be  truths;  but  facts  they  cannot  be.  If  I  could  correct  Mr, 
Owen’s  misapplication  and  erroneous  use  of  this  single  term,  it  might 
tend  to  dissolve  the  charm,  and  dissipate  the  illusion  which  his 
sportive  fancy  throws  overall  his  lucubrations. 

There  are  yet  remaining  a  few  documents  which  I  desire  to  read, 
In  further  support  of  the  proposition  that  the  Jewish  scriptures  are 
corroborated  by  all  ancient  historic  writers.  There  is  not  only  no 
counter  testimony,  but  a  strong  concurrence  of  testimony  in  attesta¬ 
tion  of  the  facts  recorded  by  Moses.  We  penetrated  into  very  remote 
antiquity  in  order  to  illustrate  this  accordance,  and  we  proved  that 
Herodotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus  are  reconciled  by  a  reference  to 
M.*sps;  and  that  these  three  writers  mutually  explain  and  support 
each  other. 


19* 


DEBATE. 


There  is  one  consideration  which  is  worthy  to  be  kept  continually 
before  our  minds  in  this  investigation,  and  that  is  the  advanced  state 
of  civilization  in  the  country  when  the  Jewish  religion  was  first,  pro¬ 
pounded.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  Moses  was  surrounded  by 
acute,  learned,  and  sagacious  enemies,  when  he  led  the  children 
of  Israel  out  of  Egypt.  But  we  must  go  further  back  into  antiquity 
in  order  to  show  that  the  most  ancient  traditions  confirm  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  creation,  deluge,  <&c. 

“ As  to  the  history  of  Berosus,  the  substance  of  it,  as  it  is  given  us , 
by  Abidenus  Apollodorus  and  Alexander  Poly hister,  is  to  this  pur» 
pose,  that  there  were  ten  kings  of  Chaldea  before  the  flood;  Alorus*, 
Aiasparus,  Amelon,  Amenon,  Metalarus,  Daorus,  Aedorachus,  Am* 
phis,  Oliartes,  Xisuthrus.  That  Xisuthrus  was  warned  in  a  dream 
that  mankind  was  to  be  destroyed  by  a  flood  on  the  15th  day  of  the 
month  Dsesius,  and  that  he  should  build  a  sort  of  ship,  and  go  into  it 
with  his  friends  and  kindred,  and  that  he  should  make  a  provision  of 
meat  and  drink,  and  take  into  his  vessel  fouls  and  fourfooted  beasts; 
that  Xisuthrns  acted  according  to  the  admonition;  built  a  ship,  and 
put  into  it  all  that  he  was  commanded,  and  went  into  it  with  his  wife 
and  children,  and  dearest  friends.  When  the  flood  was  come,  and 
began  to  abate,  Xisuthrus  let  out  some  birds,  which  finding  no  food 
nor  place  to  rest  upon,  returned  to  the  ship  again ;  after  some  days  he 
let  out  the  birds  again,  but  they  came  back  with  their  legs  daubed 
with  mud.  Some  days  after,  he  let  them  go  the  third  time,  but  then 
they  came  to  the  ship  no  more  Xisuthrus  understood  hereby,  that 
the  earth  appeard  above  the  waters,  and  taking  down  some  of  the 
boards  of  the  ship,  he  saw  that  it  rested  upon  a  mountain;  some  time 
after,  he,  and  his  wife,  and  his  pilot  went  out  of  the  ship,  to  offer 
sacrifices  to  the  gods,  and  they  were  never  seen  by  those  in  the  ship 
more.  But  the  persons  in  the  ship,  after  seeking  him  in  vain,  werpt 
to  Babylon.  The  Xisuthrus  here  mentioned  was  evidently  Noah*. 
And  Berosus  supposes  from  Alorus  to  Xisuthrus  ten  generations,  and 
so  many  Moses  computes  from  Adam  to  Noah.”* 

This  is  the  Chaldean  history  concerning  their  own  nation.  They 
wished  to  trace  themselves  up  to  the  commencement  of  time — and 
gave  an  account  of  the  ten  patriarchs  before  the  flood,  making  Noah 
one  of  their  kings. 

“The  history  of  Sanchoniatho  is  to  this  effect.  That  the  first  mortals 
were  Protogonus  and  iEon  *  that  by  these  were  begotten  Genus  and 
Genea;  the  children  of  these  were  Phos,  Pur,  and  Phlox;  and  of 
these  were  begot  Cassius,  Libanus,  Antilibanus,  and  Brathys.* — 
Memrumus  and  Efypsuranius  were  descended  from  these,  and  their 
children  were  Agreus  and  Halieus;  and  of  these  were  begotten  two 
brothers,  one  of  them  named  Chrvsor  and  Haephsestus ;  the  name  of 
the  other  is  lost.  From  this  generation  came  two  brotliers,  TeohniteS 
<and  Autochthon,  and  of  them  were  begotten  Agrus  and  Agrotug 
.Arnynus  and  Magus  were  their  children,  and  Misor  and  Sydec  were 
descended  of  Amynus  and  Magus.  The  son  of  Misor  was  Taaiftus 
*Shuckford’s  Connection,  vo].  1,  p.  41. 


debate';  ms 

cflf  Tyoth.  This  is  the  Phoenician  genealogy  of  the  first  ages  of  the 
world,  and  it  requires  no  great  pains  to  show  how  far  it  agrees  with 
the  accounts  of  Moses.  The  first  mortals  mentioned  by  Sanchonia- 
tho,  and  called  Protogonus  and  Alon,  were  undoubtedly  Adam  and 
Eve;  and  his  Misor,  the  father  of  Taautus,  is  evidently  the  Mizraim 
of  Moses.  From  Protogonus  to  Misor,  Sanchoniatho  computes  eleven 
generations,  and  from  Adam  to  Mizraim,  Moses  makes  twelve;  so 
that  Sanchoniatho  falls  short  of  Moses  only  one  generation,  and  this, 
I  conceive,  happened  by  his  not  having  recorded  the  flood.”* 

These,  now,  are  the  two  most  ancient  traditions  in  the  world,  and 
belong  to  the  Phoenicians  and  Chaldeans. 

'  “The  Chinese  have  been  supposed  to  have  records  that  reach  higher 
than  the  history  of  Moses;  but  we  find  by  the  best  accounts  of  their 
antiquities  that  this  is  false.  Their  antiquities  reach  no  higher  than 
the  times  of  Noah,  for  Fohi  was  their  first  king.  They  pretend  to 
no  history  or  memoirs  that  reach  up  higher  than  his  times ;  and  by  all 
their  accounts,  the  age  of  Fohi  coincides  with  that  of  Moses’  Noah. 
Their  writers  in  the  general  agree,  that  Fohi  lived  about  2952  years 
before  Christ.  The  author  of  Mirandorum  in  Sina  et  Europa  com* 
putes  him  to  reign  but  2847  years  before  our  Saviour;  and  Alvarez 
Sevedo  places  his  reign  not  so  early,  imagining  it  to  be  but  2060  years; 
and  all  these  computations  agree  well  enough  with  the  times  of  Noah; 
for  Noah  was  bom,  according  to  Archbishop  Usher,  2948  years,  and 
died  2016  years  before  Christ;  so  that  all  the  several  computations 
about  Fohi,  fall  pretty  near  within  the  compass  of  Noah’s  life.  But 
we  shall  hereafter  see  many  reasons  to  conclude  Moses’  Noah,  and 
the  Chinese  Fohi,  to  be  the  same  person.”! 

“The  first  king  of  China  was  Fohi;  and  as  1  have  before  observed 
that  Fohi  and  Noah  were  contemporaries  at  least,  for  there  are  many 
reasons,  from  the  Chinese  traditions  concerning  Fohi,  to  think  him 
and  Noah  the  same  person.  First,  they  say  Fohi  had  no  father,  i.  e. 
Noah  was  the  first  man  in  the  post-deluvian  world ;  his  ancestors  per¬ 
ished  in  the  flood,  and  no  tradition  hereof  being  preserved  in  the 
Chinese  annals,  Noah,  or  Fohi,  stands  there  as  if  he  had  no  father 
at  all.  Secondly,  Fohi’s  mother  is  said  to  have  conceived  him  en¬ 
compassed  in  a  rainbow;  a  conceit  very  probably  arising  from  the 
rainbow’s  first  appearing  to  Noah,  and  the  Chinese  being  Willing  to 
-give  some  account  of  his  original.  Thirdly,  Fohi  is  said  to  have 
carefully  bred  seven  sorts  of  creatures,  which  he  used  to  sacrifice  to 
the  Supreme  Spirit  of  heaven  and  earth :  and  Moses  tells  us  that  Noah 
took  into  the  ark>  of  every  clean  beast  by  sevens,  and  of  the  fowls 
of  the  air  by  sevens;  and  after  the  flood  Noah  built  an  altar,  and  took 
of  every  clean  beast,  and  every  clean  fowl,  and  offered  burnt  offer¬ 
ings.  Fourthly,  the  Chinese  derive  the  name  of  Fohi  from  his  obla¬ 
tion;  and  Moses  gives  Noah  his  name  upon  account  of  the  grant  of 
the  creatures  for  the  use  of  men,  which  he  obtained  by  his  offering. 
Lastly,  the  Chinese  history  supposes  Fohi  to  have  settled  in  the  pro-- 
vince  of  Xeusi,  which  is  the  northwest  province  of  China,  and  near 
to  Ararat,  where  the  ark  rested 

*3huckford,  vol,  1,  42.  flbich  vol.  1,  p.  48,-  *Ibid.  vol.  1.  p.  82,- 


224  DEBATE. 

We  would  occupy  (said  Mr.  Campbell)  many  hours  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  such  documents  as  these,  which  are  the  most  ancient  in  the 
world,  all  corroborating  the  Mosaic  account: — 

,  “Not  only  has  it  proved  impossible  to  overthrow  any  of  the  numer¬ 
ous  facts  which  the  scriptures  record,*  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  are 
confirmed,  in  a  very  striking  manner,  by  the  traditionary  accounts  of 
all  nations. 

“In  answer  to  Mr.  Hume’s  assertion,  that  the  books  of  Moses  are 
“corroborated  by  no  concurring  testimony,”  Dr.  Campbell  replies — 
“As  little,  say  I,  invalidated  by  any  contradictory  testimony ;  and  both 
for  this  plain  reason,  because  there  is  no  human  composition  that  can 
be  compared  with  this  in  respect  of  antiquity.  But  though  this  book 
is  not  corroborated  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  any  coeval  histo¬ 
ries,  because,  if  there  ever  were  such  histories,  they  are  not  now 
extant;  it  is  not  therefore  destitute  of  all  collateral  evidence.  The 
following  examples  of  this  kind  of  evidence  deserve  some  notice. 
The  division  of  time  into  weeks,  which  hath  obtained  in  many  coum 
tries,  for  instance,  among  the  Egyptians,  Chinese,  Indians,  and 
northern  barbarians — nations  whereof  some  had  little  or  no  inter¬ 
course  with  others,  and  were  not  even  known  by  name  to  the  He¬ 
brews — the  tradition  which  in  several  places  prevailed  concerning  the 
primeval  chaos  from  which  the  world  arose  —the  production  of  all 
living  creatures  out  of  water  and  earth,  by  the  efficacy  of  a  Supreme 
Mind — the  formation  of  man  last  of  all,  in  the  image  of  God,  and  his 
being  vested  with  dominion  over  the  other  animals — the  primitive 
state  of  innocence  and  happiness — the  subsequent  degeneracy  of 
mankind — their  destruction  by  a  flood,  and  the  preservation  of  one 
family  in  a  vessel.  Nay,  which  is  still  stronger,  I  might  plead  the 
vestiges  of  some  such  catastrophe  as  the  Deluge,  which  the  shells  and 
other  marine  bodies  that  are  daily  dug  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth) 
in  places  remote  from  the  sea,  do  clearly  exhibit  to  us.  I  might  urge 
the  traces,  which  still  remain  in  ancient  histories,  of  the  migrations  of 
people  and  of  science  from  Asia,  (which  hath  not  improperly  been 
styled  the  cradle  of  the  arts)  into  many  parts  both  of  Africa  and 
Europe.  I  might  plead  the  coincidence  of  these  migrations,  and  of 
the  origin  of  states  and  kingdoms,  with  the  time  of  the  dispersion  of 
the  posterity  of  Noah.” 

“Respecting  the  division  of  time  into  weeks,  Dr.  Campbell  re¬ 
marks,  “The  judicious  reader  will  observe,  that  there  is  a  great 
difference  between  the  concurrence  of  nations  in  the  division  of  time 
into  weeks ,  and  tkeir  concurrence  in  Ihe  other  periodical  divisions, 
into  years,  months ,  and  days.  These  divisions  arise  from  such  natural 
causes,  as  are  every  where  obvious ;  the  annual  and  diurnal  revolu¬ 
tions  of  the  Sun,  and  the  revolution  of  the  Moon.  The  division  into 
weeks ,  on  the  contrary,  seems  perfectly  arbitrary;  consequently,  its 
prevailing  in  distant  countries,  among  nations  which  had  no  comnni* 
nication  with  one  another,  affords  a  strong  presumption  that  it  must 
have  been  derived  from  some  tradition,  (as  that  of  the  creation)  which 
hath  been  older  than  th£  dispersion  of  mankind  into  different  regions  ” 


DEBATE. 


“To  this  last  article  may  be  added,  that  the  whole  of  the  fifteen 
southern  constellations  yield  their  testimony  to  the  ten  first  chapters 
of  Genesis.  First,  the  constellation  of  the  Ship :  secondly,  the  Altar, 
with  its  vast  body  of  fire  and  smoke  ascending  near  the  triangle,  the 
remarkable  Egyptian  symbol  of  Deity :  thirdly,  the  Sacrificer  *  fourth¬ 
ly,  the  Beast  about  to  be  sacrificed :  fifthly,  the  Raven  t  sixthly,  the 
Cup  of  libation:  seventhly,  eighthly,  and  ninthly,  the  greater  and’ 
lesser  Dog,  and  the  Hare,  situated  so  near  to  Orion,  the  great  and 
iniquitous  hunter  both  of  men  and  beasts.  The  whole  of  the  remain¬ 
ing  constellations  of  the  southern  hemisphere  are  composed  of  aquatic 
objects  or  animals,  and  may  be  considered  as  pointedly  allusive  to  a 
general  deluge. 

“Traditions  more  or  less  distinct,  which  corroborate  the  facts  re¬ 
corded  by  Moses,  and  which  prove  the  common  origin  of  mankind, 
are  found,  on  the  whole,  to  be  iiniform  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  They 
have  not  only  been  verbally  handed  down,  but  have  subsisted  in  the 
religious  observances  and  practices  of  all  nations.  These  are  not 
confined  to  the  old  world,  but  extend  also  to  the  new.  Thfe  first  dis¬ 
coverers  of  America  observed  there  a  reverence  for  the  Sabbath,  and 
an  acquaintance  with  many  of  the  appointments  of  the  Mosaic  institu¬ 
tion,  and  of  the  early  history  of  the  world.  “The  contents  of  some  of 
their  manuscripts  are  curious  in  a  high  degree.  One  is  a  cosmogony, 
which  contains  a  tradition  of  the  mother  of  mankind  having  fallen 
from  her  first  state  of  happiness  and  innocence ;  and  she  is  generally 
represented  as  accompanied  by  a  serpent.  We  find  also  the  idea  of  a 
great  inundation  overwhelming  the  earth,  from  which  a  single  family 
escaped  on  a  raft.  There  is  a  history  of  a  pyramidal  edifice  raised  by 
the  pride  of  men,  and  destroyed  by  the  anger  of  the  gods.  The  cere¬ 
mony  of  ablution  is  practised  at  the  birth  of  children.  All  these  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and  many  more,  led  the  priests  who  accompanied  the 
Spanish  army  at  the  time  of  the  conquest,  to  the  belief,  that  at  some 
very  distant  epocha,  Christianity,  or  at  least  Judaism,  had  been 
preached  in  the  new  continent.  I  think,  however,  says  Mr.  Humboldt, 
I  may  affirm,  from  the  knowledge  we  have  lately  acquired  of  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos,  that,  in  order  to  explain  the  analogy  of 
these  traditions,  we  have  no  need  to  recur  to  the  western  part  of  Asia, 
since  similar  traditions,  of  high  and  venerable  antiquity,  are  found 
among  the  followers  of  Brama,  and  among  the  Shamans  of  the  eastern 
Steppes  of  Tartary.” 

“The  institution  of  sacrifice,  which,  to  Mr.  Hume  appeared  absurd, 
and  which  certainly  did  not  originate  from  what  is  called  the  light  6f 
nature,  has  been  found  in  every  part  of  the  world. 

Whether  we  consult  the  religion  of  the  Greeks,  the  Goths,  or  the 
Hindoos,  we  every  where  meet  with  a  mediatorial  deity,  engaged  in 
combat  with  an  envenomed  serpent.  And  a  belief  that  the  place  of 
punishment  is  full  of  serpents,  equally  pervades  the  Jurothic,  the  Per¬ 
sian,  and  the  Hindoo  mythologies.  Can  any  one  imagine  that  such 
unlikely  combinations,  unaccountable  except  on  the  ground  of  a 
compon  descent  apd  revelation  from  God,  for  instance,  that  of  a  Tri- 


220 


DEBATE. 


unc  God,  could  have  accidentally  found  a  place  among  men  originally 
separate,  and  remote  from  each  other? 

“Traditions  have  been  traced  over  the  globe  of  the  creation — of  th6 
Sabbath  day — of  Paradise — of  the  fall  of  man — of  the  serpent-— of  the 
promised  Messiah — of  Cain  and  Abel — of  the  longevity  of  the  Patri¬ 
archs — of  the  number  of  generations  between  Adam  and  Noah — of 
the  Deluge — of  the  dove  sent  out  by  Noah — of  the  rainbow  as  a  sign 
— of  the  number  of  persons  preserved  in  the  ark — of  Noah  and  hits 
three  sons — of  the  Tower  of  Babel — of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  with  & 
variety  of  circumstances  respecting  these  particulars. 

“The  great  tower  in  the  temple  of  Belus  at  Babylon,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  same  which  was  built  there  at  the  confusion  of  tongues. 
As  described  by  Strabo,  it  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  works  in 
the  world.  Although  it  fell  short  of  the  greatest  of  the  Egyptian 
pyramids,  (which  was  a  square  of  700  feet  on  every  side,  while  this 
was  but  of  000,)  yet  it  far  exceeded  it  in  the  height  ;  the  perpendicu¬ 
lar  measure  of  that  pyramid  being  481  feet,  and  that  of  the  tower  000. 
It  is  particularly  attested  by  several  authors  to  have  been  all  built  of 
bricks  and  bitumen,  as  the  scriptures  tell  us  the  tower  of  Babel  was. 
Herodotus  says  that  the  going  up  to  it  was  by  stairs  on  the  outside, 
round  it.  When  Alexander  took  Babylon,  Calisthenes  the  philoso¬ 
pher,  who  accompanied  him  thither,  found  they  had  astronomical 
observations  for  1903  years  backwards  from  that  time;  which  carried 
up  the  account  as  high  as  the  115th  year  after  the  flood,  which  was 
within  15  years  after  the  tower  of  Babel  was  built. 

Concerning  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  Tacitus,  relates,  that  a  tradition 
■still  prevailed  in  his  days,  of  certain  powerful  cities  having  been  de¬ 
stroyed  by  thunder  and  lightning;  and  of  the  plain  in  which  they 
were  situated  having  been  burnt  up.  He  adds,  that  evident  traces 
of  such  a  catastrophe  remained.  This  historian  concludes  with  ex¬ 
pressing  his  own  belief  in  this  awful  judgment,  derived  from  an 
attentive  consideration  of  the  country  in  which  it  was  said  to  have 
happened.  In  a  similar  manner  Strabo,  after  describing  the  nature 
of  the  lake  Asplialtis,  adds,  that  the  whole  of  its  appearance  gives  an 
air  of  probability  to  the  prevailing  tradition ,  that  thirteen  cities,  the 
chief  of  which  was  Sodom,  were  once  destroyed  and  swallowed  up  by 
earthquakes,  tire,  and  an  inundation  of  boiling  sulphureous  water. 

“The  account  which  Lucian  (a  professed  scoffer  at  all  religions, 
who  lived  in  the  second  century,)  has  given  of  the  tradition  of  the 
flood,  in  his  Dialogues,  is  as  follows :  Having  visited  the  temple  of 
Hierapolis,  he  says,  “The  popular  story  is,  that  this  temple  was 
founded  by  Deucalion,  the  Scythian,  in  whose  time  the  great  flood 
is  said  to  have  happened.  I  was  no  stranger  to  the  account  of  it  by 
the  Greeks,  which  is  as  follows;  “Notone  of  us  now  living  is  de¬ 
scended  from  the  original  race  of  men,  who  all  perished;  and  we, 
numerous  as  we  are,  are  no  other  than  a  second  race,  sprung  from 
Deucalion.  The  Aborigines,  we  are  informed,  were  apt  to  be  very 
arrogant,  full  of  mischief,  and  continually  transgressing  the  la\vs, 
inhogpitable  to  strangers,  deaf  U>  supplications,  and  would  say  ©r 


DEBATE. 


227 


swear  any  thing;  in  which  offences  they  Were  overtaken  by  the 
severity  of  justice.  The  earth  on  a  sudden  opened  its  sluices,  heavy 
showers  of  rain  came  down,  the  rivers  swelled,  the  sea  rose  till  the 
waters  every  where  prevailed,  and  every  mortal  was  drowned  except 
Deucalion  alone,  whose  discretion  and  piety  were  such,  that  he  was 
spared,  and  became  the  father  of  a  new  generation.  Having  a  large 
chest,  he  put  his  wives  and  children  in  it,  and  then  went  into  it  him¬ 
self;  which  was  no  sooner  done,  than  there  came  to  him  boars,  and 
horses,  and  lions,  and  serpents,  and  in  short  every  species  of  land 
animals,  all  in  pairs.  He  took  them  all  in;  and  Jupiter  had  ordered 
it  so,  that  they  neither  did  him  nor  one  another  the  least  injury,  but 
lived  and  sailed  together  in  perfect  harmony,  during  the  continuance 
of  the  flood,  all  in  the  same  chest.1”  This  I  was  told  by  the  Greeks. 
In  addition  to  which  the  Hierapolitans  relate,  that  a  large  chasm  was 
provided  in  their  country  to  absorb  the  water;  and  that  Deucalion, 
after  seeing  it  thus  disposed  of,  raised  altars,  and  built  a  temple  to 
Juno,  over  the  chasm.  It  was  but  a  small  hole  in  the  earth  when  1 
saw  it;  but  how  much  larger  it  might  have  been  formerly,  when  it 
held  so  much,  I  cannot  take  upon  me  to  say.  However,  as  a  proof  of 
what  they  advance,  water  is  brought  twice  in  the  year,  from  the  sea 
to  the  temple,  not  only  by  the  priests,  but  from  the  whole  country  far 
and  near,  by  Syrians,  Arabians,  and  great  multitudes  beyond  the 
Euphrates.  It  is  emptied  in  the  temple,  and  runs  into  the  opening 
below’,  which,  small  as  it  is,  takes  in  such  a  quantity  as  is  truly 
amazing.  This  it  seems  was  a  law  of  Deucalion,  to  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  his  deliverance  from  the  general  calamity.” 

“Various  Pagan  historians  speak  of  Moses,  the  lawgiver  of  the 
Jews:  Diodorus  Siculus  calls  him  a  man  of  most  superior  wdsdom 
and  courage.  lie  mentions  the  departure  of  Israel  from  Egypt;  of 
their  advancing  into  Palestine,  and  seizing  upon  a  number  of  cities, 
particularly  Jerusalem.  He  speaks  of  their  worship,  their  tribes,  their 
code  of  laws,  by  which  they  were  kept  separate  from  every  other 
people;  of  the  priesthood  appointed  in  one  family;  of  judges,  instead 
of  kings,  being  appointed  to  decide  all  controversies  among  them,  of 
the  superior  authority  being  vested  in  the  chief  priest ;  and  that  Moses 
concluded  the  volume  of  his  laws,  with  claiming  for  them  divine  in¬ 
spiration.  Strabo  also  mentions  various  particulars  respecting  Moses. 
Eupolimus  likewise  celebrates  him  as  being  the  first  w'ise  man.  and 
the  inventor  of  letters,  which  the  Phoenicians  received  from  the  Jews, 
*md  the  Greeks  from  the  Phoenicians.” 

Friday  forenoon,  17  th  April ,  1829. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. — -  , 

My  friends — Mr.  Campbell  put  to  me  yesterday  one  or  two  ques¬ 
tions,  to  which  he  requested  a  reply.  One  of  these  questions  was. 
Whether  1  believed  in  the  testimony  of  history?  Now’  I  believe  the 
historical  fact  recorded  in  Roman  history,  that  Cesar  conquered 
Pompey,  and  that  Cesar  was  assassinated  in  the  senate  house;  and 
l  believe  «a  certain  number  of  the  prominent  and  leading  facts  cf  all 


DEBATE. 


228 

histories  which  seem  to  be  generally  attested,  and  upon  what  id 
deemed  the  best  authority  that  can  be  obtained,  when  not  opposed  by 
the  divine  laws  of  human  nature.  But  I  do  not  believe  much  of 
the  details  of  either  profane  or  sacred  history.  I  know  how  difficult 
it  is  for  individuals  to  go  away  from  this  meeting  and  relate  facts 
precisely  as  they  occurred  here.  Then  what  degree  of  faith  can  we 
have  in  narratives  put  upon  record  many  years  after  the  facts  which 
they  relate  are  said  to  have  happened,  and  every  conceivable  oppor¬ 
tunity  and  motive  to  falsify  them?  I,  therefore,  believe  but  few  of 
the  facts  related  in  history,  where  the  historian  attempts  to  penetrate 
into  the  motive  of  the  actors;  for  almost  all  the  proceedings  of  men 
have  been  secret  measures,  of  the  real  motives  to  the  performance  of 
which  the  public  knew  nothing,  or  were  grossly  deceived.  I  know  of 
nothing  more  fallacious  in  its  nature  than  history,  sacred  or  profane ; 
and  when  opposed  to  the  known  laws  of  nature,  their  testimony,  how¬ 
ever  testified,  is  of  no  value  whatever.  It  is  a  sure  sign,  when  these 
are  received  with  authority,  that  early  erroneous  impressions  have 
not  been  obliterated. 

Mr.  Campbell’s  next  question  to  me  was,  What  is  a  fact?  I  re¬ 
plied,  that  a  fact  was  any  thing  which  exists.  Mr.  Campbell  says 
that  it  is  not  a  fact  that  he  has  two  eyes;  but  it  surely  is  a  fact,  that  he 
has  two  corporeal  eyes.  It  may  be  a  fact  with  regard  to  our  mental 
vision  that  we  may  not  have  two  eyes ;  for,  most  unfortunately  for 
many  of  us,  we  have  not  yet  been  enabled  to  see  with  more  than 
half  an  eye. 

Some  gentleman,  to  me  unknown,  has  handed  me  a  note,  which  I 
will  read: — 

“Mr.  Owen — Was  man  originally  created  or  uncreated 
Now,  my  friends,  when  I  can  answer  this  question,  I  can  answer 
every  other  of  a  similar  mysterious  nature.  I  do  not  know  whether 
an  original  man  was  created  or  not.  And  1  do  not  think  it  is  of  much 
consequence  to  any  of  us  that  we  should  know  the  fact.  As  soon  as 
we  shall  have  facts  to  enable  us  to  form  a  rational  conjecture  upon 
this  topic,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  discuss  it. 

Yesterday  I  was  obliged  to  conclude  my  address  in  the  midst  of  my 
endeavors  to  explain  to  you  the  facte  which  compel  me  to  believe  that 
the  religions  of  the  world  are  the  causo  of  almost  all  its  sufferings. 
The  sufferings  produced  by  religion  are  all  those  which  emanate  from 
falsehood,  deceit,  and  hypocrisy,  from  poverty,  and  from  disunion 
arising  from  a  difference  of  feelings,  opinions,  and  interests.  But 
the  sufferings  arising  from  these  causes,  the  genuine  fruit  of  all  re-* 
ligions,  are  tolerable  applicable  to  the  common  affairs  of  life.  But 
not  so  when  compared  writh  the-miseries  experienced  by  so  many 
human  beings  from  a  disappointment  of  the  affections,  or  from  a  deep 
conviction  that  they  are  not  sound  in  the  true  faith;  and  that,  from  the 
advanced  state  of  their  minds  in  a  knowledge  of  some  facts,  it  is 
impossible  to  become  so.  And  thus,  with  the  fear  of  hell  and  eternal 
punishment  continually  before  their  eyes,  they  are  made  as  miserably 
as  human  nature  can  endure  this  side  of  madness;  or,  until  after  mapy 


DEBATE. 


220 


years  of  suffering,  insanity  comes  to  the  relief  of  their  nature — for  “a 
wounded  conscience  who  can  bear?”  All  these  sufferings  are  pro¬ 
duced  solely  by  religion;  and  if  you  wish  details  of  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  afflictions  arising  from  a  system  which  exacts  a  compulsory 
belief,  L  will  refer  you  to  the  proceedings  on  the  subject  of  religious 
belief  in  the  early  ages — to  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition — to  the 
burnings  which  have  taken  place  in  Christendom,  even  in  England— 
and  to  the  numerous  receptacles  for  mad  persons,  to  he  found  at  this 
day,  in  every  part  of  the  civilized  world:  to  say  nothing  of  the 
annual  murders  perpetrated  under  the  chariot  wheels  of  Juggernaut  , 
or  upon  the  funeral  pile  of  the  Suttee.  In  the  course  of  my  travels  I 
have  uniformly  taken  occasion  to  inquire  of  the  superintendents  of 
lunatic  asylums  what  was  the  most  fruitful  source  of  insanity;  and 
they  have  invariably  informed  me  that  it  was  over-excitement  of  mind 
on  the  subject  of  religion — that  religious  insanity  constituted  by  far 
the  most  numerous  class  of  cases.  In  reply  to  the  question,  What 
was  the  next  most  fruitful  source  of  mental  alienation?  they  have  told 
me  that  it  was  the  disappointment  of  the  affections.  Such  have  been 
the  consequences  of  attempting  to  compel  men  to  think  that  they 
were  culpable  on  account  of  their  thoughts,  belief,  and  opinions, 
never  yet  under  the  control  of  their  will,  or  for  their  likings  or  dis- 
likings  towards  their  fellowr-creatures,  which  were  equally  forced 
upon  them  by  the  laws  of  their  nature.  Many  in  this  assembly  have, 
I  doubt  not,  experienced  grievous  suffering  in  consequence  of  having 
been  trained  in  these  pernicious  errors;  whereas,  had  you  been  train¬ 
ed  to  have  rational  views  upon  these  subjects,  you  would  just  as  soon 
have  thought  of  tormenting  yourselves  because  you  wei'e  not  six  feet 
high.  There  is  just  as  much  reason  and  common  sense  in  attempting 
to  compel  men  and  women  to  be  of  the  same  height.,  as  to  endeavor  to 
make  them  think  and  feel  alike  upon  subjects  not  resting  upon  certain 
and  unchanging  facts. 

•  I  have  only  laid  before  you  a  few’,  out  of  the  innumerable  reasons 
which  might  be  adduced  to  prove  that  the  religions  of  the  world  have 
been  the  real  cause  of  the  vice,  disunion,  and  unhappiness  which  now 
pervade  society;  and  that  it  has  been,  mediately  or  immediately,  di¬ 
rectly  or  indirectly,  the  real  cause  of  all  the  evils  with  which  the 
human  race  has  been  afflicted  ,  We  come  now,  my  friends,  to  the 
fourth  division  of  our  subject,  w'hich  is,  if  I  recollect  aright,  that  “the 
errors  in  which  all  religions  are  founded,  are  the  real  cause  which 
now  prevents  the  establishment  over  the  earth  of  a  society  of  virtue, 
of  intelligence,  of  charity  in  its  most  genuine  sense,  and  of  sincerity 
and  kindness  among  the  whole  human  family.”  And,  my  friends,  if 
religion  be  the  only  obstacle  to  such  a  happy  consummation  as  this,  it. 
is  surely  high  time  that  this  obstacle  were  removed.  “  What  is  virtue T* 
is  another  question  which  Jias  been  put  to  me.  Virtue,  my  friends, 
according  to  the  best  idea  I  can  form  of  it,  is  that  course  of  conduct 
which  promotes  most  effectually  the  happiness  cf  man  individually 
and  collectively;  and  vice  is  that  course  of  conduct,  which,  by  the 
laws  pf  man's  nature,  tends  tokeep  him  in  ignorance  and  to  render 

^0 


230 


DEBATE. 


him,  individually  and  collectively,  unhappy.  Now  the  whole  course 
of  my  reading,  reflection,  and  observation — of  my  knowledge  of  man, 
derived  from  extensive  travel  and  observation  of  the  animal  man  in 
his  various  phases,  and  from  intimate  communication  and  interchange 
of  intelligence  with  the  first  blinds  I  have  been  able  to  meet  with — all 
these  reasons  concur  to  impress  upon  nay  mind  a  resistless  conviction 
that  the  only  barriers  now  existing  in  the  way  ofthe  establishment  of  a 
virtuous,  happy,  and  rapidly  progressive  state  of  society,  are  the  re¬ 
ligions  now  taught  in  the  world.  To  me  it  appears  the  essence  of 
filly  to  suppose  that  there  can  be  real  virtue  among  a  people  taught  to 
believe  that  they  have  the  pow7er  of  controlling  their  belief,  and  of 
liking  and  disliking  at  their  will.  These  two  errors,  so  long  as  they 
remain  the  paramount  circumstance  in  forming  the  mind  and  feelings 
*>f  the  human  race,  must  ever  present  an  impassable  barrier  to  our 
progress  jn  the  paths  of  virtue;  nay,  while  these  errors  continue  to  be 
impressed  on  the  infant  mind,  real  virtue  must  remain  hidden  from 
man.  These  two  pernicious  errors  engender  all  falsehood,  deception, 
and  hypocrisy.  These  are,  indeed,  the  natural  and  necessary  fruit 
of  the  tree — and  where  there  is  falsehood  and  deception,  there  can  be 
no  virtue ;  and  where  these  errors  exist,  truth  cannot  he  known ;  and, 
in  consequence,  your  present  state  of  society  is  built  altogether  upon 
falsehood  and  deception.  Where  there  is  disunion  of  feeling  and 
sentiment  there  can  be  no  more  than  the  appearance  of  virtue;  and 
religion  compels  you  to  imbibe,  at  a  very  early  age,  the  sole  cause  of 
this  disunion  of  sentiment  and  feeling,  and  to  regard  it  as  a  virtue. 
When  and  where  has  there  ever  been  harmony  and  unison  of  opin¬ 
ion  on  the  subject  of  religion?  So  well  is  this  understood  amongst 
the  most  enlightened  and  refined  circles  of  society,  that  they  have  ta¬ 
citly  entered  into  a  convention  never  to  broach  the  subject  of  religion, 
so  well  is  it  known  to  the  intelligent  and  best  educated  part  of  the 
European  population,  that  the  discussion  of  religious  topics  tends,  for 
the  time,  to  render  the  parties  beside  themselves  or  partially  insane. 
They  generally  establish  it  as  one  of  the  rules  in  their  learned  socie¬ 
ties,  for  the  improvement  of  the  human  mind  in  real  knowledge,  that 
religion  shall  not  be  introduced.  In  those  minds  in  which  there  is  not 
a  pure,  a  genuine  or  universal  charity,  derived  from  a  clear  and  dis¬ 
tinct  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  human  nature ;  which  excludes  not  a 
singleindividual  of  the  human  family,  from  our  kind  feelings  for  their 
happiness,  there  ean  be  no  virtue.  And  where  is  the  religion  that  does 
not  in  its  immediate,  direct,  and  necessary  tendency,  steel  the  heart  of 
man  against  the  admission  of  this  universal  charity  ?  I  can  command 
no  language  sufficiently  expressive  of  the  strength  of  my  conviction^ 
that,  religion  locks  up  the  heart  of  man  and  renders  it  impenetrable  to 
the  reception  of  a  single  charitable  feeling  for  those  who  are  opposed 
to  their  religion, or  most  ennobling  sentiment  are  not  materially  injured 
by  it.  To  what  country  shall  I  betake  myself,  in  order  to  find  true  chart- 
ty,  which  is  the  most  rational,  amiable,  and  beneficial  quality  of  human 
nature?  Has  it  ever  been,  even  up  to  the  present  hour,  allowed  fair 
play?  Had  it  not  been  checked  in  the  bud  by  religion,  it  would  have 


DEBAtiE. 


231 

been  the  most  natural  and  the  most  general  attribute  of  human  char¬ 
acter.  But  as  the  character  of  man  has  been  formed  by  the  religions 
of  the  world,  is  this  pure  charity,  or  even  the  semblance  of  it,  to  be 
found  in  Europe,  Africa  or  America?  I  have  sought  fjr  it  every 
where  as  the  pearl  above  all  price,  but  no  where  can  I  find  it,  or  even 
trace  a  faint  resemblance  to  it.  I  have  long  since  abandoned  tho, 
search,  for  to  find  it  where  any  religion  prevailed,  I  discovered  was 
utterly  hopeless.  This  divine  charity,  to  be  derived  only  from  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  human  nature,  never  has  existed  as 
a  virtue  to  any  people  from  the  beginning  of  time.  How  was  it  to  be 
produced?  Can  doctrines  which  teach  that  man  can  believe  or  dis¬ 
believe,  love  or  hate  at  pleasure,  teach  charity  ?  To  expect  the  tree  of 
religion,  my  friends,  to  produce  the  fruit  of  cha  rity,  were  just  as  irra¬ 
tional  as  to  expect  “figs  from  thorns,  or  grapes  from  thistles.”  There 
can  be  no  real  virtue,  where  there  is  not  kindness  and  affection  exist¬ 
ing  amongst  the  population — but  where  shall  we  look  for  this?  The 
Society  of  Friends  have  made  the  nearest  approximation  to  it  that  I 
have  yet  seen — hut  have  they  been  able  to  attain  to  this  indispensable 
pre-requisite,  for  virtue  and  social  happiness?  No, ,my  friends,  with 
the  most  ardent  desire  on  their  parts,  the  Society  of  Friends  have  nut 
been  able  to  attain  this  happy  state  of  individual  and  social  feeling,, 
They  have  failed  entirely,  and  why  ?  Because  there  can  be  no  real 
affection,  kindness  or  benevolence  of  feeling,  amongst  the  members  of 
any  class,  sect  or  party,  who  are  trained  in  the  notion  that  they  can 
believe  or  disbelieve,  like  or  dislike  at  will.  No,  to  search  after  a 
virtuous  population,  whilst  these  pernicious  and  fundamental  errors 
are  taught  to  the  people,  will  be  only  to  waste  our  time.  Then,  my 
friends,  if  you  really  wish  to  be  virtuous,  and  to  have  kind  and  affec¬ 
tionate  feelings  one  towards  another;  to  acquire  the  feelings  of  a  pure 
and  genuine  charity ,  that  shall  perpetually  exclude  from  your  bosoms 
every  unpleasant  and  unkind  feeling  towards  any  of  your  brethren 
of  the  human  family;  the  very  first  step  that  you  must  take  is  to 
discard  and  to  reject  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  together  with  all 
those  errors  which  these  religions  have  forced  into  your  minds.  When 
you  can  effect  an  amalgamation  between  oil  and  water,  you  may  ex¬ 
pect  to  find  real  virtue  and  religion  co-existed  in  the  same  people.  A 
population  virtuous ,  and  at  the  same  time  religious ,  never  has  existed ; 
and  if  I  know  any  thing  of  the  constitution  of  human  nature,  never  will 
exist.  And  as  to  our  progress  in  improvement  in  intelligence  in  other 
matters,  it  has  been  made  unaided  by  system  in  opposition  to  the 
established  and  prevalent  systems  of  religion  in  the  place  where  the 
improvements  were  made.  Religions  m  general  set  no  value  upon 
real,  or  what  they  term  worldly  knowledge. 

Amongst  every  population  over  the  world,  in  which  any  religion  has 
acquired  the  full  ascendency  over  the  minds  of  the  people,  there,  as  a 
necessary  consequence,  have  young, old,  and  middle  aged  been  plung¬ 
ed  in  the  darkest  night  of  ignorance.  How  indeed  is  it  possible,  that 
religion  and  intelligence  ever  can  exist  together?  The  one  has  its 
source  in  the  wildest  fancies  of  a  romantic  and  overstrained  imagina- 


DEBATE. 


lion — the  other  is  derived  from  fact,  and  is  founded  in  real  knowledge/ 
and  discoverable  onlv  by  the  clear  light  of  natural  revelation.  If  the 
Christian  religion  had  not  induced  and  sustained  and  continued  the 
dark  ages,  as  they  are  called,  how  different  would  have  been  the  state 
of  the  world,  during  that  period,  from  what  we  learn  from  history  it  has 
been  and  from  our  experience  it  is  now  ?  Why,  my  friends,  under  a 
national  system,  founded  on  the  obvious  laws  of  nature,  it  will  be  easy 
in  practice  to  give  more  knowledge  requisite  to  happiness  to  a  popula¬ 
tion  in  ten  years  to  come,  than  the  world  has  been  permitted  to  acquire 
in  the  last  two  thousand  years.  If,  therefore,  we  are  ever  to  become 
a  people  truly  intelligent,  our  first  preliminary  step  must  be  to  discard 
all  religions  and  the  incalculable  errors  of  every  description  which 
they  have  engendered.  It  is- religion,  my  friends,  which  destroys  all 
our  reasoning  faculties,  and  conjures  up  phantoms  to  affright  and  ecu  - 
found  all  the  human  faculties.  Were  it  not  for  the  degrading  and  de¬ 
basing  effects  of  the  various  religions  of  the  world,  bowing  down  the 
minds  of  mankind  to  receive  the  te  tellings  of  a  few  ignorant  mortals, 
w  ho  pretend  to  instruct  them  in,  to  them,  inconceivable  heavenly  mys¬ 
teries,  children  by  the  time  they  arrive  at  the  age  of  ten  years, 
might  with  ease  to  their  instructors, and  great  delight  to  themselvesrbo 
trained  to  the  acquisition  of  more  knowledge  than  is  at  present  possess¬ 
ed  by  any  priest  or  all  the  priest^  in  the  world.  Then,  my  friends, 
we  come  next  to  that  charity  whihh  it  is  necessary  to  possess  in  de¬ 
vising  a  system  for  the  education  of  children;  and  the  only  barrier 
that  1  know  of,  to  the  introduction  of  the  most  necessary  charity,  is 
religion.  But  so  long  as  religion  is  tolerated,  this  charity  also,  can 
find  no  resting  place  upon  earth. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises — 

“A  copious  history  of  the  Jewish  legislator  is  given  by  Antapanus, 
in  which  the  oppression  of  the  Israelites;  the  night  of  Moses  into 
Arabia,  and  his  subsequent  marriage;  a  circumstance  similar  to  that 
of  the  burning  bush;  his  divine  commission  to  deliver  his  country¬ 
men;  the  transformation  of  his  rod  into  a  serpent;  the  various 
plagues  of  Egypt,  the  spoiling  of  the  Egyptians ;  the  passage  through 
the  Red  Sea;  the  destruction  of  Pharaoh  and  his  host;  and  the  sup¬ 
port  of  the  Israelites  by  manna  in  the  wilderness,  are  all  mentioned. 
He  is  further  said  to  have  been  the  person  whom  the  Greeks  call 
Museus,  the  preceptor  of  the  celebrated  Orpheus.  The  same  author 
asserts  that  the  passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  Red  Sea  was 
not  unknown  to  the  Heliopolitans,  who  gave  the  following  account  of 
that  supernatural  transaction.  “The  king  of  Egypt,  as  soon  as  the 
Jews  had  departed  from  his  country,  pursued  them  wffth  an  immense 
army,  bearing  along  with  him  the  consecrated  animals.  But  Moses 
having,  by  the  divine  command,  struck  the  wqters  with  his  rod, 
they  parted  asunder,  and  afforded  a  free  passage  to  the  Israelites. 
The  Egytians  attempted  to  follow  them,  when  fire  suddenly  flashed 
in  their  faces,  and  the  sea,  returning  to  its  usual  channel,  brought  a 
universal  destruction  upon  their  whole  army.” 


DEBATE. 


233 


*‘The  circumstance  of  the  Egyptians  being  struck  with  lightning, 
fts  well  as  being  overwhelmed  by  the  waves,  is  mentioned  in  the  77th 
Psalm,  although  unnoticed  in  the  Pentateuch. 

“Diodorus  Siculus  relates,  that  the  Ichthyophagi,  who  lived  near 
the  Red  Sea,  had  a  tradition  handed  down  to  them  through  a  long  line 
of  ancestors,  that  the  whole  bay  was  once  laid  bare  to  the  very 
bottom,  the  waters  retiring  to  the  opposite  shores;  and  that  they 
afterwards  returned  to  their  accustomed  channel  with  a  most  tremen¬ 
dous  revulsion. 

“Even  to  this  day,  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighborhood  of  Corondel 
preserve  the  remembrance  of  a  mighty  army  having  been  once 
drowned  in  the  bay  which  Ptolemy  calls  Clysma. 

“The  very  country  where  the  event  is  said  to  have  happened,  in 
some  degree  bears  testimony  of  the  accuracy  of  the  Mosaical  narra¬ 
tive.  The  scriptural  Ethen  is  still  called  Etti.  The  wilderness  of 
Shur,  the  mountain  of  Sinai,  and  the  country  of  Par  an ,  are  still 
known  by  the  same  name;  and  Mar  ah,  Elath,  and  Midian  are  still 
familiar  to  the  ears  of  the  Arabs.  The  grove  of  Elim  yet  remains, 
and  its  twelve  fountains  have  neither  increased  nor  diminished  since 
the  days  of  Moses. 

“The  names  which  are  assigned  by  Moses  to  eastern  countries  and 
cities,  returned  to  them  immediately  from  the  patriarchs,  their  origin¬ 
al  founders  are  for  the  most  part  the  very  names  by  which  they 
were  anciently  known  all  over  the  East  ;  many  of  them  were  after¬ 
wards  translated,  with  little  variation,  by  the  Greeks,  into  their 
systems  of  geography.  Moses  has  traced  in  one  short  chapter,  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  from  the  Caspian  and  Persian  seas  to 
extreme  Gades,  to  their  original,  and  recorded  at  once  the  period  and 
occasion  of  their  dispersion. 

“The  late  Sir  William  Jones  has  very  satisfactorily  traced  the 
origin  of  all  the  people  of  the  earth  to  the  three  roots,  Shem,  Ham, 
and  Japheth;  according  to  the  account  given  in  the  10th  chapter  of 
Genesis.  The  fact  mentioned  by  him  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the 
first  dynasties  of  Peruvian  kings  are  dignified  exactly  as  those  of 
India  are,  by  the  name  of  the  Sun  and  Moon. 

“Sir  William  Jones  has  shown,  that  the  traditions  of  the  present 
heathen  nations  of  Asia  are  not  of  more  ancient  authority  than  the 
traditions  of  the  ancient  nations  of  Asia  and  Europe. — “States  and 
empires,”  he  says,  “could  scarcely  have  assumed  a  regular  form  till 
fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  epoch;  and  for 
the  first  thousand  years  of  that  period  we  have  no  history  unmiked 
with  fable,  except  that  of  the  turbulent  and  variable,  but  eminently 
distinguished  nation  descended  from  Abraham. 

“The  Chinese  themselves  do  not  pretend  that  any  historical  monu¬ 
ment  existed  among  them,  in  the  age  of  Confucius,  more  ancient 
than  1100  years  before  the  Christian  epoch. 

“The  dawn  of  true  Indian  history  appears  only  three  or  four  centu¬ 
ries  before  the  Christian  era;  the  preceding  ages  being  clouded  by 
allegory  or  fable.” 

20* 


DEBATE, 


<)•>  i 

“Truth  is  always  consistent  with  itself,  and  acquires  an  accession 
of  evidence  from  every  thing  with  which  it  stands  connected.  It  is 
not  only  beyond  the  power  of  perverted  ingenuity  and  learning  to 
invalidate  the  truth  of  the  facts  recorded  in  the  earlier  parts  of  the 
scriptural  history,  but  they  are  confirmed  by  the  traditions  of  all 
nations  in  a  manner  the  most  indubitable.”* 

We  have  now,  we  presume,  exhausted  your  patience  on  this  dry 
but  still  interesting  part  of  the  argument.  We  predicate  nothing  on 
these  documents  further  than  this,  that,  so  far  as  the  antiquities  of 
nations  have  descended  to  us,  there  is  corroborative  evidence  of  the 
Mosaic  account,  and  not  a  single  testimony  against  it. 

There  is  more  absurdity  in  my  friend’s  last  address  than  could, 
perhaps,  be  disproved  in  a  week.  I  have  enumerated  fifty-four  dis¬ 
tinct  assertions  adduced  in  his  last  address,  and  in  the  same  space  of 
time  1  could  utter  fifty-four  entirely  distinct  from  my  opponent’s. 
But  what  would  be  the  results,  what  the  convictions  arising  from 
such  a  style  of  disputation.  If  this  is  to  pass  for  argument,  demon¬ 
stration,  or  proof  among  the  sceptics,  I  think  their  case  is  indeed 
irremediable.  Men  do,  indeed,  talk  of  reason,  and  eulogize  her, 
and  compare  her  with  Christianity;  but  I  have  uniformly  remarked 
that  sceptics,  after  a  few  compliments  to  their  goddess  at  the  thresh- 
hold,  afterwards  treat  her  with  great  neglect.  I  had  intended  to-day 
to  present  a  recapitulation  of  my  argument,  and  of  my  opponent’s 
also;  but.  on  examination  I  could  not  find  that  lie  had  advanced  a 
single  new  idea.  I  could  discover  nothing  but  what  he  has  already 
more  than  once  present.  He  has  only  given  us  another  revisal  of 
his  divine  code.  In  reiterating  this  code  he  did,  I  acknowledge,  pass 
a  few  compliments  upon  the  general  character  of  man.  We  have 
been  told,  among  other  things,  that  we  have  not  rational  faces;  that 
Chore  are  few  indices  or  proofs  of  any  sort  of  reasoning  powers  ex¬ 
hibited  in  any  Christian  community;  and  to  Christian  communities 
ho  ascribes  ail  the  vices  of  the  world.  For  what  purpose  should  I 
attend  to  such  a  style  of  argument?  No  good  could  result.  By 
recognizing  it  as  worthy  of  notice  1  should  be  deprived  of  opportunity 
to  advance  any  good  arguments  in  favor  of  Christianity.  On  Mr. 
Owen’s  principles  he  can  commit  no  sin  against  decorum  or  any 
tubing  else.  He  cannot  recognize  any  being  taking  cognizance  of  his 
motives  against  whom  he  can  sin.  He  acknowledges  no  responsi¬ 
bility  to  any  tribunal,  none  to  the  moderators,  none  to  the  audience* 
Upon  his  own  principles  he  cannot  sin,  and  is,  therefore,  incapable 
of  conviction  upon  our  premises. 

Yesterday  we  were  told  that  we  were  neither  more  nor  less  than 
mere  particles  of  matter,  consequently  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
either  virtue,  religion,  or  morality,  in  the  common  acceptation  of 
those  terms,  I  know  that  the  terms  heaven ,  divine  law,  religion * 
virtue,  an  1  morality,  are  occasionally  used  by  Mr.  Owen.  But  in 
what  sense  or  application  he  uses  them  are  cot  known.  We  have 
ewied  upon  him  repeatedly  for  a  definition  of  these  terms.  Surely; 

*  Haldane's  Evidences,  vol.  p.  179— 194.  ' 


DEBATE, 


235 


it  must  be  known  to  Mr.  Owen  that  in  argument  definitions  must 
be  settled.  Now  I  would  ask  this  audience  if  they  have  any  idea  of 
what  Mr.  Owen  means  by  virtue ?  What  are  his  ideas  of  virtue? 
What  virtue  can  a  being  who  is  altogether  material  possess  ?  Why, 
he  tells  us  that  it  is  to  pay  a  just  regard  to  our  passions  and  feelings; 
or,  in  other  words,  that  a  virtuous  course  is  that  which  secures  to  us 
the  greatest  amount  of  animal  enjoyment.  So  that  virtue,  with  Mr.' 
Owen,  is  nothing  more  than  a  new  name  for  appetite  gratified,  and 
his  morality  is  nothing  more  than  the  capacity  to  minister  to  animal 
enjoyment.  This  is  most  unquestionably  what  Mr.  Owen  means  by 
virtue  and  morality. 

In  regard  to  the  term  fact  Mr.  Owen  repeats  that  “any  thing  which 
exists  is  fact .”  Now  I  believe  I  hold  mere  verbal  criticism  in  as 
slight  regard  as  most  men,  but  by  this  loose  method  of  defining  terms 
and  using  them,  it  is  impossible  ever  to  arrive  at  a  logical  conclusion. 
We  asserted  yesterday  that  whatever  is  done  is  a  fact ;  but  that  nothing 
which  is  not  done  can  be  called  a  fact — this  I  affirm  is  the  true  im¬ 
port  of  the  term.  In  common  parlance  we  use  this  and  other  terms 
vaguely,  but  when  we  come  to  logical  and  philosophical  discussion 
this  will  never  do.  If  it  be  necessary  in  mathematics  to  have  a  strict 
definition  of  our  terms,  it  is  equally  necessary  here.  What  is  the 
difference  between  a  fact,  a  truth,  an  opinion,  and  a  belief?  Why, 
there  is  just  as  distinct  a  meaning  annexed  to  these  terms  in  my  mind 
as  to  the  eye,  the  ear,  or  any  other  organ  or  member  of  the  human 
body.  The  term  truth  is  the  most  general  and  comprehensive  of  alb 
We  have  logical  and  mathematical  truths,  and  so  on  through  the  whole 
circle  of  the  sciencs;  and  it  means  no  more  than  a  coexistence  and 
consentaneousness  with  the  thing  of  which  it  is  affirmed.  When  facts 
are  called  stubborn  things  w  hich  are  to  revolutionize  the  wrorld,  it  is 
surely  necessary  that  we  should  understand  the  import  of  the  term ; 
but  here  we  are  at  issue — Mr.  Owen  says  a  fact  is  that  which  exists; 
on  the  other  hand,  we  affirm  that  a  fact  is  tha.t  which  is  done.  Nowg 
according  to  Mr.  Owen’s  definition  every  thing  that  has  any  existence 
real  or  imaginary,  is  a  fact.  If  a  house  is  composed  of  fifty  thousand 
bricks,  it  is  composed  of  fifty  thousand  facts!  It  is  true  that  1  have 
two  eyes ;  but,  in  the  legitimate  use  of  terms,  it  is  not  a  fact.  It  is 
a  fact  that  Mr.  Owen  has  addressed  you;  that  he  has  exhibited  his 
twelve  laws  several  times;  expounded  and  applied  them.  But  their 
existence  upon  that  paper  is  not  a  fact.  It  is  a  fact  that  they  were 
written,  read,  and  explained;  because  all  these  things  were  done. 
Historic  facts  are  those  which  have  been  done  in  former  times,  and 
put  upon  record. 

After  my  opponent’s  definition  of  the  term  fact,  he  w7as  pleased  fo 
admit  that  he  had  some  credulity ;  that  he  believed  that  Julius  Cesar 
was  assassinated  in  the  Capitol,  and  that  this  same  Cesar  conquered 
Pompey.  He  also  admitted  that  he  believed  some  other  facts  in 
Roman  history.  He  believes  in  the  existence  of  an  inquisition,  of 
the  cruel  persecutions  of  the  Puritans,  and  he  believes  in  the  prac¬ 
ticability  of  instituting  anew  social  system  which  is  to  revolutloHifce 


DEBATE. 


236 

the  world :  these  ar e  facts  which  he  says  he  believes.  Now  take  the 
most  notorious  of  these  facts— viz.  that  Cesar  was  assassinated  in 
the  senate  house,  and  let  him  produce  the  evidence  on  which  his 
belief  rests.  I  say,  let  him  produce  the  historic  evidence  on  which 
he  rests  his  belief  in  this  fact;  and  I  will  produce  a  hundred  fold 
more  historic  evidence  of  every  species  to  prove  that  Jesus  Christ 
rose  from  the  dead. 

My  friend  is  himself  a  striking  contradiction  to  his  whole  doctrine 
of  circumstances,  because  we  see  him  before  us  such  a  being  as  it  is 
impossible  his  circumstances  could  ever  have  formed.  His  views, 
sentiments,  feelings,  and  whole  course  of  conduct  are  antipodes  to 
those  of  men  reared  and  trained  under  circumstances  of  the  same 
character  with  his  own.  What,  I  should  like  to  be  informed,  has 
differed  Mr.  Owen  from  his  neighbors?  lie  has  asserted  that  our 
faith  is  entirely  involuntary,  and  that  our  volitions  have  nothing  to 
do  with  our  belief;  but  he  has  just  shown  you  that  he  disbelieves  his 
own  sixth  law.  He  has  the  most  voluntary  kind  of  faith  I  ever  knew* 
He  wills  to  believe  all  history  that  reflects  any  stigma  upon  nominal 
Christians — the  cruelties  and  persecutions  practised  by  pretended 
disciples  of  him  who  prohibited  all  violence,  cruelty,  and  revenge;  he 
wills  to  believe  certain  matters  of  fact  from  Roman  history.  The 
rest  he  wills  to  disbelieve. 

The  reason  why  I  have  not  replied  to  the  calumnies  cast  by 
Mr.  Owen  upon  the  Christian  religion,  is,  because  we  thought 
them  unworthy  of  a  reply.  But  Mr.  Owen  ought  to  come  to  close 
quarters,  armed  with  the  artillery  of  his  twelve  facts.  In  order  to 
bring  Mr,  Owen  to  close  quarters,  I  presented  him  with  a  written 
outline  of  my  exceptions  to  some  of  his  most  important  facts,  or 
laws  of  human  nature,  or  whatever  he  may  prefer  to  call  them.  This 
paper  Mr.  Owen  has  not  condescended  to  notice.  I  shall,  therefore, 
take  the  liberty  to  read  it  to  you  in  order  that  you  may  judge  for  your¬ 
selves  whether  it  merits  the  contempt  with  which  it  has  been  treated. 
You  will  then  judge  whether  Mr.  Owen,  as  a  philosopher,  is  not 
bound,  and  especially  on  the  ground  he  has  assumed,  to  discuss  the 
merits  of  the  document  presented : — 

EXTRACT  FROM  OWEN’S  LAWS  OF  OUR  NATURE. 

6.  “That  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  he  must  believe  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  strongest  i  mpressions  that  can  be  made  on  his  feelings  and 
other  faculties.” 

9.  “That  the  highest  health,  the  greatest  progressive  improvements, 
and  the  most  permanent  happiness  of  each  individual,  depend,  in  a 
great  degree,  upon  the  proper  cultivation  of  all  his  physical,  intel¬ 
lectual,  and  moral  faculties  and  powers,  from  infancy  to  maturity; 
and  upon  all  those  parts  of  his  nature  being  duly  called  into  action 
at  their  proper  period,  and  temperately  exercised  according  to  the 
strength  and  capacity  of  the  individual” 


DEBATE. ' 


23* 


NOTES  UPON  MR.  OWEN’s  SIXTH  LAW, 

The  object  of  this  law  is  to  prove  man  a  necessary,  and,  therefore, 
an  irresponsible  agent. 

{^Belief  must,  in  all  cases,  be  the  effect  of  testimony,  as  knovv^ 
ledge  is  of  experience;  which  latter  is  always,  and  in  all  case?*,  the 
proper  and  necessary  effect  of  sensation,  perception,  memory,  and 
consciousness;  or,  is  the  necessary  result  of  one  or  more  of  these 
faculties.  Wherefore,  unless  we  confound  belief  with  knowledge, 
it  has  nothing  to  do  with  our  sensations  or  feelings,  whether  external 
or  internal  feelings;  but  depends  entirely  upon  testimony- — of  the 
validity  of  which  reason  is  the  sole  and  competent  judge.  But,  sup- 
pose  with  the  said  law,  that  “our  belief  has  no  dependence  upon  our 
w  ill” — What  then?  How  does  this  effect  our  responsibility,  to  destroy 
which  is  the  obvious  design  of  said  law?  Is  jot  trill  ?  or  volitior , 
the  last  practical  act  of  the  mind — the  determination  of  the  mind  to 
action,  whether  internal  action  or  external?  Is  it  not  the  effect  of 
appetite — of  affection — of  passion — of  judgment  ?  And  although  it 
may  proceed  from  any  one,  or  more,  of  these  motives ;  yet,  in  rational 
creatures,  ought  it  not  to  be  always  under  the  control  cf  reason — of 
judgment?  And  if  we  judge  or  reason  rightly,  according  to  the 
documents  within  our  power,  we  will  necessarily  trill  to  do  what, 
upon  the  whole,  appears  right,  or  preferable  to  do.  And  this  we' will 
most  certainly  do,  if  we  possess  the  documents  of  Christianity,  and 
act  accordingly.  For  it  is  axiomatically  right  for  the  rational  creature 
to  love,  adore,  and  obey  its  Creator,  Preserver,  Redeemer,  and  graci¬ 
ous  Benefactor;  to  whom  it  stands  indebted  for  every  thing  enjoyed 
or  promised.  These  things  being  so,  the  only  necessity  the  rational 
creature  is  subject  to,  according  to  its  nature,  is  to  act  right;  that  is* 
{^according  to  the  best  documents  which  are  within  its  power,  or  of 
which  it  can  avail  itself.  To  act  thus,  would  most  certainly  be  to 
act  circumstantially  right;  than  which,  no  rational  creature  can  act 
better:  and,  in  the  case  supposed,  would  inevitably  lead  to  piety, 
temperance,  justice,  and  charity; — Would  infallibly  secure  benevo¬ 
lence  to  all,  according  to  our  ability  and  their  necessity,  <fcc.  Now, 
if  to  these  happy  results  of  the  just  necessity  of  acting  up  to  this  6th  law 
of  our  rational  nature,  as  explained  above,  we  add  the  requirements 
of  the  9th,  in  order  to  promote  and  secure  our  highest  and  most  perma¬ 
nenthappiness,  by  cultivating,  in  the  best  and  highest  manner,  all  our 
powers  and  faculties,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  from  infancy 
to  maturity,  and  in  •calling  them  forth  into  action  at  the  proper  pe¬ 
riods; — will  we  not  especially  cultivate  and  call  into  action,  as  fast, 
and  as  far  as  possible,  these  powers;  the  improvement  and  exercise 
of  which,  contribute  most  to  this  high  and  benevolent  design  of  our 
creation;  namely,  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God;  with  all  the  bliss¬ 
ful  and  glorious  hopes  and  assurances  of  the  gospel,  both  present  and 
,  future:  all  of  which  are  attainable  by  faith  only  ?  Will  we  not,  there- 
f  >re  cultivate  the  faculty  of  believin'?,  with  which  we  are  so  liberally 
endowed  from  our  very  infancy,  that  our  progressive  happiness,  our 
diversified  gratification,  may  increase  as  fust  as  possible-— may  gfoyr 


DEBATE. 


with  our  grotvth,  and  strengthen  with  our  strength.  For  who  kndwa 
not  that  O^the  chief  of  our  gratifications  consist  in  the  exercise  of  our  J 

minds  upon  the  most  lovely  and  interesting  objects?  And  what  can 
equal  for  grandeur,  for  beauty,  for  variety,  for  interest,  for  permanen¬ 
cy — the  glorious,  the  wonderful,  and  lovely  objects,  presented  to  our 
minds  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  allure  our  souls  to  the  love  of  piety 
^,nd  benevolence — of  all  manner  of  virtue  and  goodness?  Or  what  so  * 
terrible  or  dissuasive  as  the  exhibitions  Of  the  divine  displeasure  against  li, 

every  species  of  impiety,  of  iniquity,  and  cruelty  to  our  fellow-  k 

creatures?  And  are  not  these  things  addressed  and  adapted  to  our  < 

intellectual  faculties?  Have  we  not  the  faculty  of  believing  upon 
testimony — nf  discerning  its  credibility — of  loving  and  hating — of 
hoping  and  fearing — of  admiring,  desiring,  rejoicing — of  gratitude 
and  resentment?  And  does  not  our  intellectual  happiness  consist  in 
a  duly  apportioned  succession  of  those  exercises  towards  their  proper 
objects?  Does  not  the  8th  law  of  our  nature  demand  variety  in  order  i 
to  healthful  enjoyment?  And  does  not  the  law  under  consideration 
call  for  the  cultivation  of  our  moral  faculties?  And  are  not  the  above  h 
objects  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  these  faculties? 

But  to  proceed.  We  have  farther  proof  of  the  designed  or  involun- 
tary  ambiguity  of  our  opponent.  He  still  persists  in  the  use  of  the  j 
word  created .  What  is  the  import  of  the  word  created?  In  reply  to 
this  question,  Mr.  Owen  says  that  he  does  not  know  whether  he  ever 
W.as  created.  Therefore,  for  Mr.  Owen  to  use  the  term  created  is  an 
imposition  upon  our  language  and  feelings.  What  is  the  import  of  the 
word  feeling?  What  does  Mr.  Owen  mean  by  applying  the  term 
belief  to  the  strongest  imoressions  made  upon  our  feelings?  If  I  put. 
my  finger  into  the  fire  l  feel  that  I  am  burned ;  but,  according  to  Mr.  , 
Owen’s  use  of  terms,  from  this  feeling  results  my  belief  that  I  am 
burned ;  and  I  ought,  to  speak  in  his  style,  to  say  that  I  believe  I  am  i 
burned,  and  that  this  belief  is  involuntary.  We  have  protested  already 
against  this  licentious  use  of  terms.  We  have  affirmed  that  the  term 
belief  cannot  have  reference  to  our  sensations,  but  can  only  be 
applied  legitimately  to  matters  dependent  upon  testimony ;  that  where 
there  is  no  testimony  there  can  be  no  belief.  It  is  common,  wre  admit, 
to  say,  that  we  have  the  testimony  of  our  own  eyes,  or  cars;  but  this 
is  language  merely  eulogistic  of  the  utility  and  perfection  of  those 
organs;  but,  in  strict  propriety  of  speech,  we  cannot  use  the  term 
belief  where  there  is  neither  oral ,  written ,  nor  traditional  testimony 
But,  with  Mr.  Owen,  the  word  belief  is  nomen generalissimum — a  word 
of  the  most  general  and  comprehensive  signification- — almost  equiva¬ 
lent  in  the  latitude  in  which  he  uses  it  to  a  universal  language*  If  I 
feel  hot  or  cold,  wet  or  dry,  sick  or  well,  weary  or  refreshed,  accord¬ 
ing  to  Mr.  Owen’s  latitudinous  use  of  the  word,  I  must  say  that  I 
believe  that  I  feel  all  these  varied  sensations. 

He  says  that  each  individual  is  so  created  that  he  must  believe 
according  to  the  strongest  impression  made  upon  his  eye,  or  ear,  or 
nose,  or  heart,  or  any  appetite,  passion,  or  power  which  he  possesses ; 
er,  in  other  words,  fire  will  burn  him,  water  will  drown  him,,  ajid 


DEBATE. 


239 

the  breeze  will  cool  hioi  whether  he  will  it  or  not;  and  therefore  this 
belief  is  involuntary.  From  such  confusion  of  terms  we  may  infer 
that  there  is  a  corresponding  confusion  of  ideas;  for  confusion  of 
terms  is  the  offspring  either  of  confusion  of  ideas,  or  a  mistake  of 
the  meaning  of  terms.  Whatever  a  person  clearly  conceives,  he  can 
clearly  express- — Verba  sequntum  res;  or,  in  English,  words  follow 
ideas  is  a  true  and  instructive  maxim.  )VhoIe  systems  of  error,  when 
analysed,  have  been  found  to  proceed  from  a  misapprehension  and 
misapplication  of  terms.  And.  indeed,  1  am  not  without  very  con¬ 
siderable  misgivings  that  this  may  be  one  radical  cause  of  the  illusion 
which  has  captivated  my  friend  and  opponent  Mr.  Owen. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

My  friends-— In  this  discussion  I  am  to  prove  and  establish  certain 
points.  Mr.  Campbcl*,  on  tlie  other  hand,  has  undertaken  to  disprove 
them.  The  course  I  have  pursued,  plainly  indicates  how  much  I 
wish  to  reply  to  Mr.  Campbell’s  observations,  whenever  he  brings  for¬ 
ward  any  thing  that  to  me  appears  rationally  and  legitimately  enti¬ 
tled  to  a  grave  reply  ;  but  when  Mr.  Campbell  endeavors  to  intro¬ 
duce  into  this  debate  theological  speculations  which  none  but  those 
trained  in  them  can  perceive  belong  to  the  subjects,  I  really  cannot 
reconcile  it  to  my  notions  of  the  propriety  and  decorum  which  the 
dignity  of  this  debate  requires  to  be  mutually  and  reciprocally  obser  -^ 
ved ;  to  indulge  myself  in  any  reply  to  what  I  conceive  to  be  so  im*^ 
pertinently  irrelevant  to  the  real  merits  of  the  question ;  therefore 
when  I  do  not  give  Mr.  Campbell  a  direct  reply,  you  must  do  me  the 
justice  to  believe  that  I  cannot  recognize  the  matter  propounded  as 
applicable  to  the  questions  before  us.  I  now  perceive  that  Mr.  Camp¬ 
bell’s  associations  of  ideas,  are,  indeed  very  different  on  these  subjects, 
to  those  combinations  which  have  been  forpied  in  the  most  intelligent 
minds  in  the  most  advanced  societies  in  Europe  and  America.  He 
has  been  evidently  always  within  religious  circumstances  and  his 
mind  is  overwhelmed  with  their  influences.  While  I  have  fortunate¬ 
ly  escaped  out  of  them,  and  freely  examined  and  experienced  the  in¬ 
fluences  of  almost  all  the  other  circumstances  to  be  found  in  civilized 
society.  Mr.  Campbell,  therefore,  thinks  that  important  to  the  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  subjects  before  us,  which  I  know,  in  the  present  com¬ 
paratively  advanced  state  of  knowledge,  not  to  be  deserving  of  any 
record  in  our  proceedings,  and  I  therefore  pass  it  over  without  further 
notice.  Mr.  Campbell  has  informed  you  that  it  was  not  in  the  nature 
of  man  to  be  compelled  to  support  clerical  institutions  against  their 
will,  and  to  pay  . them  money.  In  reply  I  request  him  to  ask  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  if  the  large  sums  which  they  annually  contribute 
to  support  the  established  church  of  England,  in  Ireland,  are  not  ren¬ 
dered  solely  against  their  will;  and  in  England  large  sums  are  ex¬ 
tracted  from  the  Jews  and  dissenters  in  support  of  their  established 
Religion,  solely  against  their  inclination. 

But  the  most  singular  misconception  of  Mr.  Campbell  is  in  relation 
fo  the  laws  which  govern  our  belief  of  facts.  Now  there  is 


DEBATE. 


'240 

thing  more  familiar  to  the  human  mind  than  that  when  we  read 
history  and  find  the  facts  stated  to  be  in  the  regular  order  of  nature, 
to  be  well  attested,  and  not  contradicted,  by  other  equal  authority,  for 
us  to  believe  such  facts  to  be  true.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  when  we 
-read  of  facts  stated  to  exist,  which  are  opposed  to  the  well  ascertain¬ 
ed  laws  of  our  nature,  and  which  require  stronger  evidence  than  any 
history  can  afford;  we,  as  rational  beings,  are  compelled  to  withhold 
our  belief  in  such  statements;  and  it  does  not  depend  upon  our  will, 
fbr  we  cannot  do  otherwise.  In  the  reading  of  history,  it  does  not 
depend  upon  me  to  believe  or  disbelieve  the  historic  facts  related — 
one  set  of  facts  I  can  believe  without  effort,  whilst  another  appears  so 
improbable,  it  becomes  impossible  to  force  myself  to  believe  them. 

I  have  been  asked  for  my  definition  of  the  word  fact.  Now  using  the 
word  in  its  common  acceptation  it  is  considered  to  be  a  fact  or  no  fact, 
that  man,  at  birth,  is  ignorant  of  his  organization ;  and  so  on  through¬ 
out  the  whole  twelve  facts  which  I  have  stated.  These  are  either 
facts  or  no  facts ;  and  it  is  Mr.  Campbell’s  business  and  duty  to  show 
to  the  contrary,  if  he  does  not  believe  them  to  be  facts.  But,  w  hat 
perplexes  Mr.  Campbell  is  the  exclusive  attention  he  has  paid  to  met¬ 
aphysics — his  attention  has  never  been  directed  to  the  examination 
•and  ascertainment  of  facts.  The  difference  between  Mr.  Campbell 
and  myself  is  this :  I  have  for  many  years  attended  to  nothing  but 
facts,  and  Mr.  Campbell  to  nothing  but  imagination.  For  instance* 
with  regard  to  the  fundamental  law  of  our  nature.  It  is  either  a  fact 
or  no  fact  that  we  have  the  pownr  of  believing  or  disbelieving  at  will. 

I  have  put  the  test  to  Mr.  Campbell,  and  he  has  shown  the  fact  t« 
be  so  true  that  there  is  no  opposing  of  it.  In  like  manner  I  would 
say  that  it  is  a  fact  that  man’s  will  has  or  has  not  power  over  his  be¬ 
lief;  in  like  manner,  it  is  a  fact  that  we  know  those  things  of  which 
wTe  are  informed  by  the  evidence  of our  senses,  and  we  are  compelled 
to  believe  those  things  which  are  thus  forced  into  our  minds  upon  the 
merits  of  the  testimony  which  verifies  them.  In  like  manner  it  is  or 
is  not  a  fact  that  all  religions  of  the  world  have  been  founded  in  ignor- 
ance.  My  affirmative  is,  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  have  been 
founded  in  ignorance;  I  offer  proof  and  arguments  in  support  of  this 
proposition  ;  and  all  Mr.  Campbell  might  say  for  a  thousand  years 
would  be  but  idle  words  unless  he  can  disprove  this  fact.  1  tell  you 
nothing  but  truths,  my  friends,  and  when  you  come  to  reflect  coolly 
Upon  my  statements,  and  to  study  facts  for  yourselvs,  you  may  depend 
upon  it  that  you  will  find  these  much  more  true  than  the  gospel ;  and  i 
it  is  now  these  very  errors  that  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  society 
of  charity  in  its  most  extensive  sense  aver  the  world.  Mr.  Campbell 
and  I  take  a  great  deal  of  pains  not  to  be  angry  wfith  each  other,  but 
w'ere  it  not  for  the  erroneous  notions  implanted  by  religion,  we  should 
have  no  angry  feelings  on  account  of  difference  of  opinion,  and 
our  present  discussion  would  only  be  a  little  pleasant  excitement  • 
to  us  both. 

But  to  be  again  serious  upon  these  important  subjects.  The  rcli 
,gipns  of  the  world  are  the  only  cause  why  we  cannot  establish  a  s© 


DEBATE. 


24  i 

£lety  that  shall  have  sincerity  for  its  foundation — for  where  religious 
notions  prevail  there  can  be  no  real  sincerity.  All  religions  pre-sup- 
pose  that  all  men  should  think  alike  upon  the  fundamental  principles 
of  each  peculiar  religion;  and  therefore  many  professors  of  it  are 
compelled  by  various  considerations  to  conceal  their  real  sentiments, 
and  to  live  in  a  state  of  continual  deception.  At  present  there  is  scarce¬ 
ly  any  thing  to  be  found  in  society  that  merits  the  name  of  truth — 
Scarcely  upon  any  occasion  are  you  told  the  truth,  except,  perhaps, 
when  I  come  among  you,  and  then  I  know  how  disagreeable  it  is  to 
you.  But  I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  we  shall  all  have  the 
happiness  of  speaking  what  we  think  and  feel ;  and  to  do  this,  and  to 
experience  all  the  beneficial  results  of  a  conduct  so  rational  would  be 
to  produce  heaven  upon  earth.  We  have  discovered  by  experience 
in  some  few  instances,  what  fine  feelings  are  produced  by  such  con¬ 
duct.  If  we  only  knew  each  other  as  wre  are  know  n,  as  we  should 
do  by  speaking  only  what  we  really  thought  and  felt,  we  could  not 
>avoid  acquiring  great  kindness  towards  each  other.  Wherever  you 
find  an  open,  honest  character  without  deceit,  that  character  gets 
through  the  world  without  difficulty.  It  is  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
ourselves  and  of  each  other,  that  can  alone  lay  the  foundation  of  love 
and  affection,  inhuman  society.  Upon  no  other  base  can  permanent 
and  extensive  kindness  and  sincerity  be  established ;  and  that  not  in  a 
little  circle  of  a  few  hundred  thousand,  or  a  few  millions,  but  among 
the  whole  family  of  man.  It  is,  therefore,  true,  as  I  have  stated,  that 
religion  is  the  only  barrier  in  the  way  of  forming  a  society  of  virtue, 
intelligence,  and  kindness,  and  charity  in  its  most  extended  sense, 
among  the  w'hole  human  family;  for  as  soon  as  we  can  get  rid  of  the 
errors  of  religion,  there  can  be  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  forming 
a  society  with  these  qualifications.  Then  we  shall  have  no  local  or 
geographical  prejudices— no  district  religions ;  but  all  will  be  so  train¬ 
ed  as  to  recognize  no  line  of  demarcation  between  man  and  his  fellow 
— wre  shall  all  feel  ourselves  to  be  of  one  family,  and  act  as  if  we  really 
were  so.  But  to  form  a  society  of  virtue,  intelligence,  and  charity  in 
its  most  extended  sense,  and  of  sincerity  and  kindness,  we  must  first 
know  what  manner  of  beings  we  are;  and  when  we  discover  how  we 
are  organized,  and  how  our  character  is  subsequently  produced,  there 
can  be  no  difficulty  in  establishing  a  society  of  this  kind  as  soon  as 
every  thing  in  religion  that  is  opposed  to  the  laws  of  our  nature,  shall 
be  withdrawn  from  the  world.  We  shall  then  know  how  to  create 
circumstances,  which  cannot  fail  to  communicate  to  each  individual, 
the  most  superior  character,  of  which  his  organization  is  susceptible. 
jNo  religion  has  ever  yet  formed  any  uniformly  good  character  for 
mankind;  but  understanding  the  laws  of  our  nature,  we  learn  to  take 
a  mathematical  course.,  to  form  a  character  greatly  superior  to  any 
that  ever  has  existed. 

We  may  think  the  invention  of  a  ship,  of  a  time-piece,  of  spinning 
machines,  or  the  steam  engine,  &c.  of  great  importance ;  but  what 
are  these,  compared  with  the  science  which  shall  teach  us  the  right 
mode  to  form  jnto  excellence,  every  child  that  shall  come  into  exist- 

2i 


242 


DEBATE, 


<ence.  By  this  science,  we  shall  be  instructed  how  to  train  the  phys¬ 
ical,  intellectual,  and  moral  qualities  of  children,  in  the  best  manner, 
and  thereby  enable  them  to  attain  a  high  point  of  perfection — and  yet 
their  faculties  will  never  be  exercised  beyond  the  point  of  temperance. 
The  constitution  of  our  nature  is  such,  that  all  our  faculties  must  be 
cultivated  and  exercised,  or  else  we  become  but  parts  of  human 
beings,  and  therefore,  but  partially  happy.  Your  existing  modes  of 
training,  cause  you  to  be  human  beings  but  in  part — not  one  part  in 
ten  of  your  faculties  have  ever  been  developed,  or  called  into  action- 
but,  understanding  the  laws  of  our  nature,  we  shall  know  mathematic  ¬ 
ally  how  to  train  every  child  that  comes  into  existence. 

I  have  not  the  least  doubt,  but  each  of  us  might  have  been  trained 
to  be  much  superior  to  what  we  are.  Individually,  we  are  but  mere 
pigmies,  compared  to  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  although  as 
nations,  the  moderns  are  superior  to  them.  These  ancients  cultivated 
many  more  of  the  faculties  of  each  individual,  than  is  the  practice  in 
modern  times>  and  many  of  their  powers  were  much  better  brought 
out.  But  neither  these  ancients,  highly  as  their  physical  and  intel¬ 
lectual  powers  have  been  cultivated,  nor  any  of  our  immediate  ances¬ 
tors,  will  be  at  all  comparable  to  men  whose  physical  and  intellectual 
faculties  shall  be  understood,  experienced,  and  developed  as  they 
ought  to  be.  Our  present  views,  my  friends,  arc  very  cheering;  we 
have  the  prospect  of  breaking  the  shell  of  ignorance  and  darkness, 
which  has  so  long  imprisoned  our  faculties— -we  are  now  like  the 
chicken  picking  at  the  shell,  in  order  to  set  itself  at  liberty  and  see  the 
light.  This  will  be  a  glorious  era,  and  my  friend  Mr.  Campbell,  will 
assist  in  hastening  its  arrival,  for  he  has  a  strong  yearning  after  an 
improved  state  of  society,  which  he  calls  the  millennium.  At  present 
it  cannot  be  expected,  that  Mr.  Campbell  should  think  with  me — he 
has  a  powerful  mind,  but  has  experienced  the  natural  result  of  early 
prepossessions,  and  it  has  been  hurt  by  too  much  learning— but  when 
he  comes  to  compare,  to  investigate,  and  to  ascertain  facts,  I  do  ex¬ 
pect  that  he  will  become  a  powerful  apostle  in  the  cause  I  advocate. 
1  have  told  you  that  these  same  twelve  old  laws,  which  Mr.  Campbell 
does  not  seem  to  like,  will  point  out  to  us  practical  measures,  for  the 
promoting  and  securing  of  our  true  interests  and  happiness.  They 
develope  to  us  distinctly  the  mode  in  which  the  worst  characters  have 
been  formed ;  and  also,  how  the  medium  character  of  man,  (now  the 
only  kind  to  be  met  with)  has  been  produced.  They  further  point 
out  to  us  the  manner  in  which  all  may  be  made  to  possess  the  most 
superior  character.  And  I  have  very  little  doubt  that  it  will  be  found 
quite  easy  in  practice,  to  make  every  individual  of  the  second  genera¬ 
tion  greatly  superior  to  the  present;  and  beyond  all  comparison, 
superior  to  any  human  being,  whose  character  has  been  formed  under 
the  old  systems  of  the  world. 

I  have  now  gone  through  the  four  clauses  of  this  part  of  the  subject; 
I  have  given  you  my  reasons  for  being  compelled  to  believe  that  alj 
religions  have  been  founded  in  the  ignorance  of  man,  that  they  are  op  ¬ 
posed  to  the  unchanging  laws  of  our  nature,  and  are  the  real,  spurce  of 


DEBASE. 


24  3 


vice,  disunion,  and  misery  of  every  description;  and  that  they  are 
now  the  only  bar  to  the  formation  of  a  society  over  the  earth,  of  virtue, 
intelligence  and  happiness. 

We  now  come  to  the  last  clause  of  the  subject,  which  is,  that  these 
religions  can  no  longer  be  maintained,  except  through  the  ignorance 
of  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  the  tyranny  of  the  few  over  that 
mass. 

Do  you  know,  my  friends,  that  the  beginning  of  this  week,  in  this 
place  was  the  first  period  in  the  history  of  man,  when  truths  the  most 
simple  in  their  nature,  and  the  most  important  to  the  happiness  and 
well  being  of  man,  could  be  publicly  spoken.  There  never  has  been 
any  antecedent  time,  in  the  history  of  any  conntry,  in  which  any  indh 
vidual  has  been  permitted  to  speak  as  I  have  done. 

Mix.  Campbell's  next  address. 

We  would  suppose  from  the  various  oracular  predictions  which  nW 
IHend  delivers,  that  he  was  a  prophet.  He  has  been  giving  us  pre¬ 
diction  upon  prediction;  but  unfortunately  his  prophetic  reputation 
is  not  uniformly  sustained  by  the  accomplishment  of  former  predic¬ 
tions.  The  treachery  of  his  former  predictions  forbids  confidence 
in  the  present.  We  waited  past  the  time  for  the  fulfilment  of  his 
prophecy,  three  years  ago  uttered,  that  Cincinnati  would  become  a 
deserted  or  evacuated  city  before  two  years ;  that  the  citizens  would 
all  migrate  to  New  Harmony.  But  -we  still  find  a  few  people  living 
here,  and  the  sound  of  the  workman  is  yet  heard  in  the  streets. 

I  concluded  my  last  address  by  remarking  that  the  document  read 
to  you,  and  presented  to  my  friend,  was  drawn  up  with  a  view  to 
elicit  a  discussion  of  Mr.  Owen’s  favorite  position.  I  have  done 
every  thing  in  my  power  to  bring  him  to  an  issue  on  this  point,  but 
with  what  success  you  all  see.  We  have  given  you  definitions  of 
the  terms  fact,  faith ,  testimony ,  &c.  but  all  that  we  can  elicit  from 
Mr.  Owen  is  a  reiteration  of  the  assertion  that  every  thing  which  ex¬ 
ists  is  a  fact;  that  is,  if  his  library  contains  ten  thousand  books,  it 
consists  of  exactly  ten  thousand  facts.  Now  this  is  a  language  as 
novel  and  strange  as  is  the  theory  of  Mr.  Owen. 

We  have  asserted  that  Judaism  and  Christianity  were  founded 
upon  matters  of  fact — upon  things  done  by  the  divine  power ;  that 
these  facts,  in  the  first  instance,  were  attested  by  the  most  competent 
and  credible  witnesses;  that  their  testimony  was  delivered  to  the 
people  orally,  and  that  millions  believed  upon  their  oral  testimony; 
that  this  testimony  was  afterwards  put  into  a  written  form,  and  that 
in  this  shape  it  has  come  down  to  ns ;  and  that  upon  this  kind  of 
testimony  our  faith  in  Christianity  chiefly  rests.  Now  the  question 
before  us  is,  Whether  faith ,  thus  built  upon  testimony ,  is ,  or  is  not , 
influence d  by  our  volitions?  This  is  the.  naked,  simple  question,  which 
we  ought  now  to  discuss.  I  therefore  ask  my  friend,  for  the  sake  of 
coming  to  an  issue,  Whether  the  term  belief  imports  any  thing  more 
than  the  cordial  reception  of  testimony  ?  Is  this  belief  in  any  degree 
Influenced  by  our  volitions?  Is  not  volition  the  last  dictate  of  the 


DEBATE. 


■m 

understanding?  But  were  he  to  define  the  term  volition ,  we  would 
most  probably  discover  that  our  opponent  differs  from  ns  in  his  accep¬ 
tation  of  the  term.  But  suppose,  for  example,  I  have  a  friend  and  an 
Cnemy  :  I  have  conceived  such  a  character  of  my  enemy  as  to  find  it 
difficult  to  believe  a  good  report  of  him.  As  to  my  friend,  I  am  well 
disposed  to  believe  all  good  of  him.  Suppose,  then,  that  different 
persons  should  testify  to  me  something  in  favor  of  my  enemy  and  of 
my  friend  too — would  the  same  amount  of  evidence  in  both  cases 
produce  in  my  mind  the  same  degree  of  assurance  in  regard  to  the 
facts  related  ?  This  illustration  does  not  come  altogether  up  to  the 
point,  but  it  comes  near  enough  to  elicit  a  fair  investigation,  if  Mr„ 
Qvven  would  meet  the  question  upon  its  merits.  It  is  an  old  adage, 
that  we  too  easily  believe  what  we  wish  to  be  true ;  and  what  we  do  not 
wish  to  be  true,  with  difficulty  we  believe. 

Mr.  Owen  says  he  tells  the  truth:  that  is  enough;  you  must  be¬ 
lieve  him.  But  when  did  I  say  that  persons  could  not  be  compelled 
to  pay  money  against  their  wills  to  support  any  religion  ?  I  perceive 
that  if  I  continue  in  this  way,  merely  excepting  to  my  opponent’s 
premises,  he  will  continue  repeating  them,  as  if  a  repetition  of  his 
theory  was  sufficient  to  silence  all  objections,  and  carry  conviction 
to  every  heart.  These  twelve  facts,  in  this  way,  might  be  brought  to 
prove  or  disprove  any  thing.  Mr.  Owen  is  like  certain  witnesses 
which  sometimes  appear  in  our  courts:  when  cross-questioned,  they 
imagine  it  to  be  indispensably  necessary  to  go  over  the  whole  story 
again ;  and  if  they  are  ten  times  cross-examined,  they  cannot  be  made 
to  understand  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  begin  at  the  beginning  and 
fell  the  whole  story  over  again.  But  I  will  try  if  it  is  possible  to  get 
on  with  the  argument  in  some  other  way.  I  had  intended  a  full  re¬ 
capitulation  of  my  argument  from  the  beginning,  but  circumstances 
compel  me  to  confine  my  recapitulation  to  my  last  argument  finished 
yesterday.  The  following  were  the  outlines: — 

1.  We  attempted  yesterday  to  develope  still  farther  the  criteria  by 
which  we  distinguish  the  historic  facts  that  are  certainly  true,  from 
those  that  are  false  or  doubtful. 

2.  We  showed  that  the  facts  on  which  the  Jewish  religion  is  predi¬ 
cated  have  these  criteria, 

3.  We  next  demonstrated  that  it  would  be  impossible,  according  to 
our  experience,  to  institute  monuments,  or  commemorative  institutions, 
of  Alleged  facts  which  never  happened. 

4.  We  showed  that  circumcision,  the  Sabbath,  the  passover,  the 
redemption  of  the  firstborn,  the  selection  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  all 
the  Jewish  festivals,  were  commemorative  institutions  to  assure  pos¬ 
terity  of  the  indubitable  certainty  of  the  facts  on  which  their  religion 
was  built, 

5 .  We  alleged  that  the  types  and  symbols  of  the  Jews’  religion 
were  most  wisely  designed  to  furnish  the  world  with  a  supernatural 
vocabulary;  and  not  merely  to  establish  the  past  institutions,  but  to 
introduce  the  Christian  religion. 

r  w 


DEBATE. 


£45 


6.  We  then  asserted  that  there  was  no  contradictory  tefetihiony  con¬ 
temporaneous  with  the  Jewish  institution. 

7.  We  next  produced  corroborating  documents  from  the  remotest 
antiquities  of  the  surrounding  nations. 

An  ingenious  opponent  might  have  presented  me  with  one  or  other 
of  the  only  two  conceivable  objections  to  my  reasoning.  As  Mr. 
Owen  has  not  presented  them,  I  will  do  it  myself.  Human  ingenuity 
can  devise  but  two  objections  to  this  argument.  The  one  is,  that  these 
commemorative  institutions  were  imposed  upon  the  Jewish  nation  at. a 
period  long  posterior  to  the  times  when  the  alleged  facts  were  recorded 
to  have  transpired :  that  is  to  say,  that  some  five  hundred  years  after 
the  happening  of  the  events,  it  was  required  of  the  people  to  perform 
certain  actions  commemorative  of  them.  Now  the  question  is,  Is  it 
within  the  compass  of  our  experience  to  conceive  of  the  possibility  of 
any  people  being  induced,  at.  a  prescribed  time,  to  begin  solemnly  and 
scrupulously  to  observe  all  these  religious  customs,  and  conform  to 
all  these  commemorative  institutions,  if  the  reasons  assigned  were  not 
founded  on  demonstrated  facts?  The  question  is  just  this,  Could  we 
of  the  present  day  now  be  induced,  by  any  sort  of  influence,  from  this 
time  forth  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  an  event  said  to  have  hap¬ 
pened  a  hundred  years  ago,  of  which  we  have  no  satisfactory  proof? 
The  universal  experience  of  mankind  proves  that  we  could  not — it 
would  be  an  imposition  which  it  is  not  in  human  nature  to  submit  to. 
The  second  objection  which  might  be  urged  to  these  premises,  is,  that 
Moses  found  the  Jews  in  the  practice  and  observance  of  these  in¬ 
stitutions,  and  that  from  his  own  brain  he  manufactured  the  reasons 
for  them:  that  he  found,  for  example,  the  rite  of  circumcision  and  the 
institution  of  the  Levitical  priesthood  held  in  great  reverence  by  these 
people;  and  that  he  told  them  these  were  commemorative  of  certain 
matters  of  fact  recorded  in  their  history,  written  by  himself,  which 
they  had  never  heard  before;  but  that  he  now  reveals  to  them 
the  reason,  and  constrains  them  to  say  that  these  commemorative 
actions  have  respect  to  events  of  which  they  never  before  heard. 
On  this  hypothesis  the  difficulty  is  this  :  that  at  this  very  time  he  sug¬ 
gested  these  things  to  the  people,  they  must  have  inquired  with  deep 
interest  whether  these  reasons  assigned  by  Moses  were  the  true  ones; 
and  moreover,  this  absurdity  is  implied  in  the  objection  that  the 
people  had  been  long  in  the  practice  of  these  observances  without 
knowing  any  reason  for  them!  Neither  of  these  hypothesis  are  con¬ 
ceivable  upon  any  known  principle  of  human  nature,  and  these  are 
the  only  two  objections  which  can  be  offered  to  the  conclusion  which 
I  have  deduced  from  these  premises. 

I  know  that  the  reason  why  my  opponent  objects  to  receiving  the 
testimony  of  these  holy  men,  is  predicated  upon  a  principle  which  he 
has  not  avowed.  That  principle  we  wish  now  to  expose;  and,  there¬ 
fore,  before  we  enter  on  the  historic  argument,  we  must  present  you 
with  a  brief  analysis  of  the  reasonings  and  objections  of  David  Hume, 

David  Hume  affirms  that  “experience  is  our  only  guide  in  reason¬ 
ing  concerning  matters  of  fact,”  arid  that  “our  belief,  or  assurance 

21* 


246 


DEBATE. 


of  any  fact  from  the  report  of  eye-witnesses,  is  derived  from  no  other 
principle  than  experience ;  that  is,  our  observation  of  the  veracity 
of  human  testimony,  and  of  the  usual  conformity  of  facts  to  the 
reports  of  witnesses.” 

To  detect  the  sophistry  of  Hume,  we  must  give  a  true  definition  of 
experience : — 

Experience  is  either  personal  or  derived. 

uPersonal  experience  is  founded  in  memory,  and  consists  solely  of 
the  general  maxims  and  conclusions  that,  each  individual  has  formed 
from  the  comparison  of  the  particular  facts  he  hath  remembered.” 

“ Derived  experience  is  founded  in  testimony ,  and  consists  not  only 
of  all  the  experiences  of  others,  which  have,  through  that  channel, 
been  communicated  to  us ;  but  of  all  the  general  maxims  or  conclu¬ 
sions  we  have  formed,  from  the  comparison  of  particnlar  facts  at* 
tested.” 

Our  opponents,  by  the  term  experience ,  must  mean  personal  ex¬ 
perience,  unless  they  make  use  of  the  sophism  called  by  logicians, 
“a  circle  in  causes for  derived  experience  is  derived  from  testimony, 
and  cannot  be  contrasted  with  it;  for  it  is  the  same  with  the  assu¬ 
rance  attendant  on,  or  is  the  result  of  faith. 

Now  if  all  testimony  is  to  be  judged  by  our  personal  experience,  or 
by  our  memory,  or  senses,  we  shall  be  reduced  in  the  measure  of  our 
information  even  below  the  savage  himself.  It  will  be  impossible  for 
an  inhabitant  of  the  torrid  zone  to  be  assured  that  water  can  become 
solid  as  a  rock ;  or  for  an  Icelander  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  an 
animal  called  a  Negro.  No  number  of  witnesses,  however  credible , 
could  establish  such  facts  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  no  recollec¬ 
tion  of  seeing  them. 

The  sophistry  of  the  whole  reasoning  of  Hume  on  this  subject  rs 
involved  in  this  one  period 

“Testimony  is  not  entitled  to  the  least  degree  of  faith,  but  as  far  as 
it  is  supported  by  such  an  extensive  experience ,  as  if  we  had  not  a 
previous  and  independent  faith  in  testimony  wC  never  could  have  ac¬ 
quired .” 

David  Hume  asserts — “A miracle,  supported  by  any  htiman  testimo¬ 
ny,  is  more  properly  a  subject  of  derision  than  of  argument.”  p.  194, 
Again— “No  testimony  for  any  kind  of  miracle  can  ever  possibly 
amount  to  a  probability,  much  less  to  a  proof.”  Yet,  page  203,  he 
owns,  “there  may  possibly  be  miracles  or  violations  of  the  usual 
course  of  nature  of  such  a  kind  as  to  admit  of  proof  from  human  testi¬ 
mony  ;  though,  perhaps ,  it  will  be  impossible  to  find  any  such  in  all 
the  records  of  history.”  “Suppose,”  adds  he,  “all  authors  in  all 
languages  agree  that  from  the  1st  of  January,  1700,  there  was  a  total 
darkness  over  the  whole  earth  lor  eight  days.  Suppose  that  the  tra¬ 
ditions  of  this  extraordinary  event  is  still  strong  and  lively  among  the 
people,  that  all  travellers  who  return  from  foreign  countries  bring  us 
accounts  of  the  same  tradition,  without  the  least  variation  or  contra¬ 
diction,  it  is  evident  that  our  present  philosophers,  instead  of  doubting 


DEBATE.  2*7 

of  that  fact,  ought  to  receive  it  for  certain,  and  ought  to  search  for  the 
causes  whence  it  might  be  derived.'” 

This  same  Mr.  Hume  asserts  that  “ testimony  has  no  evidence  but 
what  it  derives  from  experience:  these  differ  from  each  other  only  as 
a  species  from  the  genus.” 

“The  love  of  the  marvellous  f  and  “ religious  affection ,”  are  assign¬ 
ed  as  the  great  causes  of  imposition  in  matters  of  testimony  concerning 
miracles  and  prodigies.  Mr.  Hume  and  other  sceptics  have  in  their 
constitution  a  little  of  the  love  of  the  marvellous;  but  instead  of  the 
religious  affection ,  they  have  a  strong  religious  antipathy .  Hence 
Mr.  Hume  says,  “Should  a  miracle  be  ascribed  to  any  new  system  of 
religion,  this  very  circumstance  would  be  a  full  proof  of  a  cheat,  and 
sufficient,  with  all  men  of  sense,  not  only  to  make  them  reject  the  fact, 
but  even  reject  it  without  farther  examination .” 

“The  violations  of  truth  are  more  common,”  says  the  same  author 
“in  the  testimony  concerning  religious  miracles.”  [ Gratuitous  decla  ¬ 
ration  /]  This  “should  make  us  form  a  general  resolution  never  to  lend 
attention  to  it,  with  whatever  specious  pretext  it  may  be  covered.” 

Mr.  Hume  and  other  Free  Thinkers  preach  implicit  faith,  and  warn 
their  followers  of  the  danger  of  consulting  reason.  “Beware,”  says 
Hume,  “of  inquiring  into  the  strength  of  the  plea;  for  those  who 
will  be  so  silly  as  to  examine  the  affair  by  that  medium,  and  seek 
particular  flaws  in  the  testimony ,  are  almost  sure  to  be  confounded.* 

Miracles  are  not  aided  in  gaining  credit  by  the  religious  affection ; 
for  all  the  Bible  miracles,  at  least  those  in  support  of  Christianity, 
are  rather  impaired  by  it.  Miracles  performed  in  proof  of  a  religion 
to  be  established,  and  in  contradiction  to  opinions  generally  received; 
and  the  evidence  of  miracles,  performed  in  support  of  a  religion 
already  established  and  in  confirmation  of  opinions  generally  receiv¬ 
ed,  are  in  the  former  case  not  aided  by  the  religious  affection;  and 
in  the  latter  case  they  are ;  but  as  is  the  advantage  in  the  latter,  so 
is  the  disadvantage  in  the  former.  Let  this  be  weighed. 

If  Mr.  Hume’s  dogmas  can  be  believed,  or  if  his  positions  on  testi¬ 
mony,  evidence,  and  experience  are  to  be  admitted,  then  it  follows* 
{for  this  is  his  system  in  one  sentence) — “It  is  impossible  for  the 
Almighty  to  give  a  revelation  attended  with  such  evidence  that  it  can 
be  reasonably  believed  in  after  ages,  or  even  in  the  same  age,  by  any 
person  who  has  not  been  an  eye-witness  of  the  miracles  by  which  it  is 
supported.” 

Dr.  George  Campbell,  of  Aberdeen,  in  his  Essay  upon  Miracles,  has 
made  these  and  other  positions  of  the  celebrated  Hume  appear  subjects 
of  derision  rather  than  of  argument.  I  do  not  think  there  is  to  be 
found  in  the  English  language  a  more  complete  and  masterly  refuta¬ 
tion  of  any  system  of  error,  than  is  the  Essay  upon  Miracles  of  the 
system  of  Hume.  Hume  felt  himself  defeated — completely  defeated.. 
He  never  replied  to  it.  And  1  have  it  from  living  testimony,.  that, 
when  Hume’s  friends  jested  him  upon  the  complete  defeat  of  his 
system,  ho  acknowledged  that  “the  Scotch  theologue  had  beaten 
him.*  But  such  was  his  pride  of  understanding,  that  he  did  not 


248 


DEBATE. 


publicly  acknowledge  his  defeat  in  any  other  way  tlian  by  never  pre¬ 
suming  to  answer  the  Essay.  It  is  mortifying  to  hear  the  dog  map  of 
Hume  brought  forward  by  his  sceptical  disciples,  and  attempted  to  be 
passed  current  as  oracular  precepts,  when  their  master  dared  not  to 
defend  them  himself.  There  is  not,  from  so  able  a  pen,  a  more  vulner¬ 
able  position  than  that  which  is  the  corner  stone  of  the  temple  of 
scepticism.  It  is  (hat  on  which  Mr.  Hume  rears  his  fabric,  viz.  that 
every  man’s  personal  experience  is  to  be  the  measure  and  standard  of 
his  faith.  He  that  has  never  seen  a  whale  cannot  believe  that  there 
is  one. 

No  man  can  have  any  experience  of  the  future.  Query — Ilow  do 
we  learn  that  the  future  will  resemble  the  past? 

“Our  belief  of  the  continuance  of  the  laws  ot  nature  cannot  be 
founded  either  upon  knowledge  or  probability,”  and  is  not  derived 
from  reason;  and  how  comes  it  that  Mr.  Owen  talks  with  so  much 
certainty  about  what  will  come  to  pass  hereafter!  No  man  can  speak 
of  the  future,  pretending  to  any  certain  knowledge,  but  the  Christian. 
Here  the  infidel’s  candle  goes  out;  and  except  he  obtains  some  oil  from 
the  lamp  of  revelation,  he  must  continue  in  perpetual  darkness. 

It  was  necessary,  my  triends  to  introduce  this  brief  analysis  of  the 
principle  objections  against  the  truth  of  the  Christian  miracles.  You 
will  easily  perceive,  that  sentiments  contained  in  my  extract  from 
Mr.  Hume,  are  the  reasons  of  Mr.  Owen.  Mr.  Owen  will  not  believe 
a  miracle,  because  it  is  contrary  to  his  experience — and  for  precisely 
the  same  reason,  no  people  who  had  not  travelled,  could  be  made  to 
believe,  that  there  existed  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  any  other  nation  or 
country  than  their  own. 

Lord  Bacon  hirnselfbtys  the  foundation  for  correcting  our  reasonings 
upon  this,  as  well  as  upon  other  subjects — some  of  his  aphorisms  are; 

Man  is  ignorant  of  every  iking  antecedent  to  observation. 

There  is  not  a  single  department  of  inquiry  in  which  a  man  does  not 
err ,  the  moment  he  abandons  observation. 

The  greater  part  of  all  human  knowledge  is  derived  from  testimony , 
hut  testimony  does  no  more  than  hand  down  to  us  the  observations  of 
others. 

What  is  science  but  a  record,  o/  observed  phenomena,  grouped  togeth¬ 
er  according  to  certain  points  of  resemblance,  wh  ich  have  been  suggest¬ 
ed  by  an  actual  attention  to  the  phenomena,  themselves? 

In  none  of  the  inductive  sciences  can  the  student  verify  every  thing  by 
his  own  observation;  he  must  rely  upon  testimony  for  the  large  majori¬ 
ty  of  facts.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  natural  sciences  of  geography, 
geology ,  and  chemistry . 

These  principles  are  not,  contrary  to  a  single  position  we  have  ta¬ 
ken  in  this  discussion;  indeed,  our  investigation  has  proceeded  upon 
these  as  the  basis  of  the  laws  of  investigation. 

The  great  question,  as  Chalmer’s,  I  think,  or  some  other  very  ar¬ 
gumentative  writer,  states;  the  great  question,  on  which  the  whole 
argument  rests,  is  this :  Shall  we  admit  the  testimony  of  the  apostles, 
upon  the  application  of  principles  founded  upon  observation ,  and  as 


DEBATE, 


249 


c&rtaih  as  is  our  experience  of  human  affairs;  or  shall  we  reject  that 
testimony  upon  the  application •  of  principles  that  are  altogether  beyond 
the  range  of  observation ,  and  as  doubtful  and  imperfect  in  their  na¬ 
ture  as  is  our  experience  of  the  counsels  of  Heaven*! 

The  former  is  founded  upon  experience,  the  latter  upon  assump¬ 
tion;  and  here  I  make  my  stand,  and  say,  Attack  it  who  may — that 
*>ur  laith  in  Christianity  is  most  certainly  based  upon  experience — - 
and  infidelity  upon  assumption — upon  assumpti6n  throughout.  If  Mr, 
Owen  call  rue  not  to  account  for  this,  I  hope  some  person  more  phi¬ 
losophic  than  he,  may  yet  do  it.  I  will  make  the  principles  of  the  in¬ 
ductive  philosophy,  too,  my  rule  and  guide-in  this  investigation. 

Mr.  Owen  has  frequently  told  us  of  our  extreme  ignorance — but 
how  emphatically  does  experience  contradict  Mr  Owen — only  look 
at  the  improvements  which  have  taken  place  in  the  lapse  of  the  last 
300  years — and  who  have  been  their  authors — who  have  laid  the  foun¬ 
dations  ? 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

My  friends — Mr.  Campbell  tells  you  that  I  am  a  false  prophet;  that! 
I  prophesied  some  time  ago,  that  in  a  few  years  Cincinnati  would  be 
depopulated.  But  you  know,  my  friends,  that  years  do  not  mean, 
the  same  thing  in  the  language  of  prophecy,  that  they  do  in  common 
language. 

Instead,  however,  of  Cincinnati  only  being  depopulated  in  a  few 
years,  the  fact  is,  that  all  large  cities  will  cease  to  be  such.  Their 
inhabitants  will  discover,  that  cities  are  combinations  of  circumstan¬ 
ces  extremely  injurious  to  every  individual,  and  therefore,  they  will 
be  compelled  by  a  distinct  knowledge  of  their  own  interest  to  remove 
out  of  large  cities,  and  to  form  smaller  associations,  to  enable  each  to 
enjoy  all  the  advantage  of  a  town  and  country  residence.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  we  shall  discover,  that  all  large  cities  are  highly  unfavor¬ 
able  to  the  happiness  of  individuals;  so  much  for  the  prophecy  of 
small  and  large  congregations  of  men  into  one  society.  Now,  my 
iriend  supposes  that  there  really  exists  a  desire  on  my  part,  not  to 
believe  the  truth ;  but  I  can  assure  him,  that  my  doubts  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity  originated  against  my  will.  I  was  most  anxious  to 
swallow  the  camel.  I  exerted  all  the  volition  or  which  Mr.  Camp¬ 
bell  speaks,  in  fighting  against  my  disbelief.  But  the  more  I  investi¬ 
gated,  the  more  strongly  was  I  compelled  to  believe  that  Christianity 
and  all  other  religions  were  founded  in  the  grossest  error.  With  all 
the  energy  of  volition  which  I  could  summon  to  my  aid,  I  found  it 
impossible  to  believe  that  which  was  contrary  to  nature.  I  cannot 
believe  that  the  power  which  fills  immensity,  which  pervades  all 
space,  and  occupies  the  universe,  contracted  itself  into  a  little  bush, 
in  order  to  speak  to  a  man.  I  am  just  as  much  able,  by  the  exercise 
of  my  volition,  to  fiy  to  the  stars,  as  I  am  to  believe  this.  Now  I  am 
come  to  the  last  clause  of  this  discussion,  in  which  I  state,  “that  the 
religions  of  the  world  can  he  no  longer  maintained  except  through 
4ie  ignorance  of  the  many,  and  the  tyranny  of  the  few  over  the  many  - 


£50 


DEBATE. 


Now,  my  friends,  what  do  you  think  is  the  most  powerful  engine,  that 
ever  was  contrived  by  human  ingenuity,  to  impose  the  grossest  igno¬ 
rance  upon  mankind,  and  to  keep  them  in  that  state?  Why  it  is  that 
cunning  contrivance  which  exists  so  generally,  pervading  every  vil¬ 
lage  and  hamlet,  of  preaching  Sunday  by  Sunday  to  the  people,  and 
most  arbitrarily  and  irrationally  withholding  from  them  the  right  of 
reply.  Train  up  any  population  in  such  a  system,  and  there  is  no 
absurdity  which  they  may  not  be  made  to  believe  implicitly;  and  by 
this  training  their  reasoning  faculties  are  sure  to  be  destroyed.  So 
long  as  society,  shall  tolerate  such  an  abuse  as  this,  ignorance  must 
continue  to  pervade  the  world.  While  a  particular  tribe  of  men,  shall 
be  permitted,  week  after  week,  and  year  after  year,  to  impress  upon 
your  minds  their  own  peculiar  notions,  without  any  right  of  reply  on 
your  side,  their  is  no  belief  however  monstrous  that  may  not  be  for¬ 
ced  into  your  minds.  Thus  it  is  that  these  religions  contain  the  seeds, 
and  the  germs  of  every  evil  that  the  human  mind  can  conceive.  And 
unless  this  tremendous  engine  can  be  altered,  or  destroyed,  it  must, 
my  friends,  continue  as  heretofore,  to  afflict  our  race  with  all  kinds  ot 
suffering.  So  long  as  it  is  permitted  to  continue  in  operation,  there 
is  neither  health  nor  hope  for  you;  you  must  forever  be  kept  in  the 
lowest  mental  degradation ;  and  so  long  as  the  governing  powers  and 
that  engine  are  united  and  co-operative,  or  the  prejudices  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  shall  support  such  a  system,  their  prospects  are  gloomy  indeed. — - 
This  engine  presses  them  down  into  the  lowest  depths  of  ignorance ; 
they  are  solemnly  assembled  to  receive  any  impression  their  instruc- 
ters  may  choose  to  give  them.  I  speak  not  this,  with  any  view  to 
hurt  the  feelings  of  those  individuals,  whom  circumstances,  and  the 
customs  of  society  have  placed  in  the  station  of  spiritual  teachers. — - 
I  know  that  some  of  the  finest  minds  among  them  do  not  believe  one 
word  of  what  the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed,  compel 
them  to  preach ;  for  when  their  existence,  and  the  support  ot  their 
families,  depend  upon  their  perseverance  in  that  course,  they  must  go 
forward  in  preaching  that  which  they  disbelieve,  or  they  must  starve. 
Therefore,  before  we  can  calculate  upon  any  valuable  improvement 
in  society,  we  must  secure  to  those,  whom  society  has  encouraged  to 
become  preachers  of  error,  the  continuance  of  their  former  support,  in 
order  that  no  preacher  shall  be  made  liable  to  poverty,  or  be  deprived 
of  a  comfortable  subsistence,  but  be  placed  in  an  independent  situa¬ 
tion,  to  teach  the  truth ;  and  this  is  the  best  practical  mode,  by  which, 
to  effect  the  change  without  evil.  I  know,  my  friends  how  strongly 
you  must  feel  the  first  time  you  have  your  early  pejudices  thus  oppo¬ 
sed;  but  I  do  not  come  before  you  as  a  quack  doctor,  who  promises 
to  do  much  for  you,  in  order  to  obtain  your  money;  but  I  come  to 
probe  your  wounds  to  the  bottom,  to  ascertain  the  true  cause  of  your 
diseases.  And  I  only  give  you  this  temporary  pain,  in  order  that 
you  may  be  placed  in  a  condition  to  enjoy  future  permanent  happi¬ 
ness.  If  the  few  can  be  convinced,  (as  I  trust  they  shortly  will  be,) 
that  the  old  systems  of  the  world  are  entirely  worn  out;  then  I  hope 
and  believe,  that  they  will  of  their  own  accord,  assent  to  the  adoption 


DEBATE, 


251 


of  rational  measures,  gradually  to  make  the  beneficial  change  I  pro¬ 
pose.  But  this  change  should  not  be  effected  by  harsh  measures* 
which  might  inflict  injury  upon  any  one;  I  should  regret  exceedingly 
that  any  individual  should  be  a  sufferer  by  the  introduction  of  the 
great  improvements  which  I  contemplate  for  the  human  race.  The 
great  object  I  have  had  in  view,  has  been  to  prepare  the  means  by 
Which  this  misrhty  moral  change  may  be  developed  and  consummated 
without  disturbance,  without  shock,  without  anger  or  strife  of  any 
kind.  And  I  think  I  do  see  most  distinctly,  all  the  necessary  steps 
which  may  be  taken  to  secure  the  attainment  of  these  highly  benefi¬ 
cial  objects.  I  am  busily  engaged  in  these  measures  at  present. 
When  I  leave  you,  I  shall  go  to  use  my  utmost  exertions,  to  lay  the 
basis  of  a  solid  and  permanent  peace  amongst  nations,  who  are  now 
doing  all  they  can  to  injure  each  other,  although  they  are  nominally 
at  peace.  I  have  a  great  many  arguments  by  which  to  prove,  that  it 
is  now  the  true  interest  of  all  nations  to  adopt  this  course ;  and  I  do 
not  know  of  any  thing  now  existing  in  the  condition  of  civilized  na¬ 
tions  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  a  solid  and  permanent  peace. — - 
The  peace  which  now  exists  amongst  them,  in  which  the  nations  are 
undermining  each  other,  whenever  their  interests  come  into  collision  , 
is  a  peace  much  more  nominal  than  real;  a  mere  trifle  would  break 
it:  a  whim  or  caprice  upon  the  part  of  one  or  two  individuals  might 
easily  set  Europe  in  a  flame,  and  thence  carry  war  and  devastation 
into  the  four  quarters  of  the  world,  and  for  no  good  purpose  produce 
endless  suffering  and  misery  to  individuals.  Nations,  like  individu¬ 
als,  are  now  injuring  each  other  without  any  benefit  to  themselves. 

In  pursuance  of  this  object,  I  shall  probably,  before  you  see  me 
again,  travel  half  round  the  world;  and  before  1  return  from  the 
pursuit  of  public  affairs,  in  most  countries  great  changes  may  be  ex¬ 
pected.  Having  now  got  through  the  exposition  of  my  views,  I  am 
quite  wiMing  to  leave  the  matter  with  the  public,  After  Mr.  CamP” 
bell's  reply,  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  rejoin. 


£ND  OF  VOk  I. 


DEBATE 


ON  THE 


OF  CHRISTIANITY  i. 


CONTAINING 

AN  EXAMINATION 

OF  THE 


AND  OF 


A  LL  THE  SYSTEMS  OF  SCEPTICISM  OF  ANCIENT  AND 

MODERN  TIMES. 

HELD  IK  THE  CITS'  OF  CINCINNATI,  OHIO,  FROM  TIIE  13th 
TO  TIIE  21st  OF  APRIL,  1829;  BETWEEN 

ROBERT  OWEN, 

OF  NEW  LANARK,  SCOTLAND,  AND 

ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL. 

OF  BETHANY,  VIRGINIA, 

Reported  by  CHARLES  II.  SIMS,  Stenographer, 

WITH 

WRITTEN  BY  THE  PARTIES „ 


VOL.  II. 


What -then  is  unbelief ? — ’Tis  an  exploit, 

A  strenuous  enterprize.  To  gain  it  man 
Must  burst  through  every  bar  of  common  sense, 

Of  common  shame— -magnanimously  wrong! 

- - Who  most  examine,  most  believe; 

iParts,  like  half  sentences,  confound. 

Head  his  whole  volume.  Sceptic,  then  reply! 

O  Lord  of  Hosts!  blessed  is  the  man  that  trusteth  in  thee! 

DAVIlf, 


BETHANY,  VA. 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  ALEXANDER  CAMFBELIr 

1829© 


ON  THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  &c. 


Mr.  OWEN  rises,  and  observes  that  Mr.  Campbell  may  reply  tea 
him,  and  prosecute  his  arguments  without  half  hourly  interruption* 
that  when  Mr,  C.  gets  through  with  his  reply,  he  will  be  ready  with 
his  rejoinder. 

Mr.  CAMPBELL  rises — 

It  now  appears  that  we  are,  at  length,  in  full  possession  of  all  the 
arguments  and  evidences  Mr.  O.  has  to  offer  in  support  of  his  posi¬ 
tions.  You  will,  no  doubt,  observe,  that  although  his  matter  has  been 
exhausted,  and  his  comments  finished,  he  did  not  once  advert  to  the 
very  important  points  submitted  in  my  last  speech ;  and  submitted  with 
the  intention  of  eliciting  from  him  something  like  an  issue.  But  this 
he  appears  now,  as  formerly,  studiously  to  avoid.  One  allusion,  in 
the  form  of  an  objection,  was  made  to  my  iast  speech.  This  was  an 
objection  to  the  arguments  and  views  offered  on  the  nature  of  evidence'. 

He  said  “  he  could  as  soon  fly  to  the  stars  as  believe  that  God  con - 
traded  himself  into  a  little  bush  to  speak  to  Moses.” — But  who  i3  it 
that  believes  this?  I  do  not.  All  that  the  intelligent  have  ever  con¬ 
tended  for  is,  that  the  Omnipotent  and  Omnipresent  Creator  of  this 
vast  universe,  can  assume  any  visible  form  in  any  particular  place,  andi 
exhibit  himself  just  where,  and  when,  and  as  he  pleases.  Mr.  O.  cari¬ 
catures,  rather  than  quotes,  or  directly  alludes  to  the  circumstances  of 
this  case.  W  hy  is  it  that  he  cannot  meet  us  on  such  ground  as  reason 
presents,  that  he  must  present  himself  cn  such  ground,  as  ncr person  of 
sentiment  or  sense  ever  pretended  to  stand  upon?  But  what  I  have 
particular  reference  to,  at  this  time,  is  the  reason  he  assigns  for  his  disbe¬ 
lief  in  miracles. — His  reason  for  disbelieving  miracles  is  because  he 

-  O 

never  witnessed  one.  It  is  contrary  to  his  own  experience.  But  we 
have  already  shewn,  that  for  the  same  reason  lie  rejects  this  species  of 
evidence,  or  a  miracle  itself,  he  would  be  compelled  to  reject  all  testi¬ 
mony  upon  any  matter  of  fact  that  bad  not  come  under  his  own  perso-. 
nal  observation.  It  would  be  as  impossible  for  Mr.  Owen  to  convince 
a  native  of  the  torrid  zone,  that  water  became  in  these  United  States  aa 
hard  as  a  stone,  or  that  hail  stones  sometimes  fell  from  the  clouds,  as  it 
would  be  for  me  to  convince  him  that  Jesus  Christ  fed  five  thousand 

i 


DEBATE. 


& 

persons  on  a  few  loaves  and  fishes,  or  cured  the  lame,  the  deaf,  and  the 
blind,  by  a  single  word  or  a  touch.  The  reason  which  a  native  of  that 
.region  would  assign  for  his  unbelief,  is  just  the  same  which  Mr.  Owen 
assigns  for  Ms  disbelief  in  the  miracles  of  Moses  and  Christ.  They 
are  contrary  to  his  experience. — Mr.  Owen,  however,  is  not  consistent 
with  his  own  theory  in  any  case  whatever — he  seems  to  believe  just 
what  he  pleases.  lie  believes  that  meteoric  stones,  or  stones  compo¬ 
sed  of  terrene  substances,  weighing  from  ten  to  one  hundred  pounds, 
have  fallen  from  the  clouds  in  different  parts  of  the  earth.  This  is  also 
contrary  to,  or  beyond  the  bounds  of,  his  experience.  In  fine,  Mr. 
Owen’s  faith,  small  as  it  is,  would  be  very  considerably  reduced  in 
quantity  and  strength,  were  he  to  act  consistently  with  his  own  expe¬ 
rience.  But  we  have  already  sufficiently  exposed  his  inconsistency  in 
this  particular. 

As  I  have  got  the  Arena  to  myself,  I  will  now  submit  to  yourconsid 
eration,  the  course  which  I  intend  to  pursue  in  conducting  this  argu  - 
ment,  to  something  like  a  natural,  and,  as  far  as  circumstances  will 
permit,  to  a  logical  termination. 

1 .  I  shall  call  your  attention  to  the  historic  evidence  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion. 

2.  I  shall  then  give  a  brief  outline  of  the  prophetic  evidences,  or  ra¬ 
ther  the  evidence  arising  from  the  prophecies,  found  in  the  inspired 

volume. 

3.  We  shall  then  draw  some  arguments  from  the  genius  and  tenden¬ 
cy  of  the  Christian  religion. 

4.  We  shall  then  pay  some  attention  to  u  the  social  system .” 

This  method,  adopted  now  at  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  as  best  a- 
Japtcd  to  this  crisis  and  stage  of  the  discussion,  may  not  be  the  most 
unexceptionable;  but  the  singularity  of  the  crisis  to  which  we  are  come, 
will,  I  hope,  apologize  for  its  defects.  If  any  thing  should  be  omitted, 
because  not  coming  within  the  logical  purview  of  this  division  of  the 
subject,  we  shall  rather  endure  the  charge  of  being  immethodical,  than 
to  omit  noticing  it,  whenever  it  presents  itself  to  our  view. 

But  as  we  are  soon  to  adjourn,  I  will  occupy  a  few  minutes  in  fm-, 
ishing  some  remarks,  which  were  cut  short  by  the  expiration  of  my 
last  half  hour.  It  was  said,  that  we  are  indebted  for  all  the  great  im¬ 
provements  in  society  to  the  philosophy  of  Christians,  and  not  to  th& 
philosophy  of  sceptics.  A  free,  a  just  and  equitable  government  has 
always  developed  the  powers  of  the  human  mind.  Political  or  civil  li¬ 
berty  is  essential  to  the  expansion  and  developement  of  human  intel¬ 
lect.  All  history  is  appealed  to  in  proof  of  tills.  Just  in  proportion  as- 
civil  liberty  has  been  enjoyed,  have  mankind,  in  all  ages,  distinguished 
themselves  by  the  vigor  and  expansion  of  their  minds.  Let  any  man 
contrast  the  ancient  Greeks  who  were  free,  with  their  cotomporaries,- 
the  Persians,  who  were  under  a  despotic  government,  and  he  will  see 
the  influence  of  free  institutions  in  the  genius,  eloquence,  and  daring 
tinterprize  of  the  former,  compared  with  the  latter.  Should  he  ascribe  ’ 
the  superiority  to  their  being  of  a  different,  race,  or  to  the  influence  of 
clinititc,  let  him  turn  his  attention  to  the  Lacedaemonians  and  their.. 


DEBATE. 


helots  or  slaves  .—When  the  Messenians  were  two  centimes  in  slaves, 
ry,  one  Lacedemonian  possessed  the  mental  vigor  and  valor  of  half  a 
score  of  them. — But  only  draw  the  contrast  which  our  country  pre¬ 
sents,  and  mark  the  difference  between  the  citizen  and  the  slave.  The 
enjoyment  of  civil  liberty  is  shewn  from  reason  and  experience,  from 
the  faithful  page  of  history,  to  give  a  new  impetus  to  all  the  faculties 
of  man.-— To  this  liberty,  then,  we  are  constrained  to  ascribe  the  great 
improvements  in  all  the  arts  of  civilized  and  social  life.  But  to  see  the 
connexion  between  this  liberty  and  these  free  institutions,  and  Christi¬ 
anity,  we  have  only  to  ask,  to  whom  are  we  most  indebted  for  the  im-\ 
provementsin  government?  The  Reformation  from  Popery  gave  the 
first  shock  to  the  despotism  of  Europe.  The  labors  of  the  Reformers— 
and  the  more  recent  labors  of  Milton  the  poet,  and  Locke  the  philoso¬ 
pher,  have  done  more  to  issue  in  the  free  institutions  of  Europe  and  A* 
merica,  than  the  labors  of  all  the  sceptics  from  Celsus  to  my  friend 
Mr.  Owen. 

We  ascribe  much,  to  the  intelligence,  virtue  and  patriotism,  of  our 
revolutionary  heroes  and  statesmen.  But  there  was  one  Christian 
philosopher  to  whom  we  are  more  indebted  than  to  any  of  them.  Nay, 
perhaps,  than  to  all  of  them.  The  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
owes  more  to  the  labors  of  Mr.  John  Locke,  than  to  all  the  sceptics  in 
Christendom.  His  essay  on  toleration,  first  burst  the  chains  that  held 
England  and  Europe  fast  bound  under  a  religious  and  civil  despotism. 
He  had  the  honor,  as  Lord  Verulam  had,  of  originating  a  new  era.  As 
Lord  Verulam  had  the  honor,  by  his  Novum  Organum ,  of  originating  a 
new  era  in  physics,  so  Locke,  the  philosopher,  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
new  order  of  society  by  his  Essay  on  Toleration.  This  Essay  gave 
the  first  impulse  to  the  spirit  of  enquiry,  and  laid  the  foundation  o£ 
our  present  liberties.  This  Christian  philosopher,  drafted  the  first  in- 
strument  called  a  constitution,  imported  into  America.  It  was  a  form 
of  government  for  the  Carolinas.  While  we  are  grateful  to  all,  who 
have  labored  in  the  cause  of  the  emancipation  of  the  human  mind 
from  the  shackles  of  King-craft  and  Priestcraft;  and  while  we  are 
mindful  of  our  more  immediate  benefactors,  we  are  not  to  forget  the 
praises  due  to  those  who  have  long  since  died,  and  whose  victories 
Were  more  efficient,  complete  and  salutary  in  their  consequences,  tho’ 
less  boisterous,  and  less  noisy,  than  those  achieved  by  the  sword  or  the 
cannon.  Yet  it  should  be  known,  and  every  where  divulged,  in  all 
lands  and  amongst  all  people,  that  Europe  and  America  are  more  in¬ 
debted  to  the  elaborate  discussions  and  profound  reasonings  of  our 
Christian  philosopher,  for  the  quantum  of  civil  and  religious  liberty 
now  enjoyed,  than  to  all  the  sceptics  who  have  written  from  the  days  of 
Pyrrhus  to  my  friend  Robert  Owen. 

The  principles  of  investigation  on  which  the  inductive  philosophy 
of  Lord  Bacon  is  founded,  and  those  adopted  by  the  Christian  philos¬ 
opher,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  are  those  which  should  govern  us  on  tills 
occasion.  “  Every  thing,”  says  this  great  teacher,  u  is  to  be  submit¬ 
ted  to  the  most  minute  observation. — No  conclusions  are  to  he  drawn 
from  guesses  or  conjectures.  We  are  to  keep  within  the  certain  iim- 
Vol.  1* 


6 


DEBATE 


its  of  experimental  truth.  We  first  ascertain  the  tacts,  then  group 
them  together,  and  after  the  classification  and  comparison  of  them, 
draw  the  conclusion.  There  are  generic  heads  or  chapters  in  every 
department  of  physical  or  moral  science.  We  are  never  to  shrink  from 
the  test  of  those  principles.”  Any  arguments,  therefore,  which  we 
may  oiler,  we  wish  to  be  examined  by  the  improved  principles  of  the 
inductive  philosophy,  by  tiiose  very  principles  which  right  reason  and 
sound  experimental  philosophy  have  sanctioned  as  their  appropriate 
tests.  But  questions  of  fact  are  not  to  be  tried  by  mathematical  evi¬ 
dence.  It  has  been  well  observed,  that  “  the  sciences  are  of  a  social 
disposition,  and  flourish  best  in  the  neighborhood  of  each  other;  nev¬ 
ertheless  each  of  them  claims  to  be  governed  by  laws  which  are  per¬ 
fectly  sui  generis;  and  none  of  them  can  be  constrained  to  agree  to  an 
intercommunity  of  jurisdiction  with  the  rest :  it  is  held  essential  to 
the  truth  and  dignity  of  each  of  them,  that  it  is  to  be  tried  only  by  its 
own  laws.”  When  we  enter  into  an  examination  of  the  testimony  on 
which  religion  is  predicated,  we  have  no  other  scientific  rules  to  resort 
to,  than  those  which  regulate  and  govern  us  in  ascertaining  the 
weight  of  all  historic  evidence. 

The  first  position,  then,  which  we  submit  for  examination,  is  one 
which  properly  belongs  to  the  more  general  head  of  historic  evidence 
It  is  in  the  following  words : u  the  volume  called  the  New  Testament  was 
■written  by  the  persons  whose  names  it  bears ,  and  at  the  time  in  which 
it  is  said  to  have  been  written .”  This  is  now  an  historic  fact  asser¬ 
ted.  It  is  not  proved  as  yet  by  us — but  we  will,  anon,  proceed  to  the 
proof  of  it.  This  is  to  be  examined  in  its  own  court ;  that  is,  as  all 
matters  or  questions  of  fact  are  investigated — that  we  may,  however, 
feel  the  need,  and  appreciate  the  importance,  of  proving  this  fact,  we 
must  premise  a  few  things:  The  book  called  the  New  Testament  now 
exists.  It  existed  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  of  our  grand-fathers,  of 
our  great  grand-fathers.  It  came  into  existence  some  way,  by  some 
means,  at  some  particular  time.  Now  we  thank  not  Mr.  Owen,  nor 
any  person  else,  for  admitting  all  this.  They  cannot  deny  one  of  these 
assertions.  But  the  question  is,  How  came  it  into  existence?  Now 
let  us  see  how  rigid  and  severe  we  must  be,  and  generally  are,  in  ex¬ 
amining  or  deciding  this  question. 

When  we  open  any  ordinary  volume,  and  look  upon  its  title  page, 
we  there  discover  that  it  purports  to  be  the  production  of  A.  B.  or  C., 
and  this  mere  inscription  of  the  author’s  name  on  the  title  page  is,  in 
the  absence  of  counter  testimony ,  universally  admitted  to  be  rational 
and  conclusive  evidence  of  authorship.  There  being  no  counter  tes¬ 
timony,  we  conclude  from  the  title  page,  that  the  book  is  the  production 
of  the  author  whose  name  it  bears.  If  we  have  the  general  concurrence 
of  our  cotemporaries  in  the  belief  that  such  a  book  was  written  by  such 
a  person  whose  name  it  bears,  we  rationally  rest  satisfied  on  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  its  authorship. — But  in  the  examination  of  the  authorship  of 
the  New  Testameqt,  we  feel  it  necessary  to  scrutinize  more  severely. 
But  men  approach  the  examination  of  this  question,  not  as  they  ap¬ 
proach  the  examination  of  any  other.  The  believer  and  the  unbelie- 


DEBATE, 


7 


v&r  approach  it  under  great  disadvantages.  Religious  men  are  afraid 
to  call  its  truth  in  question.  This  religious  awe  acts  as  a  sort  of  illu- 
fusion  on  their  minds.  The  sceptics  are  prejudiced  against  it.  This 
prejudice  disqualifies  them  to  judge  fairly  and  impartially  upon  the 
.merits  of  the  evidence.  The  religious  awe  of  ilie  Christian,  and  the 
prejudices  of  the  sceptic  are  real  obstacles  in  the  way  of  both,  in  jud¬ 
ging  impartially  of  the  weight  of  evidence  in  favor  of  this  or  any  oth¬ 
er  position,  at  the  bottom  of  the  Christian  faith.  Dr.  Chalmers  very 
convincingly  illustrates  this  matter  in  sec.  16,  17  &.  18,  of  the  article 
written  by  him  in  the  EncycJoptedia  on  Christianity.  We  shall  beg 
the  liberty  to  read  it : 

“  16.  To  form  a  fair  estimate  of  the  strength  and  decisiveness  of  t lie 
Christian  argument,  we  should,  if  possible,  divest  ourselves  of  all  ref¬ 
erence  to  religion,  and  view  the  truth  of  the  gospel  history,  purely  as  a 
question  of  erudition.  If  at  the  outset  of  the  investigation  we  have  a 
prejudice  against  the  Christian  religion,  the  effect  is  obvious;  and 
without  any  refinement  of  explanation,  we  see  at  once  how  such  a  pre¬ 
judice  must  dispose  us  to  annex  suspicion  and  distrust  to  the  testimo¬ 
ny  of  the  Christian  writers.  But  even  when  the  prejudice  is  on  the 
side  of  Christianity,  the  effect  is  unfavorable  on  a  mind  that  is  at  all 
scrupulous  about  the  rectitude  of  its  opinions.  In  these  circumstan¬ 
ces,  the  mind  gets  suspicious  of  itself.  It  feels  a  predilection,  and  be¬ 
comes  apprehensive  lest  this  predilection  may  have  disposed  it  to  cher* 
ish  a  particular  conclusion,  independently  of  the  evidences  by  which 
it  is  supported.  Were  it  a  mere  speculative  question,  in  which  the  in¬ 
terests  of  man,  and  the  attachments  of  his  heart,  had  no  share,  he 
would  feel  greater  confidence  in  the  result  of  his  investigation.  But  it 
is  difficult  to  separate  the  moral  impressions  of  piety,  and  it  is  no  less 
difficult  to  calculate  their  precise  influence  on  the  exercises  of  the  un 
derstanding.  In  the  complex  sentiment  of  attachment  and  convic¬ 
tion,  which  he  annexes  to  the  Christian  religion,  he  finds  it  difficult  to 
say,  how  much  is  due  to  the  tendencies  of  the  heart,  and  how  much  is 
due  to  the  pure  and  unmingled  influence  of  argument.  His  very  anx¬ 
iety  for  the  truth,  disposes  him  to  narrate  the  circumstances  which  give 
a  bias  to  his  understanding,  and  through  the  whole  process  of  the  en¬ 
quiry,  he  feels  a  suspicion  and  an  embarrassment,  which  he  would  not 
have  felt,  had  it  been  a  question  of  ordinary  erudition. 

“17.  The  same  suspicion  which  he  attaches  to  himself,  he  will  be 
ready  to  attach  to  all  whom  he  conceives  to  be  in  similar  circumstan¬ 
ces.  Now,  every  author  who  writes  in  defence  of  Christianity  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  a  Christian ;  and  this,  in  spite  of  every  argument  to  the 
contrary,  has  the  actual  effect  of  weakening  the  impression  of  his  tes¬ 
timony.  This  suspicion  affects,  in  a  more  remarkable  degree,  the  tes¬ 
timony  of  the  first  writers' on  the  side  of  Christianity.  In  opposition  to 
it,  you  have,  no  doubt,  to  allege  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
testimony  was  given;  the  tone  of  sincerity  which  runs  through  the  per¬ 
formance  of  the  author;  the  concurrence  of  other  testime^ee^  the  per¬ 
secutions  which  he  4h4n4,l&iitf  winch  can  be 

accounted  for  on  no  otxrer pnucip^^baf  ^ESB[efi/b&e^scienc e  and 


DEBATE; 


ft 

conviction ;  and  the  utter  impossibility  of  imposing  a  false  testimony 
on  the  world,  had  they  even  been  disposed  to  do  it.  Still  there  is  a 
lurking  suspicion,  which  often  survives  all  this  strength  of  argument, 
and  which  it  is  difficult  to  get  rid  of,  even  after  it  has  been  demon¬ 
strated  to  be  completely  unreasonable.  He  is  a  Christian.  He  is  one 
of  the  party.  Am  I  an  infidel  ?  I  persist  in  distrusting  the  testimo¬ 
ny.  Am  I  a  Christian?  I  rejoice  in  the  strength  of  it;  but  this  very 
joy  becomes  matter  of  suspicion  to  a  scrupulous  enquirer.  He  feels 
something  more  than  the  concurrence  of  his  belief  in  the  testimony  of 
the  writer.  He  catches  the  infection  of  his  piety  and  his  moral  senti¬ 
ments.  In  addition  to  the  acquiescence  of  the  understanding,  there  is 
a  con  amove  feeling,  both  in  himself  and  his  author,  which  he  had  rath¬ 
er  been  without,  because  he  finds  it  difficult  to  compute  the  precise 
amount  of  its  influence;  and  the  consideration  of  this  restrains  him 
from  that  clear  and  decided  conclusion,  which  he  would  infallibly 
have  landed  in,  had  it  been  purely  a  secular  investigation. 

“  1 8.  There  is  something  in  the  very  sacredness  of  the  subject, 
which  intimidates  the  understanding,  and  restrains  it  from  making  the 
same  firm  and  confident  application  of  its  faculties,  which  it  would 
?iave  felt  itself  perfectly  warranted  to  do,  had  it  been  a  question  of  or¬ 
dinary  history-  Had  the  apostles  been  the  disciples  of  some  eminent 
philosopher,  and  the  fathers  of  the  church,  their  immediate  successois 
in  the  office  of  presiding  over  the  discipline  and  instruction  of  the  nu¬ 
merous  schools  which  they  had  established,  this  would  have  given  a 
secular  complexion  to  the  argument,  which  we  think  would  have  been 
more  satisfying  to  the  mind,  and  have  impressed  upon  it  a  closer  and 
more  familiar  conviction  of  the  history  in  question.  We  should  have 
immediately  brought  it  into  comparison  with  the  history  of  other  phi¬ 
losophers,  and  could  not  have  failed  to  recognize,  that,  in  minuteness 
cf  information,  in  weight  and  quantity,  of  evidence,  in  the  concurrence 
of  numerous  and  independent  testimonies,  and  in  the  total  absence  of 
every  circumstance  that  should  dispose  us  to  annex  suspicion  to  the 
account  which  lay  before  us,  it  far  surpassed  any  thing  that  had  come 
down  to  us  from  antiquity.  It  so  happens,  however,  that,  instead  of 
being  the  history  of  a  philosopher,  it  is  the  history  of  a  prophet.  The 
veneration  we  apnex  to  the  sacredness  of  such  a  character,  mingles 
with  our  belief  in  the  truth  of  his  history.  From  a  question  of  simple 
truth,  it  becomes  a  question  in  which  the  heart  is  interested ;  and  the 
subject  from  that  moment  assumes  a  certain  holiness  and  mystery, 
which  veils  the  strength  of  the  argument,  and  takes  off  from  that  fami¬ 
liar  and  intimate  conviction,  which  wre  annex  to  the  far  less  authentica¬ 
ted  histories  of  profane  authors.” 

It  is  hard  for  any  man  to  inspect  this  oracle  with  that  degree  of 
impartiality  and  mental  independence  necessary  to  demonstrate,  or 
discriminate,  its  truth.  Many  have  suspicions  of  its  truth,  which 
arise  solely  from  the  awful  import  and  inexpressible  grandeur  of  the? 
subjects  on  which  it  treats.  The  hundredth  part  of  the  evidence 
would  be  sufficient  to  convince  them  of  the  real  authorship  of  the 
“  Annals  of  Tacitus ,”  which  they  require  to  satisfy  them  of  the  an* 
thorship  of  these  sacred  books. 


debate. 


& 

Making  ail  due  allowance  for  these  odds  and  disadvantages  against 
Us,  and  acknowledging  that  we  claim  no  exemption  from  the  influ 
ence  of  these  causes,  we  are  disposed  to  approach  this  volume,  as  far 
as  in  us  lies,  without  being  influenced  by  that  awe,  or  those  prejudi- 
ees,  of  which  we  have  been  speaking.  Divesting  ourselves,  there¬ 
fore,  of  all  partialities,  pro ,  or  con ,  let  us,  my  friends,  approach  this 
position, 

I  need  scarcely  inform  this  intelligent  audience,  that  the  volume 
called  the  New  Testament,  is  the  production  of  eight  different  au 
thors  or  writers — that  it  contains  many  different  treatises  in  the  form 
«f  Narratives  and  Epistles,  written  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and 
at  sundry  intervals,  and  afterwards  collected  into  one  volume.  These 
eight  writers  are,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  John,  Paul,  Peter,  James, 
and  Jude.  Four  of  them  wrote  Memoirs  or  Narratives  of  Jesus 
Christ;  and  four  of  them  wrote  letters  to  different  congregations  and 
"individuals,  iu  Asia  and  Europe. 

Each  of  these  pieces  was  deemed  by  the  writer  perfectly  sufficient 
to  accomplish  the  object  which  he  designed  by  it.  But  when  all  is 
collected  into  one  volume,  corroborating  and  illustrating  each  other,, 
how  irresistible  the  evidence,  and  how  brilliant  the  light,  which  they 
display !  To  him  who  contemplates  the  New  Testament  as  the  work 
of  one  individual,  all  written  atone  time,  and  published  in  one  coun¬ 
try;  and  to  him  who  views  it  as  the  work  of  eight  authors,  written  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  and  at  intervals  in  the  extremes  more  than 
half  a  century  apart,  how  different  the  amount  of  evidence,  intrinsic 
and  extrinsic,  which  it  presents’.  The  writers  themselves,  though  all 
Jews,  born  in  different  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  having  each 
a  provincial  dialect,  a  peculiarity  of  style,  and  some  of  them  of  differ-* 
ent  ranks  and  avocations  of  life,  give  great  variety  to  the  style,  and 
weight  to  the  authority  of  this  small  volume.  They  are  eight  witnes¬ 
ses,  who  depose  not  only  to  the  original  facts  on  which  Christianity  b 
based,  but  to  a  thousand  incidents  which  directly  or  indirectly  bear 
upon  the  pretensions  of  the  Founder  of  this  religion :  and  from  the 
variety  of  information,  allusion,  description,  and  reference  to  persons, 
places,  and  events,  which  they  present  to  us,  they  subject  themselves 
not  only  to  cross  examination  among  themselves,  but  to  be  compared 
and  tried  by  cotemporary  historians,  geographers,  politicians,  states¬ 
men,  and  orators:  in  fact,  they  bring  themselves  into  contact  with  all 
the  public  documents  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived  and  wrote.  But 
of  this  hereafter,  in  detail. 

But  to  approach  the  position  to  be  proved,  still  more  closely.  This, 
volume  purports  to  be  the  writings  of  these  eight  persons,  and  has. 
been  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation  as  such.  We  ascend 
the  stream  up  to  its  fountain.  We  find  it  ascribed  to  them  in  the 
last,  century.  Millions  believed  it.-— In  the  century  preceding  that, 
millions  believed  it:  and  so  on,  till  we  come  up  very  nigh  the  times 
in  which  the  works  were  written.  What  would,  let  me  ask — what 
would  be  the  quality  and  amount  of  evidence  necessary  to  establish 
the  fact  of  authorship  of  any  other  work  of  antiquity  ?  We  claim  no. 


Debate. 


to 

iavors.  We  ask  for  no  peculiar  process,  no  new  or  untried  form  of 
examination.  We  will  constitute  no  new  court,  of  enquiry.  We  will 
Submit  the  question  of  authorship  to  be  tried  by  all  the  canons,  or 
regulations,  or  rules,  which  the  literary  world,  which  the  most  rigid 
critics,  have  instituted  or  appealed  to,  in  settling  any  literary  question 
of  this  sort.  Let  me,  then,  ask:  in  such  a  court,  would  the  fact  of 
these  writings  having  Jbeen  universally  received  by  all' the  primitive 
Christians,  as  the  works  of  their  reputed  authors,  be  admitted  as  suffi¬ 
cient  proof?  Would  the  fact  of  these  writings  having  been  quoted  as 
the  genuine  works  of  their  reputed  authors,  by  the  earliest  Christian 
writers,  by  the  cotemporaries  and  immediate  successors  of  the  origi¬ 
nal  witnesses,  be  admitted  as  proof?  Would  the  testimony  of  neutrals, 
would  the  testimony  of  apostates,  would  the  testimony  of  the  first  op¬ 
ponents  of  the  Christian  religion,  be  admitted  as  proof?  Would  the 
concurrent  and  combined  testimony  of  all  these  be  admitted,  to  prove 
the  mere  question  of  authorship?  Most  unquestionably  these  embrace 
all  the  proofs  which  human  reason  can  require,  and  all  which  the  ar¬ 
chives  of  human  learning  can  furnish,  in  proof  of  the  authorship  of 
any  literary  work  in  the  world.  Yes,  manifold  more  than  ever  lias 
been  called  for,  and  much  more  than  can  be  adduced  to  prove  the  au¬ 
thorship  of  any  work  of  the  same  antiquity.  The  poems  of  Virgil  and 
Horace,  the  Annals  of  Tacit  us,  the  orations  of  Cicero,  the  most  popu  • 
lar  works  of  antiquity,  cannot  afford  half  the  proofs  that  they  are  the 
genuine  works  of  the  persons  whoso  names  they  bear,  as  can  be  addu¬ 
ced  to  prove  the  authorship  of  the  Memoirs  of  Jesus.  Christ,  written 
by  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John. 

Although  we  might  not  be  able  to  summon  into  one  and  the  same 
court,  all  the  friends  and  all  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  who  wrote- 
something  upon  the  subject  in  the  Apostolic  and  in  the  succeeding 
age,  to  attest  that  all  the  writings  now  ascribed  to  those  eight  authors 
were  actually  written  by  them ;  yet  we  do,  in  effect,  the  same,  by 
hearing  them  in  piecemeal  or  in  detail.  For  example:  It  is  to  quote 
the  words  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  a  the  unexcepted  testimony  of  all  subse¬ 
quent  writers,  that  two  of  the  Gospels  and  several  of  the  Epistles  wTcre 
written  by  the  immediate  disciples  of  our  Saviour,  and  published  in 
their  life-time.”  Even  Celsus,  an  enemy  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
the  first  Gentile  writer  who  publicly  opposes  Christianity,  admits  this,, 
or  refers  to  the  a  fairs  of  Jesus  as  written  hy  his  disciples .  From 
the  extracts  which  he  makes  in  his  book,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but 
that  he  refers  to  one  or  other  of  the  four  Gospels.  He  w  rote  about 
one  hundred  years  after  the  first  publication  of  the  Narrative.  a  lie 
takes  it  up  upon  the  strength  of  its  general  notoriety,  and  the  whole 
history  of  that  period,  furnishes  nothing  that  can  attach  any  doubt  or 
suspicion  to  this  circumstance.  The  distinct  assertion,  of  Celsus  be¬ 
ing  an  enemy  to  Christianity,  that  the  pieces  in  question  were  written 
by  the  companions  of  Jesus,  though  even  at  the  distance  of  a  hundred 
years,  is  an  argument  in  favor,  of  their  authenticity,  which  cannot  be 
^Hedged  for  many  of  the  most  esteemed  compositions  of  antiquity.” 

But*  although  we  give  the  testimony  of  Celsus  first,  it  is  not  because 


DEBATE, 


there  is  no  more  ancient  witness,  but  because  he  is  the  first  philosd  - 
phic  adversary  of  the  faith.  There  is  a  series  of  writers,  in  unbroken 
succession,  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  all  attesting  the  truth  of  the 
position  before  us.  I  have  lying  upon  the  table  here  before  me,  a  vol¬ 
ume  of  the  writings- of  the  primitive  disciples  of  Christ,  and  first  teach¬ 
ers  of  Christianity,  the  cotemporaries,  and  successors,  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles.  Here  (lifting  up  the  volume  Mr.  C.  said)  here  is  the  testimony 
of  Barnabas,  of  Clement,  Hermas,  Ignatius,  and  Polycarp — Barnabas 
the  companion  of  Paul,  Clement  the  bishop  of  the  congregation  in 
Rome,  whom  all  antiquity  agrees  to  be  the  person  mentioned  by  Paulf 
Phil.  4,  3. — Hermas,  whom  Paul  mentions  tn  his  Epistle  to  the  Ho¬ 
mans — Ignatius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  who  flourished  there  A.  D.  75, 
who  took  the  oversight  of  that  congregation  37  years  after  the  ascen¬ 
sion  of  Christ.  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  who  had  seen,  conver¬ 
sed  with,  and  was  familiar  with  some  of  the  Apostles — all  these  di¬ 
rectly  quote  the  historical  or  the  epistolary  books  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment — and  refer  to  these  writings  as  of  general  notoriety.  To  these, 
I  need  scarcely  add  the  testimony  of  Papias,  the  hearer  of  John,  of 
Ireneus,  Justin  and  others,  their  cotemporaries. — They  either  quote 
them  by  saying,  as  it  is  written ,  or  by  name.  Let  us  have  an  exam¬ 
ple  or  two:  Barnabas  in  his  epistle  says,  “  Let  us  therefore  beware 
lest  it  come  upon  us  as  it  is  written .  There  are  many  called  but  few 
chosen.”  Now  this  mode  of  quoting  Mathews’  testimony  is  more  au¬ 
thoritative  than  the  naming  of  him :  for  this  appeal  to  his  writings 
makes  it  evident  that  they  were  notorious,  and  of  unexceptionable  au¬ 
thority,  even  so  early  as  the  time  of  Barnabas.  In  the  letter  writen  by 
Clement  from  Rome  to  Corinth,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  congrega¬ 
tion  in  Rome,  to  the  whole  congregation  in  Corinth,  say  from  500 
Christians  in  Rome  to  500  Christians  in  Corinth,  the  sermon  on  the 
Mount  is  directly  quoted,  and  other  passages  of  the  testimony  of  Ma¬ 
thew  &  Luke. — But  it  would  be  tedious  to  be  minute  in  furnishing' 
examples  of  each  sort  of  quotations  here ;  more  than  forty  clear  allu¬ 
sions  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  to  be  found  in  the  single 
fragment  of  Polycarp,  and  there  are  more  quotations  in  Tertullian  of 
the  second  century,  from  the  New  Testament,  than  are  to  be  found  of 
the  writings  of  Cicero,  in  all  the  writers  of  two  or  three  centuries.—- 
Indeed,  from  the  very  time  in  which  these  writings  first  appeared,  they 
were  received  according  to  their  dates,  and  quoted  and  applied  in  the 
decision  of  all  controversies,  by  all  the  Commentators,  as  possessed  of 
an  authority,  and  to  be  heard  with  a  reverence,  paramount  to  all  other. 
So  scrupulous,  too,  were  the  ancient  Christians  of  the  authority 
■of  these  writings,  that  when  collecting  them  into  one  volume  (for  many 
years  they  were  written  and  read  in  detached  pieces)  they  would  not 
agree  to  bind  in  the  same  parchment  with  them,  any  other  writings 
not  from  the  same  authors.  Some  of  them  even  objected  to  adding 
'the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  because  it  wanted  Paul’s  name— and 
■some  demurred  to  the  Revelation,  written  by  John,  and  to  the  Ep.  of 
James,  to  the  2d  of  Peter,  the  2d  &,  3d  of  John,  and  to  that  of  Jude, 
-’because  they  had  not  reached  some  places  as  soon  as  the  others.  But 


DEBATE, 


12 

after  making  themselves  better  acquainted  with  the  claims  of  these 
writings,  they  were  added  with  the  consent  of  all  the  Christians  in  the 
Eastern  as  well  as  in  the  Western  Roman  empire. 

There  is  not  a  writer  on  religion,  which  has  come  down  to  us  from 
the  second  century  (and  of  such  writers  the  2d  century  was  not 
barren)  who  has  not  quoted  these  writings,  less  or  more,  as  we  do 
at  this  day.  But  why  occupy  so  much  time  in  proving  a  matter  which 
we  presume,  neither  Mr,  Owen  himself  nor  any  sceptic  of  the  present 
day,  will  deny?  The  laborious  Lardner  has  given  most  copious  proofs 
of  the  notoriety  of  these  writings,  and  of  the  many  quotations  from 
them  by  all  the  earliest  Christian  writers :  and  it  is  well  observed  by 
Raley,  that  “  besides  our  Gospels  and  the  acts  of  the  Apostles,  no 
Christian  history  claiming  to  be  written  by  an  Apostle,  or  Apostolical 
man,  is  quoted  within  300  years  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  by  any  writer 
now  extant  or  known;  or  if  quoted,  is  quoted  with  marks  of  censure  &. 
rejection.”  It  is  also  well  remarked  by  another  writer,  “  that  the  agree¬ 
ment  of  Christians  respecting  the  Scriptures,  when  all  the  other  dif 
ferences  are  considered,  is  the  more  remarkable  that  it  took  place 
without  any  public  authority  being  interposed.  The  only  interference 
on  record  is  that  of  the  Council  of  Laodicea,  A.  D.  363.  This  Conn- 
cil  only  declared,  and  did  not  regulate  the  public  judgment  of  only  a 
few  neighboring  churches,  the  council  only  consisting  of  thirty 
or  forty  Bishops  of  Lydia,  and  the  adjoining  country.  The  con¬ 
gregations  of  Christians,  all  independent  at  first,  received  those  wri¬ 
tings  universally,  because  of  their  irresistible  claims  upon  their  faith. 
But  I  doubt  not  that  as  sceptics  have  the  most  faith  in  one  another, 
they  will  prefer  the  testimony  of  one  Celsus,  an  infidel,  to  the  testimo¬ 
ny  of  six  men  who  had  seen,  conversed  with,  and  were  familiar  with, 
the  Apostles — These  six  are  Barnabas,  Clement,  Hermas,  Ignatius,  Po- 
lycarp  and  Papias.— Let  them,  however,  remember,  that  their  own 
Celsus,  who  had  much  better  opportunities  of  detecting  any  imposition 
or  fraud  than  they,  appeals  to  the  affairs  of  Jesus,  as  written  by  his 
own  companions,  and  quotes  these  histories  as  notorious  documents 
rn  his  own  time. 

Adjourned  to  meet  at  three, 

Friday,  17tli  April,  1 829 — Afternoon, 

The  Honorable  Chairman  rose  and  stated,  that  in  consequence  of 
notice  given  by  Mr.  Owen,  that  he  has  offered  all  he  has  to  say  iu  the 
opening,  we  propose  that  Mr.  Campbell  will  proceed  until  he  finish  hie 
argument  now  begun ;  and  that  Mr.  Owen  may  then  reply,  Mr.  C.  re- 
ioin,  and  the  discussion  close. 

\y  ' 

Mr,  CAMPBELL  rises — 

Mr.  Chairman — Before  resuming  my  argument,  I  presume  it  will 
not  be  amiss  to  state  some  facts  relative  to  this  discussion.  Anterior, 
to  Mr.  Owen’s  last  visit  to  Europe,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  an  interview 
yriih  him,  at  which  time  we  made  our  arrangements  for  this  controvert 

I 


DEBATE, 


ze 

sy.  From  the  fluency  with  which  Mr.  Owen  spoke  of  his  system,  an# 
of  the  present  state  of  society,  and  from  his  known  labors  and  zeal  in 
the  cause  of  scepticism,  I  did  expect  to  find  in  him  a  very  formidable 
disputant,  and  concluded  it  would  be  necessary  for  me  to  provide  a 
great  variety  of  documents  for  this  discussion.  The  positions  which 
have  been  so  often  read,  I  expected  Mr.  Owen  would  logically  defend , 
one  by  one. — He  affirmed,  and  I  denied.  The  onus  probandi  he  took 
upon  himself.  Conscious  of  his  inability  to  support  these  positions, 
it  seems  he  has  now  abandoned  them,  any  farther  than  assertions 
without  proof,  and  declamation  without  argument,  upon  twelve  other 
positions,  may  be  imagined  to  have  some  bearing  upon  them,  I  was 
prepared  to  rebut  his  proofs  and  arguments,  had  he  presumed  to  defend 
his  affirmations,  but  did  not  expect  to  have  to  assume  propositions  af¬ 
firmative  of  the  authenticity  of  Christianity,  and  prove  them  while  I 
must  rebut  him. — This  failure  of  my  friend,  has  very  much  embarras¬ 
sed  this  discussion,  and  has  obliged  me  to  change  my  course,  and  to 
new  modify  my  defence  of  Christianity.  Mr.  Owen  had  not  finished 
his  prefatory  address,  until  I  saw  that  he  could  not  argue  the  verity  of 
his  assertions.  I  was,  however,  so  circumscribed  by  the  rules  of  logic 
and  decorum,  as  not  to  feel  myself  authorized  to  pay  no  attention  to 
his  propositions  and  heterogeneous  matter,  but  to  go  on  and  argue  pc 
sitions  of  my  own.  I  have  stood  in  the  centre  of  a  circle  cf  embar¬ 
rassments — embarrassed  by  the  obliquity  of  Mr.  Owen’s  method,  and 
his  disregard  to  the  decisions  of  the  presiding  Moderators — at  one  time 
reminded  that  the  ladies  do  not  hear  me;  at  another,  the  stenogra¬ 
pher  groans  under  the  rapidity  of  my  pronunciation;  anon,  the  appre¬ 
hension  that  my  half  hour  is  almost  fled,  restrain  my  tongue  and  em¬ 
bargo  my  thoughts;  so  that  I  am  surrounded  with  very  vicious  circum¬ 
stances,  as  Mr.  Owen  would  say.  But  now  I  hope  to  be  in  some 
.measure  relieved  from  the  influence  of  these  embarrassing  circum¬ 
stances— although  the  singularity  of  this  issue  may  oblige  me  to  omit 
a  very  large  proportion  of  the  documents  which  I  had  expected  to  of¬ 
fer. 

Authorized  as  I  now  am,  by  the  decision  of  the  bench,  T  proceed  to 
•the  further  confirmalion  of  the  truth  of  the  position  under  discussion 
at  the  time  of  our  adjournment. 

Th^t  the  historical  and  epistolary  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
were  written  by  the  persons  and  at  the  times  alleged  by  themselves,  is, 
perhaps,  in  tlfe  estimation  of  some,  already  sufficiently  established.  It. 
would  be  easy  to  swell  the  list  of  the  original  vouchers  with  many  dis¬ 
tinguished  names  of  the  primitive  defenders  of  Christianity,  against 
the  cavils  and  objections  of  Jews  and  Pagans. — But  the  real  strength  of 
the  evidence  in  favor  of  the  authorship  is  in  the  cotemporary  writers. 
^Vhen  we  descend  the  page  of  history  no  farther  down  than  the  times 
ot  Origin,  \vho  succeeded  Tertullian  only  about  25  years,  we  find  such 
declarations  as  the  follow  ing:  “The  four  Gospels  (says  he,  and  he 
arranges  them  as  we  have  them  now  arranged)  alone,  are  received 
without  dispute  by  the  whole  church  of  God  under  Heaven.”  That 
is,  Christians  differed  on  other  matters,  and  in  this  one  noint  atone 

Volf  2  •  '  ■  2  ' 


there  was  not  a  single  dissentient.  It  would  only  savor  of  display 
to  add  the  names  ol*  Justin  Martyr,  Dionysius,  Tatian,  Hegessippus, 
Athenagoras,  Miltiades,  and  a  hundred  others,  who  quote  these  writings 
as  the  works  of  the  persons  whose  names  they  now  bear.  It  \yas  well 
said  by  Origin,  in  his  dispute  with  Celsus,  the  Epicurian  philosopher, 
and  opposer  of  the  faith,  when  quoting  a  passage  from  these  inspired 
books  :  44  Thus  it  is  written,  not  in  any  private  book,  or  such  as  are 
read  by  a  few  persons  only,  but  in  books  read  by  every  body.1’  We 
cannot  proceed  to  another  item  intimately  connected  with  this,  without 
reading  from  the  argumentative  Chalmers,  the  following  remarks  on 
these  testimonies : 

44  In  estimating  the  value  of  any  testimony,  there  are  two  dis¬ 
tinct  subjects  of  consideration ;  the  person  who  gives  the  testimony, 
and  the  people  to  whom  the  testimony  is  addressed.  It  is  quite  need 
less  to  enlarge  on  the  resources  which,  in  the  present  instance,  we  de¬ 
rive  from  both  tnese  considerations,  and  how  much  each  of  them  con¬ 
tributes  to  the  triumph  and  solidity  of  the-  Christian  argument.  In  as 
far  as  the  people  who  give  the  testimony  are  concerned,  how  could  they 
be  mistaken  in  their  account  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  when 
some  of  them  lived  in  the  same  age  with  the  original  writers,  and  were 
their  intimate  acquaintances,  and  when  all  of  them  had  the  benefit  of  an 
uncontrolled  series  of  evidence,  reaching  down  from  the  date  of  the 
earliest  publications,  to  their  own  times?  Or,  how  can  we  suspect 
that  they  falsified,  when  there  runs  thro’  their  writings  the  same  tone  of 
plainness  and  sincerity,  which  is  allowed  to  stamp  the  character  of  au¬ 
thenticity  on  other  productions;  and,  above  all,  when  upon  the 
strength  even  of  heathen  testimony,  we  conclude,  that  many  of  them, 
by  their  sufferings  and  death,  gave  the  highest  evidence  that  man  can 
give,  of  his  speaking  under  the  influence  of  a  real  and  honest  con¬ 
viction?'  In  as  far  as  the  people  who  received  the  testimony  arc 
concerned,  to  what  other  circumstances  can  we  ascribe  their  concur¬ 
rence,  but  to  the  truth  of  that  testimony?  In  what  way  was  it  possi¬ 
ble  to  deceive  them  upon  a  point  of  general  notoriety  ?  The  books  of 
the  New  Testament  are  referred  to  by  the  ancient  fathers,  as  writings 
generally  known  and  respected  by  the  Christians  of  that  period.  If 
they  were  obscure  writings,  or  had  no  existence  at  the  time,  how  can 
we  account  for  the  credit  and  authority  of  those  fathers  who  appealed 
to  them,  and  had  the  effrontery  to  insult  their  fellow  Christians  by  a 
f  alsehood  so  palpable,  and  so  easily  detected  ?  Allow  them  to  be  ca  * 
oable  of  this  treachery,  wo  have  still  to  explain,  how  the  people  came 
to  be  the  dupes  of  so  glaring  an  imposition;  how  they  could  be  permit¬ 
ted  to  give  up  every  thing  for  a  religion,  whose  teachers  were  so  un¬ 
principled  as  to  deceive  them,  and  so  unwise  as  to  commit  themselves 
upon  ground  where  it  was  impossible  to  elude  discovery.  Could 
Clement  have  dared  to  refer  the  people  of  Corinth  to  an  epistle  said 
to  be  received  by  themselves,  and  which  had  no  existence?  or,  could 
he  have  referred  the  Christians  at  large  to  writings  which  they  never 
heard  of?  And  it.  was  not  enough  to  maintain  the  semblance  of  truth 
with  the  people  of  thou*  own  party.  Where  were  the  Jews  all  the 


*  DEBATE,  K'. 

time?  and  how  was  it  possible  to  escape  the  correction  of  these  keen 
and  vigilant  observers?  We  mistake  the  matter  much,  if  we  think, 
that  Christianity  at  that  time  was  making  its  insidious  way  in  silence 
and  in  secrecy,  through  a  listless  and  unconcerned  public.  All  his¬ 
tory  inves  an  opposite  representation,  *  The  passions  and  curiosity  of 
men  were  quite  upon  flic  alert.  The  popular  enthusiasm  had  been 
i;  excited  on  both  sides  of  the  question.  It  had  drawn  the  attention  of 
the  established  authorities  in  different  provinces  of  the  empire,  and 
the  merits  of  the  Christian  cause  had  become  a  matter  of  frequent  and 
moral  discussion  in  courts  of  judicature.  If,  in  these  circumstances, 
the  Christian  writers  had  the  hardihood  to  venture  upon  a  falsehood,  it 
would  have  been  upon  safer  ground  than  what  they  naturally  adop¬ 
ted.  They  would  never  have  hazarded  to  assert  what  was  so  open  io 
contradiction,  as  the  existence  of  books  held  in  reverence  among 
all  the  churches,  and  which  yet  nobody,  either  in  or  out  of  these 
churches,  ever  heard  of.  They  would  never  have  been  so  unwise  as  to 
commit  in  this  way  a  cause,  which  had  not  a  single  circumstance  to 
recommend  it  but  its  truth  and  its  evidences. 

«  The  falsehood  of  the  Christian  testimony  on  this  point,  car¬ 
ries  along  with  it  a  concurrence  of  circumstances,  each  of  which  is 
the  strangest  and  most  unprecedented  that  ever  was  heard  of.  First, 
that  men,  Who  sustained  in  their  writings  all  the  characters  of  sinceri¬ 
ty,  and  many  of  whom  submitted  to  martyrdom,  as  the  highest  pledge 
of  sincerity  which  can  possibly  be  given,  should  have  been  capable  of 
falsehood  at  all.  Second,  That  this  tendency  to  falsehood  should 
have  been  exercised  so  unwisely,  as  to  appear  in  an  assertion  perfectly 
open  to  detection,  and  which  could  be  so  readily  converted  to  the  dis¬ 
credit  of  that  religion,  which  it  was  the  favorite  ambition  of  their  lives 
to  promote  and  establish  in  the  world.  Third,  That  this  testimony 
could  have  gained  the  concurrence  of  the  people  to  whom  it  was  ad¬ 
dressed,  and  that,  with  their  eyes  perfectly  open  to  its  falshood,  they 
should  be  ready  to  make  the  sacrifice  of  life  and  of  fortune  in  suppor¬ 
ting  it.  Fourth,  That  this  testimony  should  never  have  been  contra¬ 
dicted  by  the  Jews,  and  that  they  should  have  neglected  so  effectual  an 
opportunity  of  disgracing  a  religion,  the  progress  of  which  they  con¬ 
templated  with  so  much  jealousy  and  alarm.  Add  to  this,  that,  it  is 
not  the  testimony  of  one  writer,  which  we  are  making  to  pass  through 
the  ordeal  of  so  many  difficulties.  It  is  the  testimony  of  many  wri¬ 
ters,  who  lived  at  different  times,  and  in  different  countries,  and  who 
add  the  very  singular  circumstance  of  their  entire  agreement  with  cne 
another,  to  the  other  circumstances  equally  unaccountable,  which  we 
have  just  now  enumerated.  The  falsehood  of  their  united  testimony 
is  not  to  be  conceived.  It  is  a  supposition  which  we  are  warranted  to 
condemn,  upon  the  strength  of  any  one  ofthe  above  improbabilities  ta¬ 
ken  separately.  But  the  fair  way  of  estimating  their  effect  upon  the 
argument,  is  to  take  them  jointly,  $nd,  in  the  language  of  the  doctrine 
of  chances,  to  take  the  product  of  all  the  improbabilities  into  one 
another.  The  argument  which  this  product  furnishes  for  the  truth  of 
the  Christian  testimony,  has,  in  strength  and  conclusivencss,  no  paral¬ 
lel  in  the  whole  compass  of  ancient  literature.” 


DEBATE, 


lb 

To  this  we  shall  only  add,  that u  the  force  of  the  above  testimony  iy 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  consideration  that  it  is  the  concurring  evi¬ 
dence  of  separate  independent  and  well  informed  writers,  who  lived  in 
countries  remote  from  one  ano^ier,  Clement  lived  at  Home;  Igna- 
■ius  at  Antioch;  Polycarp  in  Smyrna;  Justin  Martyr  in  Syria;  Iremeus 
in  France;  Tert itllian  at  Carthage;  Origin  in  Egypt ; Eusebius  at  Ctesa- 
?ea,  and  Victoria  in  Germany.  The  dangers  which  they  incurred,  and. 
the  hardships  and  persecutions  which  they  suffered,  some  of  them 
even  unto  death,  on  account  of  their  adherence  to  tlie  Christian  faith, 
give  irresistable  weight  to  their  testimony 

That  the  scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  arc  now  read  in  language 
communicating  substantially  all  the  same  ideas,  originally  expressed 
in  them,  appears  from  the  quotations  found  in  the  works  of  these  first 
advocates  of  the  Christian  cause.  To  prevent  the  alteration  or  inter¬ 
polation  of  these  documents,  the  various  sects  which  soon  sprung  up, 
afforded  every  sort  4>f  safeguard.  Various  sectaries  arose  under  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  Oriental  philosophy,  who  rather  engrafted  Christianity 
'upon their  own  philosophy,  than  embraced  Christianity  as  an  entirely 
new7  system.  The  Platonic  philosophy  became  the  parent  of  many 
sects.  The  Platonists  began  to  expound  the  scriptures  philosophical¬ 
ly,  and  this  led  to  many  factions  amongst  the  Christians.  Each  party 
soon  got  into  the  practice  of  quoting  the  scriptures  to  prove  its  own 
tenets.  The  opposing  party  narrowly  scrutinized  these  quotations.* — 
This  prevented  the  corruption  of  the  text.  And  thus,  by  that  govern¬ 
ment  which  from  evil  still  educes  good,  the  very  heresies  themselves 
which  disturbed  the  peace  and  retarded  the  progress  of  Christianity, 
became  the  guardians  of  the  integrity  and  purity  of  the  text. 

But  I  have  not,  as  yet,  to  my  own  satisfaction  at  least,  sufficiently 
fixed  upon  your  memory,  what  I  have  more  than  once  asserted,  viz. 
That  the  testimony  which  the  apostles  and  first  Christians  gave  to  the 
facts  composing  the  gospel  narrative,  was  not  opposed  by  any  counter 
testimony.  Neither  the  authorship  of  the  Apostolic  writings,  nor  the 
facts  attested  in  them,  were  ever  opposed  by  any  contradictory  state¬ 
ments.  All  antiquity  dees  not  afford  a  vestige ,  public  or  private ,  of 
any  contradictory  testimony.  The  appearance  and  life  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  miracles  which  he  performed,  the  lives,  and  labors,  and  mighty 
deeds  of  his  Apostles,  his  death  and  its  accompaniments,  are  matters 
of  fact  uneoniradictcd  in  the  annals  of  Rome ,  and  of  the  world.  Nay, 
they  are  universally  admitted,  both  by  Jews  and  Pagans.  Though 
die  opposition  was  a  most  violent  one,  though  ridicule,  defamation 
and  persecution,  were  all  employed  and  displayed  against  the  Christian 
cause,  no  one  presumed  to  deny  the  facts.  u  What  but  truth  almigh¬ 
ty  could  have  stood  such  an  ordeal,  or  commanded  such  an  acquies¬ 
cence!  Edicts  were  promulged  against  the  Christians;  and  philoso¬ 
phers  employed  to  write  against  them,  but  the  former  never  questioned 
die  facts,  and  i he  latter  quoted  the  gospel  history  as  authentic,  and  at¬ 
tempted  to  explain  it  away. 

Now  the  facts,  many  of  them  at  least,  were  most  easily  disproved. — 
"Such  as  Herod's  summoning  the  scribes  and  chief  priests  on  the  appli- 


DEBATE. 


17 

cation  of  the  Magi,  the  slaughter  of  the  infant  in  Bethlehem ;  that  John 
the  Baptist  proclaimed  Jesus,  and  was  beheaded  by  the  intrigues  of 
Herodias;  that  Jesus  fed  many  thousands  on  a  few  loaves  and  fishes; 
that  Lazarus  was  raised  from  the  grave;  that  Jesus  was  crucified ;  that 
the  Apostles  were  gifted  with  foreign  tongues  on  Pentecost  ;  that  Peter 
and  John,  by  the  name  of  Jesus,  cured  a  cripple  of  the  greatest,  noto¬ 
riety,  at  the  beautiful  gate  of  the  temple ;  that  Paul  was  det  ained  a  pri¬ 
soner  by  Felix;  the  conduct  of  the  magistrates  at  Phillippi.  Ilis  ap¬ 
pearance  before  Agrippa,  and  Gallic,  the  elder  brother  of  the  philoso¬ 
pher  Seneca;  and  a  thousand  others  recorded,  the  most  easy  of  detec¬ 
tion  and  refutation,  yet  not  one  of  all  these,  contradicted  by  any 
writer  of  that  age,  Jew,  Pagan,  or  apostate  Christian ! 

But  so  far  from  being  contradicted  by  any  of  the  cotemporaries,  all 
the  important  facts  are  admitted  by  the  adversaries  themselves.  We 
shall  examine  a  few  of  the  first  adversaries  of  the  Christian  religion. — 
We  shall  begin  with  the  celebrated  Tryplio.  This  violent  opposer  of 
the  Christian  religion  was  born  before  John  the  Apostle  died.  This 
is  quite  probable,  for  he  held  a  public  debate  or  dialogue  with  Justin 
Martyr,  A.  I).  140,  in  the  city  of  Ephesus.  During  the  debate,  Jus¬ 
tin  Martyr  mentions  many  of  the  gospel  facts,  and  appeals  to  the  mira¬ 
cles.  Tryplio  and  his  four  companions  admit  the  facts,  but  ridicive 
the  idea  of  Jesus  being  born  of  a  virgin,  as  absurd;  and  say  “  it  is 
foolish  to  suppose  that  Christ  is  God,  and  became  man.”  He  says  it 
is  impossible  to  prove  that  any  can  be  God,  but  the  maker  of  the 
world.  He  denies  not  the  facts,  which,  as  a  Jew ,  he  had  every  facility 
to  have  done,  had  they  been  controvertible. 

Justin  cited  the  prophecy  of  Daniel,  7,  13,  and  argues  from  it.— ■ 
“  But,”  replies  Tryplio,  “  these  prophecies  constrain  us  to  expect  the 
Messiah  to  be  great  and  illustrious ;  but  he  who  is  called  your  Christ, 
was  without  reputation  and  glory,  so  that  he  fell  under  the  greatest 
curse  of  the  law  of  God  '.for  he  was  crucified .” 

Tryplio  tells  Justin  that  “  in  the  tables  of  the  Greeks,  it  is  said,  that 
Perseus  was  born  of  Danae,  whilst  a  virgin,  he  who  is  by  them  called 
J  upiter,  having  fallen  upon  her  in  the  form  of  gold ;  now,  says  lie,  you 
who  affirm  the  same  thing  ought  to  be  ashamed,  and  should  rather  say 
that  this  Jesus  was  man  of  man.” 

Again,  Justin  affirms  that  the  Jews  knew,  that  Jesus  rose  from  the 
dead.  He  adds,  “  the  other  nations  have  not  proceeded  so  far  in 
wickedness  against  Christ,  as  you,  who  are  even  to  them  the  authors 
of  evil  suspicions  against  that  holy  person,  and  against  us,  his  disci¬ 
ples  ;  for  after  you  had  crucified  that  only  blameless  and  just  person,  by 
whose  stripes  healing  has  come  to  all  who  approach  the  Father  thro’ 
him,  when  you  knew  that  he  was  risen  from  the  dead ,  and  ascended 
into  Heaven ,  as  the  prophets  foretold  should  happen,  you  not  only  did 
not  repent  of  the  evil  things  you  had  committed,  but  choosing  chief 
men  at  Jerusalem,  you  sent  them  forth  into  all  the  earth  to  publish  that 
the  sect  of  the  Christians  were  Atheists.” 

Justin  having  shewn,  from  the  Jewish  scriptures,  that  another  bed¬ 
sides  the  Father  is  called  God*  Tryplio  replied — u  You  have,  my 

Yol  p o~%- 

'  \u, 


DEBATE. 


friend,  strongly  and  by  many  passages  demonstrated  this: — it  remains 
that  you  shew  that  this  person,  according  to  the  will  of  the  Father, 
submitted  to  become  man  of  a  virgin ,  to  be  crucified ,  to  die ,  to  arise  af¬ 
terwards,  and  to  return  to  Heaven .”  Does  not  this  prove  that  these 
facts,  though  ridiculed  and  defamed,  could  not  be  contradicted? 

Lucian,  the  Syrian,  who  was  born  about  the  year  120,  gives  the  fol¬ 
lowing  account  of  one  Peregrinus,  who  publicly  burnt  himself  in 
Greece  soon  after  the  Olympic  games,  about  the  year  165 : 

“  Lucian  was  a  native  of  Samosata  in  Syria:  he  was  born  some  time 
in  the  reign  of  Adrian,  which  began  in  the  year  117,  and  terminated 
in  138.  Although  he  did  not  expressly  write  in  opposition  to  Christi¬ 
anity,  lie  was  strongly  prejudiced  against  it.  He  gives  the  following 
account  of  Peregrinus,  who  publicly  burnt  himself  in  Greece  soon  af¬ 
ter  the  Olympic  games,  about  the  year  165.  u  Peregrinus,  or  Prote¬ 
us,  appears  for  awhile  to  have  imposed  on  the  Christians,  and  to  have 
joined  himself  to  them.  Lucian,  after  saying  that  “  Peregrinus  learn¬ 
ed  the  wonderful  doctrine  of  the  Christians  by  conversing  with  their 
priests  and  scribes  near  Palestine,”  and  after  going  on  to  observe,  that 
they  “  still  worship  that  great  man  who  was  crucified  in  Palestine, 
because  he  introduced  into  the  world  this  new  religion,”  he  adds— - 

For  this  reason  Proteus  was  taken  up  and  put  in  prison,  which  very 
thing  was  of  no  small  service  to  him  afterwards,  for  giving  reputation 
to  his  impostures,  and  gratifying  his  yanity.  The  Christians  were 
much  grieved  for  his  imprisonment,  and  tried  all  ways  to  procure  his 
liberty.  Not  being  able  to  effect  that,  they  did  hint  all  sorts  of  kind  of¬ 
fices;  and  that  not  in  a  careless  manner,  but  with  the  greatest  assidui¬ 
ty  ;  for  even  betimes  in  the  morning,  there  would  be  at  the  prison  old 
women,  some  widows,  and  also  little  orphan  children;  and  some  of 
Ihe  chief  of  their  men,  by  corrupting  the  keepers,  would  get  into  pris¬ 
on,  and  stay  the  whole  night  there  with  him :  there  they  had  a  good 
supper  together,  and  their  sacred  discourses.  And  this  excellent  Per¬ 
egrinus  (for  so  he  was  still  called)  was  thought  by  them  to  be  an  ex¬ 
traordinary  person,  no  less  than  another  Socrates.  Even  from  the  ci¬ 
ties  of  Asia,  some  Christians  came  to  him,  by  an  order  of  the  body,  to 
relieve,  encourage^  and  comfort  him.  For  it  is  incredible  what  expe¬ 
dition  they  use,  when  any  of  their  friends  arc  known  to  be  in  trouble. 
In  a  word,  they  spare  nothing  upon  such  an  occasion ;  and  Peregri- 
nus’s  chain  brought  him  in  a  good  sum  of  money  from  them.  For 
these  miserable  men  have  no  doubt  but  they  shall  be  immortal,  and 
live  for  ever;  therefore  they  contemn  death,  and  many  surrender  them¬ 
selves  to  sufferings.  Moreover,  their  first  lawgiver  has  taught  them, 
that  they  are  all  brethren  when  once  they  have  turned,  and  renounced 
the  gods  of  the  Greeks,  and  worship  that  Master  of  t  heirs  who  was 
crucified,  and  engage  to  live  according  to  his  laws.  They  have  also  a 
sovereign  contempt  for  all  the  things  of  this  world,  and  look  upon  them 
as  common,  and  trust  one  another  with  them  without  any  particular 
security;  for  which  reason,  any  subtle  fellow^,  by  good  management, 
may  impose  upon  this  simple  people,  and  grow  rich  among  them.” — 
Lucian  afterwards  informs  us,  that  Peregrinus  was  set  at  liberty  by 


DEBATE,  Y& 

the  governor  of  Syria,  and  that  at  length  he  parted  from  the  Chris  • 
lians. 

“  We  have  here  an  authentic  testimony,  from  a  Heathen  writer,  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  mankind,  to  some  of  the  main  facts  and  prin¬ 
ciples  of  Christianity.  That  the  founder  of  the  Christian  religion 
was  crucified  in  Palestine ;  that  he  was  the  great  Master  of  the  Chris¬ 
tians,  and  the  first  author  of  the  principles  received  by  them ;  that  these 
men  called  Christians  had  peculiarly  strong  hopes  of  immortal  life,  &l 
a*great  contempt  for  this  world  and  its  enjoyments;  that  they  courage¬ 
ously  endured  many  afflictions  upon  account  of  their  principles,  and 
sometimes  surrendered  themselves  to  sufferings.  Honesty  and  probity 
prevailed  so  much  among  them,  that  they  trusted  each  other  without 
security.  Their  Master  had  earnestly  recommended  to  all  his  follow¬ 
ers  mutual  love,  by  which  also  they  were  much  distinguished;  and 
their  assiduity  in  relieving  and  comforting  one  another  when  under  af¬ 
fliction,  was  known  to  all  men.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  them  that 
they  were  imposed  upon  by  Peregrinus^  who  was  admired  by  many 
others.” 

“  Celsus,  cotemporary  with  Lucian,  was  an  Epicurean  philoso¬ 
pher,  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Adrian.  He  was  one  of  the  most  viru¬ 
lent  adversaries  the  Christian  religion  ever  had,  and  also  a  man  of  con¬ 
siderable  parts  and  learning  The  book  which  he  wrote  against  the 
Christians,  in  the  year  176,  was  entitled,  the  “  True  Word.”  He 
there  introduces  a  Jew  declaiming  against  Jesus  Christ,  and  against 
such  Jews  as  Were  converted  to  Christianity.  Origen’s  answer  to 
Celsus  is  not  a  general  reply,  but  a  minute  examination  of  all  his  ob¬ 
jections,  even  those  which  appeared  the  most  frivolous.  He  states  the 
objections  of  Celsus  in  his  own  words;  and,  that  nothing  might  escape 
him,  he  takes  them,  he  says,  in  the  order  in  which  Celsus  placed 
them. 

“  Celsus  used  only  the  Gospels  themselves,  in  search  of  evidence  a- 
gainst  their  truth.  He  never  refers  to  any  spurious  Gospel,  or  to  any 
other  accounts  of  the  life  of  Christ.  His  attack  is  conducted  not  by 
denying  the  facts  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  of  which  he  all  along 
admits  the  truth,  but  by  reasoning  from  such  as  the  following  topics: 
That  it  was  absurd  to  esteem  and  worship  one  as  God  who  was  ac¬ 
knowledged  to  have  been  a  man,  and  to  have  suffered  death :  That 
Christ  invited  sinners  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God :  That  it  was 
inconsistent  with  his  supposed  dignity,  to  come  to  save  such  low  and 
despicable  creatures  as  the  Jews  and  Christians:  That  he  spake  dishon.-' 
orahly  and  impiously  of  God:  That  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of  reli¬ 
gion  are  better  taught  by  the  Greek  philosophers,  than  in  the  Gospels; 
and  without  the  threatenings  of  God.”  The  following  are  specimens 
of  the  objections  he  brings  forward. 

44  What  need  was  there  for  carrying  thee,  while  an  infant,  into  E-' 
gypt,  that  thou  mightest  not  be  slain?  For  it  did  not  become  God  to 
be  afraid  of  death.” — “  How  can  we  think  him  God,  who,  to  omit  oth¬ 
er  things,  performed  none  of  those  matters  which  we  are  told  he  pro¬ 
mised?  And  who,  being  condemned  by  us,  when  he  was  sought  to 


DEBATE, 


be  punished,  was  caught  basely  lurking  and  flying,  being  betrayed  b>* 
those  whom  lie  called  his  disciples?” — “If  you  tell  them,  that  it  is 
not  the  Son  of  God,  but  he  who  is  Father  of  all  whfim  men  ought  to 
worship ;  they  will  not  be  satisfied  unless  you  also  worship  him  who  is 
the  author  of  their  sedition ;  not  that  they  exceed  in  the  worship  of 
God,  but  that  they  above  measure  worship  this  man.”  “  Speaking  of 
the  crucifixion,  Celsus  says,  “  If  not  before,  why  did  he  not  now,  at 
least,  exert  his  divinity,  and  deliver  himself  from  this  ignominy,  and 
treat  those  as  they  deserved,  who  behaved  ignominiously  both  towards 
himself  and  his  Father.” — “  If  these  men  worshipped  no  other  but  the. 
one  God,  they  might  justly  inveigh  against  all  other  Gods.  But  now 
they  out  of  measure  worship  one  who  but  lately  appeared,  and  yet  im¬ 
agine  they  do  not  sin  against  God,  though  they  also  serve  his  minis¬ 
ter.”  He  affirms  that  Jesus,  being  “  brought  up  obscurely,  and  obli¬ 
ged  to  serve  for  hire  in  Egypt,  learned  there  certain  powerful  arts,  for 
which  the  Egyptians  are  renowned;  then  returned  greatly  elated  with 
his  power,  on  account  of  which  he  declared  himself  a  God.” 

“  Celsus  represents  Jesus  to  have  lived  but.  a  few  years  before.  He 
mentions  its  being  said  that  Jesus  was  born  of  a  virgin;  that  angels  ap¬ 
peared  to  Joseph.  He  speaks  of  the  star  that  appeared  at  the  birth  of 
Jesus;  the  wise  men  that  came  to  worship  him,  when  an  infant,  and 
Herod’s  massacreing  the  children;  Joseph's  fleeing  with  the  child  into 
Egypt,  by  the  admonition  of  an  angel;  the  Holy  Ghost  descending  on 
Jesus  like  a  dove,  when  he  was  baptized  by  John,  and  the  voice  from 
Heaven  declaring  him  to  be  the  Son  of  God;  his  going  about  with  his 
disciples,  whom  he  calls  boatmen ,  publicans,  and  wicked  sailors ;  his 
healing  the  sick  and  lame,  and  raising  the  dead ;  his  foretelling  his 
own  sufferings  and  resurrection ;  his  being  betrayed,  forsaken  by  his 
own  disciples;  his  sufferings;  his  praying  “  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let 
this  cup  pass  from  me;”  the  ignominious  treatment  he  met  with;  the 
robe  that  was  put  upon  him ;  the  crown  of  thorns;  the  reed  put  into  his 
hand ;  his  drinking  vinegar  and  gall;  and  his  being  scourged  and  cruci¬ 
fied;  his  being  seen  after  his  resurrection,  by  a  fanatical  woman,  (as  he 
calls  her,  meaning  Mary  Magdalene,)  and  by  his  own  companions  and 
disciples;  his  shewing* them  his  hands  that  were  pierced ;  the  marks  of 
his  punishment.  He  also  mentions  the  angels  being  seen  at  his  sepul¬ 
chre,  and  that  some  said  it  was  one  angel,  others  that  it  was  two;  by 
which  he  hints  at  the  seeming  variation  in  the  accounts  given  of  it  by 
the  Evangelists.  Upon  the  whole,  there  are  in  Celsus  about  eighty 
quotations  from  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  or  references  to 
them,  of  which  Origeil  has  taken  notice.  And  whilst  he  argues 
from  them,  sometimes  in  a  very  perverse  manner,  he  still  takes  it  for 
granted,  as  the foundation  of  his  argument,  that  whatever  absurdities 
could  be  fastened  upon  any  words  or  actions  of  Christ,  recorded  in  the 
Gospels,  it  would  be  a  valid  objection  against  Christianity. 

“  The  reasoning  then  on  both  sides  of  this  dispute  proceeded  on  the 
supposition  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  history.  Celsus  also  grants 
that  Christ  wrought  miracles.  The  difference  between  him  and  Ori 
gen,  on  this  subject  ,  lies  in  the  manner  of  accounting  for  them ;  the  oiiej 
ascribing  them  to  magic,  the  other  to  the  power  of  GodT 


Debate  n 

Porphyry  the  philosopher,  was  born  at  Tyre,  in  .Phentcia,  about 
the  year, 233.  He  wrote  a  large  treatise  against  the  Christian  teli-> 
gion,  of  which  he  was  a  very  able  and  learned  opponent.  He  endeav¬ 
ors  to  overthrow  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  not  by  denying  their 
authenticity,  but  by  endeavoring  to  point  out  in  them  contradictions  &, 
absurdities;  but  he  opposes  no  contradicting  statement.  He  does  not 
deny  the  miracles,  but  calls  them  “  the  works  of  cunning  demons,” 
and  refers  to  some  who  he  asserts  performed  miracles  as  great.  He 
appears  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures,  and  refers 
to  numerous  passages  and  circumstances  in  them,  which  lie  perverts, 
after  the  manner  of  Celsus,  pointing  out  what  he  deems  immoral  and 
absurd.  “  If  Christ,”  he  objects,  “  be  the  way  of  salvation,  the  truth, 
and  the  life,  and  they  only  who  believe  in  him  can  be  saved,  what  be¬ 
came  of  the  men  who  lived  before  bis  coming  ?” — :U  Christ  threatens  ever¬ 
lasting  punishment  to  those  who  do  not  believe  him,  and  yet  in  anoth¬ 
er  place  he  says,  with  what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to 
you  again,  which  is  absurd  and  contradictory;  for  all  measure  must  be 
limited  to  time.”  He  objects  that  Peter  was  reproved  by  Paul,  for 
that  he  did  not  proceed  uprightly  in  preaching  the  Gospel.  Hence  he 
argues  the  falsehood  of  the  whole  doctrine,  as  if  it  were  a  mere  inven¬ 
tion,  since  the  heads  cf  the  churches  disagreed.  Other  passages  of 
Scripture  he  reasons  upon  in  a  similar  manner.  The  cause  why  Aes¬ 
culapius  wrought  no  cures,  as  he  says,  in  his  time,  and  why  the  other 
gods  no  longer  gave  responses,  neither  intermeddled  in  the  affairs  of 
men,  he  ascribes  wholly  to  thd  honor  that  was  given  to  Jesus; — » 
M  Since  Jesus  has  been  honored,  none  have  received  any  public  bene¬ 
fit  from  the  gods-,T 

u  Notwithstanding  what  he  says  against  the  Christians,  Porphyry 
gives  an  honourable  testimony  to  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  In 
his  treatise,  entitled  “  Philosophy  of  Oracles,”  the  following  passage, 
preserved  by  Eusebius,  occurs : 

“  What  we  are  going  to  say,  may  perhaps  appear  to  some  a  para- 
»dox,  for  the  gods  declared  Christ  to  be  a  person  most  pious,  and  be¬ 
come  immortal.  Moreover  they  speak  of  him  honorably”  And  go¬ 
ing  on,  lie  adds;  “  being  asked  concerning  Christ,  whether  he  is  God. 
he  (Apollo)  answered,  ‘  That,  he  who  is  renowned  for  wisdom,  knows 
that  the  immortal  soul  continues  after  the  body;  but  the  pious  soul  of 
that  man  is  most  excelling.’  He  therefore  affirmed  him  to  be  a  most 
pious  person,  and  that  his  soul,  which  the  foolish  Christians  worship, 
like  that  of  other  good  men,  was  after  death  made  immortal ;  but  being 
asked  why  he  was  punished  ?  he  answered,  i  That  the  body  indeed  is 
ever  liable  to  little  torments ;  but.  the  soul  of  the  pious  rests  in  the  plain 
ot  Heaven.”  And,  immediately  after  this  oracle,  he  adds,  u  He  was 
therefore  a  pious  person,  and  went  to  Heaven,  as  pious  persons  do, 
for  which  cause  you  ought  not  to  speak  evil  of  him,  but  to  pity  the  fol¬ 
ly  of  the  men,”  (namely  whi)  worship  him.)” 

“  Hierocles  the  philosopher,  was  prefect  at  Alexandria,  in  the 
year  303.  Me  composed  two  books  in  order  to  confute  the  Christian 
religion.  To  these  books  Eusebius  published  an  answer,  which  still-- 


Remains.  Ilierocles  endeavours  to  prove  the  falsehood  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures,  by  attempting  to  shew  that  they  contradict  themselves,  for  which 
purpose  he  makes  observations  on  a  great  number  of  particular  passa¬ 
ges.  The  proof  of  Christianity,  from  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  lie  tries  to 
invalidate,  not  by  denying  the  facts  themselves,  but  by  Shewing  that 
one  Appollonius  had  performed  equal,  if  not  greater  miracles,  which 
were  recorded, lie  says,  not  by  ignorant  men  like  Peter  and  Paul;  but 
by  Maximus  of  iEgis,  and  Damis  a  philosopher.  “  Now,”  says  he, 
“  we  reckon  him  who  did  such  wonderful  things,  hot  a  god,  but  only 
a  man,  whereas  they  (the  Christians)  give  the  appellation  of  God  to  Je¬ 
sus,  because  he  performed  a  few  miracles.”  Laetantius,  in  remarking 
bn  this,  affirms,  that  the  difference  between  the  miracles  performed  by 
Jesus,  and  all  impostors  whatever,  is  evident  from  the  manner  in 
which  they  were  regarded  by  mankind.” 

“  Julian,  the  Roman  Emperor,  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  the  Cee- 
sars  in  the  year  361-  He  had  once  made  a  profession  of  Christiani¬ 
ty,  but  afterwards  abandoned  it.  In  the  year  363,  he  wrote  a  treatise 
in  three  books  against  the  Christians,  and  to  confute  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion,  against  which  he  shews  great  inveteracy.  Libanius  the  Soph¬ 
ist,  who  was  acquainted  with  Julian,  says:  “  He  wrote  a  treatise  to 
shew  that  these  books  which  make  the  Man  of  Palestine  to  be  God, 
contained  nothing  but  silly  and  ridiculous  matters.”  Cyril  wrote  an 
answer  to  this  work,  in  which  he  transcribes  many  passages  from  it  at 
length.  Julian,  like  the  others  whose  works  we  have  been  consider- 
ing,  acknowledged  the  'principal  facts  of  the  Gospel  history.  The  na¬ 
ture  of  Julian’s  objections,  as  well  as  kis  admission  of  the  facts  rela¬ 
ted,  will  be  seen  from  the  following  extracts:  “  Jesus  having  persua¬ 
ded  a  few  among  you,  and  those  of  the  worst  of  men,  has  now  been 
celebrated  about  three  hundred  years,  having  done  nothing  in  his  life¬ 
time  worthy  of  remembrance,  unless  any  one  thinks  it  a  mighty  matter 
to  heal  lame  and  blind  people,  and  exorcise  demoniacs  in  the  villages 
of  Rethsaida  and  Bethany.” — “Jesus  whom  you  preach  was  one  of 
Caesar’s  subjects.  If  you  refuse  this,  I  will  prove  it  by  and  by.  But 
the  thing  is  acknowledged:  For  you  say,  that  he,  with  his  father  and 
mother,  was  enrolled  under  Cerenius.  Now,  after  he  was  born,  what 
good  did  he  do  to  his  relations?  For  he  says  they  would  not  obey 
him.” 

“  Alluding  to  the  superstitious  contentions  of  the  Christians  of  that 
time  about  the  observance  of  Easter,  he  says,  “  These  things  flow  en¬ 
tirely  from  yourselves,  for  no  where  has  Jesus  or  Paul  delivered  you 
these  things,  commanding  you  to  do  them.  The  reason  is,  they  did 
not  expect  that  ever  you  would  attain  to  this  degree  of  power ;  for  they 
were  content  if  they  deceived  servant-maids  and  slaves,  and  by  their 
means  some  wives  and  husbands,  such  as  Cornelius  and  Sergius;  of 
whom,  if  the  one  is  remembered  among  the  noted  men  of  that  time,  for 
these  things  happened  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius  or  Claudius,  do  you 
think  that  I  lie  concerning  the  rest?” 

“  You  are  so  unfortunate  that  you  do  not  continue  in  those  things 
which  were  delivered  to  you  by  the  Apostles.  For  their  successors 


DEBATE,  23 

.  i  -Vtir 

have  dressed  them  up  for  the  worse,  and  more  impiously.  For  neith¬ 
er  Paul,  nor  Matthew,  nor  Luke,  nor  Mark,  ventured  to  call  Jesus, 
God,  But  that  good  man  John,  perceiving  that  numbers  qf  the  Gre¬ 
cian  and  Italian  cities  were  caught  with  that  distemper,  and  hearing, 
as  I  suppose,  that  tne  sepulchres  of  Peter  and  Paul  were  privately  wor¬ 
shipped,  was  the  first  who  had  the  boldness  to  pronounce  it.”  Fur¬ 
ther,  he  objects  what  John  says.  “  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time  j 
the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  re¬ 
vealed  him.  Whether  then  is  this  God  word  made  flesh,  the  only  be 
gotten  Son  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father?  and  if  he  is  the  same,  as 
i  think,  then  certainly  even  you  have  seen  God ;  for  he  dwelt  among 
you,  and  ve  beheld  his  glory.” 

“  Speaking  of  the  Christians,  he  scoffingly  says :  “  Not  only  they  of 
his  time,  but  that  some  of  those  who  at  the  beginning  received  the 
word  from  Paul,  were  such,  is  apparent  from  what  Paul  himself  says, 
writing  to  them.  For  I  presume  he  was  not  so  void  of  shame,  as  to 
j?end  them  such  reproaches  in  his  letter  to  them,  if  he  had  not  known 
them  to  be  just.  These  are  the  things  which  he  writes  of  his  disciples, 
and  to  themselves.  “Be  not  deceived;  neither  idolaters,  nor  adulter¬ 
ers,  nor  effeminate,  nor  abusers  of  themselves,  with  mankind,  nor 
thieves,  nor  covetous,  nor  drunkards,  nor  revilers,  nor  extortioners, 
shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  you  are  not  ignorant,  breth¬ 
ren,  that  such  were  you  also.  But  ye  are  washed,  but  ye  are  sanctified 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,”  1  Cor.  vi.  9 — 11.  You  see  they  were 
such,  but  they  h  id  been  sanctified  and  washed,  having  been  cleansed 
and  scoured  with  water,  which  penetrates  even  to  the  soul.  And  bap¬ 
tism,  which  cannot. heal  the  leprosy,  nor  the  gout,  nor  the  dysentery, 
nor  any  other  distemper  of  the  body,  takes  away  adulteries,  extortions, 
and  all  other  sins  of  the  soul.”  In  the  above  passage,  Julian  says,  “  I 
presume  he  was  not  so  void  of  shame  as  to  send  them  such  reproaches 
in  his  letter  to  them,  if  he  had  not  known  them  to  be  just.”  This  is 
the  very  argument  formerly  insisted  on  respecting  the  testimony  of  the 
nrst  Christians,  to  whom  the  Epistles  were  addressed,  which  must  have 
been  applicable  to  them,  cr  they  would  never  have  been  received  and 
acknowledged  by  them. 

“  In  a  letter  to  Arsacius,  high  priest  of  Galatia,  referring  to  the  impi¬ 
ety  of  the  Heathens,  Julian  recommends  the  example  of  the  Chris¬ 
tians:  “Why  do  we  not  look  to  that  which  has  been  the  principal 
cause  of  the  augmentation  of  impiety,  humanity  to  strangers,  care  in  bu¬ 
rying  the  dead,  and  that  sanctity  of  life  of  which  they  make  such  a  show? 
#all  which  things  I  will  have  to  be  really  practised  by  our  people  It  is 
not  sufficient  that  you  are  unblameable  yourself,  all  the  priests  in  Ga¬ 
latia  ought  to  be  so  likewise.  I  will,  therefore,  that  you  persuade,  and 
even  compel,  all  the  priests  in  Galatia  to  live  soberly,  otherwise  do  you 
depose  them  from  the  priestly  office,  unless  they,  and  their  wives,  and 
children,  and  servants,  do  religiously  worship  the  gods,  and  also  for¬ 
bear  to  converse  with  the  servants,  children,  and  wives  of  the  Galilean^ 
who  are  impious  towards  the  gods,  and  prefer  impiety  to  religion, — ■ 
You  are  likewise  to  order  them  not  to  frequent  the  theatre,  nor  to 


DEBATE. 


QX 

drink  in  taverns,  nor  to  exercise  any  mean  or  sordid  employments.*-- 
Such  as  hearken  to  your  directions,  you  are  .to  encourage;  others  you 
are  to  reject.  You  are  also  to  erect  hospitals  in  every  city,  that  stran¬ 
gers  also  may  share  in  our  humanity ;  and  not  only  those  of  our  own  re- 
ligion,  but  others  likewise,  if  they  are  necessitous.”  He  then  tells  him 
what  allowance  he  had  made  for  that  purpose.  “  For,”  says  he,  u  it  is 
a  shame  when  there  are  no  beggars  among  the  Jews,  and  the  impious 
Galileans  relieve  not  only  their  own  people,  but  ours  also,  that,  our 
poor  should  be  neglected  by  us,  and  be  left  helpless  and  destitute.” 

u  After  all,”  says  Julian,  “  these  (Galileans)  have  in  some  degree  a 
proper  sense  of  religion,  for  they  worship  no  abject  and  vulgar  deity, 
but  that  God  who  is  truly  all-powerful  and  all  good,  by  whose  direc¬ 
tion  the  sensible  world  is  conducted;  the  same  I  am  persuaded  that 
we  also  worship,  under  different  names.  They  therefore  seem  to  me 
to  act  very  consistently,  as  they  are  not  transgressors  of  the  laws,  but 
only  err  in  paying  their  worship  to  this  one  God,  in  neglect  of  all  the 
rest,  and  in  thinking  that  we  only,  whom  they  style  the  Gentiles,  are 
precluded  from  his  influence.”  ” 

These  testimonies  are  as  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  Christian  pub¬ 
lic,  as  of  the  sceptics ;  for,  while  they  prove  that  neither  infidel  J  ewsj 
nor  Pagans,  nor  apostates  from  the  Christian  faith,  in  ail  their  spite  and 
•malice,  and  with  all  the  opportunities  which  they  had,  ever  attempted 
to  contradict  one  of  the  great  facts  on  which  Christianity  is  predica¬ 
ted;  they  also  give  some  striking  attestations  to  the  purity,  excel¬ 
lency,  and  value  of  Christianity,  as  received  and  practised  by  the  pri¬ 
mitive  Christians.  But  the  conclusion  from  these  premises  bearing 
upon  the  position  before  us  (now,  I  hope,  established  in  every  mind  in 
this  assembly)  which  has  led  us  so  far  into  antiquity,  is  this — that  the 
Christian  Scriptures,  and  the  facts  which  they  record,  were  admitted  by 
the  enemies  of  Christianity,  as  we  noyv  contend  for  them.  But  these 
infidels,  like  the  modern,  attempted  to  explain  them  away,  to  ridicule, 
or  reproach  them,  as  you  have  heard  upon  the  present  occasion;  but, 
with  what  success,  let  the  page  of  history,  and  our  own  experience,  de¬ 
clare. — I  will  only  add,  that  1  see,  in  my  friend  Mr.  Owen,  only  a. 
.second  edition  of  Celsus,  in  some  respects  abridged,  and  in  others  en¬ 
larged  and  improved.  He  dare  not  to  deny  the  facts ,  but  philosoph¬ 
izes  against  them,  because  repugnant  to  his  Epicurean  notions  of 
matter,  virtue  and  happiness. 

These  old  sceptics  reasoned  against  Jesus  being  Lord  of  the  Uni-  'G 
verse,  and  against  his  religion,  just  as  a  modern  atheist  reasons  against 
the  proposition,  that  God  made  this  globe.  A  benevolent  beingcould  ’ " 
not  create  a  world  like  this.  See  how  badly  it  is  planned,  arranged,  G 
and  adapted  to  the  subsistence  of  animals.  One  part  of  it  parched 
with  a  vertical  sun;  another  bound  in  perpetual  ice.  One  part  of  it  G 
dreary  wastes,  sandy  deserts,  and  three  fourths  of  the  whole  immense 
oceans.  They  have  formed,  in  their  o\yn  imagination,  a  standard  of 
benevolence,  and  that  will  not  apply  to  the  appearance  of  things — and  . 
it  is  more  consistent  with  the  pride  of  philosophy  to  annihilate  a  crea-  qji 
than  to  sacrifice  their  own  imaginations  to  reason.  So  with 


DEBATE. 


23 

primitive  sceptics;  they  opposed  their  own  ideas,  or  their  own  supersti¬ 
tion,  to  incontestible  facts ;  and  rather  than  abandon  the  former,  they 
thought  good  to  attempt  to  explain  away  the  latter. 

Two  facts  are  established  from  the  preceding  documents  and  proofs 
—our  adversaries,  themselves,  being  judges : 

1.  All  .Christian  communities,  from  A.  D.  33  to  101,  whether  pre¬ 
viously  Jews,  or  Pagans,  or  both,  to  whom  these  writings  were  addres¬ 
sed,  did  receive  and  retain  these  writings,  as  the  works  of  the  persons 
whose  names  they  bear. 

2.  That  all  the  opponents  of  Christianity  whose  works  have  come 
down  to  us— or  whose  arguments  have  been  preserved  in  the  writings 
of  their  opponents,  did  admit  the  Gospel  Histories  to  have  been  written 
by  their  reputed  authors ;  did  admit  the  facts  recorded — and  never 
dared  to  question  either  the  authorship  of  the  inspired  books,  the  time 
or  place  of  their  publication,  or  the  verity  of  the  facts  stated  by  the 
eye  and  ear  witnesses  of  the  W ord. 

While  on  the  subject  of  the  authorship  of  these  sacred  writings,  and 
on  the  incontrovertible  nature  of  the  facts  stated  in  these  narratives,  I 
would  think  it  not  unsuitable,  in  this  place,  to  take  notice  of  the  char* 
acter  of  these  writers,  and  the  circumstantiality  of  their  narrations. 

The  question  now  before  us,  is :  Does  the  character  of  these  writers* 
as  it  presents  itself  to  our  view,  from  their  own  writings,  or  from  any 
records  which  have  come  down  to  us,  afford  any  ground  to  suspect 
either  their  sincerity ,  or  any  moral  defect  whatever  ?  There  is  a  species 
of  evidence,  sometimes  called  the  internal  evidence  of  Christianity. — 
This  is  made  up  from  the  character  of  the  writers,  the  peculiarities  of 
style  and  sentiment  exhibited,  and  also  from  the  nature,  object,  and 
tendency  of  the  doctrine  taught,  or  the  communications  made.  There 
is  what  is  sometimes  called  the  critical  internal  evidence;  and  the  mo¬ 
ral  internal  evidence.  I  am  not  however  going  into  this  matter  at  pre¬ 
sent.  I  only  remark,  that,  although  the  internal  evidence,  found  with¬ 
in  the  volume,  is  not  supposed  the  best  calculated  to  arrest  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  bold,  declaiming  infidel,  or  the  curious  speculating  sceptic; 
yet  this  is  the  evidence  which  ever  has  made  the  deepest  impression  up¬ 
on  the  mind  of  the  honest  enquirer;  and  affords  a  much  greater  assu¬ 
rance  to  the  believer  of  the  certainty  of  the  foundation  of  his  faith,  than 
all  the  external  proofs  which  have  ever  been  adduced.  The  moral  in¬ 
ternal  evidence  of  Christianity,  is  that  which  takes  hold  of  the 
great  mass  of  mankind,  because  it  seizes  the  soul  of  man;  it  adapts  it¬ 
self  to  the  whole  man.  It  speaks  to  the  understanding,  to  the  con¬ 
science,  to  the  affections,  to  the  passions,  to  the  circumstances,  of  man, 
in  a  way  which  needs  no  translation,  no  comment. — It  pierces  the 
soul  of  man,  dividing  even  the  animal  life  from  our  intellectual  nature, 
and  developing  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  There  is  an 
internal  sense  to  which  it  addresses  itself,  which  can  feel,  examine, 
Weigh,  and  decide  upon,  its  pretensions,  without  pronouncing  a  word. 

In.  silencing,  confuting,  confounding,  and  converting,  the  hold  op- 
poser  with  a  hard  hear'  and  a  seared  conscience,  we  do  take  hold  of 
those  strong,  stubborn,  and  prostrating  arguments,  drawn  from  what 
~VoL  2.  3 


DEBATE. 


we  sometimes  call  the  extrinsic  sources.  But  when  we  aim  at  Conver¬ 
ting  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  we  only  think  of  laying  open  tire  in- 
ternal  evidences.  In  the  former  case,  we  begin  by  proving  that  God 
speaks ;  but,  in  the  latter,  wre  assume  the  fact,  and  prove  it  from  what 
is  spoken.  That  God  speaks,  ten  thousand  vouchers  in  the  volume 
declare — none  of  which  can  be  refuted.  These  are  they  which  as¬ 
sure  the  Christian  that  his  faith  will  never  make  him  ashamed. 

But  I  will  speak  of  the  circumstantiality  of  the  writers,  that  I  may 
illustrate  their  sincerity.  When  a  person  attempts  to  impose  upon 
us,  he  sometimes  deals  in  generals,  and  avoids  particulars.  He  keeps 
out  to  sea.  He  takes  care  not  to  deal  much  in  dates,  times,  persons, 
and  places  of  easy  reference.  He  fears  nothing  more  than  specific 
terms,  and  minute  details.  But  as  there  is  a  peculiar  air  of  design,  in¬ 
trigue,  imposture,  or  fiction,  so  there  is  an  air  of  *  ankness,  candor, 
honesty,  sincerity,  which  it  is  as  diificult  to  counterfeit,  as  to  change 
the  lineaments  of  the  face.  There  is  the  physiognomy  of  truth.— 
Sometimes  it  is  mimicked.  A  labored  minuteness,  instead  of  the  un¬ 
affected  details,  an  artificial  particularity  instead  of  the  natural  and 
incidental  relation  of  circumstances,  frequently,  in  works  of  fiction, 
assume  much  of  the  air  of  truth ;  but  never  so  exact  is  the  imitation  as 
to  escape  the  detection  of  the  well  informed  and  accurate  examiner. — 
A  secret  consciousness  of  merited  suspicion  will  always  blush  thro’ 
the  most  labored  concealment.  But  the  consciousness  of  truth,  will, 
without  a  challenge,  court  investigation,  and  defy  contradiction. — 
There  is  an  air  of  this  sort  which  accompanies  conscious  truth,  that 
never  can  be  perfectly  counterfeited.  This  fearlessness  of  consequen¬ 
ces,  this  eager  desire  of  examination,  this  courting  of  contradiction,  is 
the  most  prominent  feature  in  the  character  of  all  the  original  witnes¬ 
ses  who  attest  the  evangelical  story.  They  take  a  range  in  their  nar¬ 
ratives,  quite  unnecessary,  and  go  into  circumstantial  details,  allusions 
to  persons,  places,  and  public  events,  which  no  necessity  compelled, 
were  it  not  that  they  defied  doubt,  and  solicited  examination.  When 
they  record  a  miracle,  they  go  into  a  detail  of  circumstances,  which  ren¬ 
ders  rational  doubt  impossible.  The  witnesses  of  many  of  the  miracles 
were  very  numerous,  and  in  recording  them,  they  challenge,  as  it  were, 
and  summon  all  the  witnesses.  Such,  for  example,  was  the  fact  in  that 
sublime  miracle  of  feeding  5000  men  upon  five  barley  loaves  and  two 
small  fishes.  The  place  where,  the  time  of  year  when,  and  many  cir¬ 
cumstances  connected  wi  tli  this  occurrence,  put  it  in  the  power  of  each 
one  of  the  5000,  and,  consequently,  in  the  power  of  myriads  of  their 
cotemporaries,  to  contradict  and  repel  such  a  falsehood,  if  it  had  been 
one.  But  the  conversations  of  the  enemies,  the  deeds  and  sayings  of 
the  opponents,  the  objections  and  complaints  of  scribes  and  pharisees, 
are  frequently  detailed  along  with  the  cause  which  elicited  them.  All 
of  which  afforded  the  most  ready  means  of  detection. 

No  country  more  than  Judea,  and  no  age  more  than  the  era  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  made  it  difficult  to  pass  off  a  forgery,  if  the  im¬ 
postors  should  be  copious  in  their  allusions  to  the  events  of  the  time 
and  place.  Now  the  apostles  and  historians  were  most  minute  apd  cc~ 


DEBATE. 


6't 


pious  in  their  allusions.  But  whence  did  this  difficulty  arise?  Be¬ 
cause  the  Jews  were  the  most  captious  people,  and  the  most  conver¬ 
sant  in  all  questions  affecting  their  religious  standing  and  character  j 
because  at  that  time  there  was  an  expectation  that  the  Messiah  should 
be  born — and  because  the  land  of  Judea  experienced  so  many  vicissi¬ 
tudes  in  its  political  relations,  during  the  time  this  scene  of  tilings  was 
exhibited.  At  the  commencement  of  the  period  of  the  evangelical 
story,  it  constituted  apart  of  a  kingdom  under  Herod  the  great. — 
Then  it  came  under  the  dominion  of  Archelaus,  under  new  arrange¬ 
ments,*  then  it  passed  under  the  direct  administration  of  the  Roman 
government;  the  exaltation  of  Herod  Agnppa  to  the  sovereign  power 
of  his  grandfather,  for  a  time  interrupted  this  order  of  things :  and  fi¬ 
nally  it  is  left  in  the  form  of  a  province;  when  the  history  of  the  New 
Testament  closes. — The  surrounding  countries  also  partook  of  similar 
changes  in  their  forms  of  government.  Now  it  would  have  been  dan¬ 
gerous  in  the  extreme,  for  any  impostors,  living  in  any  other  country, 
or  even  in  the  same  country,  forty  years  after  the  close  of  the  New 
Testament,  story,  to  have  attempted  to  forge  such  a  story,  and  antedate 
it  even  forty  years ;  especially  as  the  prominent  characters  of  this  sto¬ 
ry  had  much  to  do  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Judicatories  of  these  times; 
and  to  appear  before  several  of  the  magistrates  and  governors,  then  in 
office  under  the  Roman  emperors.  No  man  could  now  write  the  his¬ 
tory  of  any  prominent  individual,  living  in  New  Jersey  some  forty” 
years  ago,  full  of  incident  and  allusion  to  the  families  and  individu¬ 
als  of  the  neighborhood,  and  now  pass  it  off  for  a  work  of  the  period 
which  it  pretended  to  describe.  I  ask,  could  such  an  attempt  possi¬ 
bly  escape  detection,  especially  if  copious  in  allusions  and  references 
to  the  manners,  customs,  and  leading  personages  of  the  day?  But 
how  much  more  difficult,  if,  in  that  period,  four  or  five  changes  in  the 
government  had  taken  place,  and  in  the  public  management  of  its  po¬ 
litical  concerns? — It  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  writings  of 
Mathew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  to  have  survived  their  authors,  had 
they  been  either  a  record  of  false  facts,  ora  disguised  perverted  repre¬ 
sentation  of  facts  which  had  occurred,  it  would  exhaust  your  patience, 
my  friends,  and  our  strength,  to  attempt,  were  we  now7  adequate  to 
the  task,  to  detail  the  allusions,  references,  and  appeals  to  the  illustri¬ 
ous  personages,  to  the  customs  and  institutions,  Roman  and  Jewish, 
which  then  existed  in  that  land  and  circumjacent  country ;  and  which 
are  found  in  the  historical  books  alone,  of  the  New  Testament.  I 
will  just  give  you  one  example  of  the  circumstantial  minuteness  of 
these  historians,  which  may  suffice  for  a  specimen  of  what  might  be 
exhibited,  were  we  to  devote  our  attention  to  such  a  developemcnf  — 

I  will  only  premise  that,  as  the  circumstance  of  having  four  historian*-, 
gives  us  the  opportunity  of  cross  examination,  so  the  allusions  to 
Jewish,  Roman,  and  other  usages,  give  us  the  opportunity  of  cross 
examining  the  sacred  with  the  profane  historians  and  writers  of  that 
day;  of  which  we  rejoice  to  state  there  wTcre  not  a  few7. 

The  example  to  which  I  refer,  is  the  trial,  condemnation,  and  cruci- 
*.2xion,  of  Jesus  Christ.  Seven  or  eight  allusions  to  persons,  customs; 


DEBATE. 


and  usages,  which  the  sacred  writers  never  explain,  are  found  in  the 
accounts  of  this  trial,  which  will  bear  a  cross  examination  with  all  the 
authentic  records  of  those  times. — Chalmers  notices  them  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  manner : 

u  The  fact,  that  they  are  borne  out.  in  their  minute  and  incidental  al¬ 
lusions  by  the  testimony  of  other  historians,  gives  a  strong  weight  of 
what  has  been  called  circumstantial  evidence  in  their  favor,  As  a 
specimen  of  the  argument,  let  us  confine  our  observations  to  the  histo¬ 
ry  of  our  Saviour’s  trial,  and  execution,  and  burial.  They  brought 
him  to  Pontius  Pilate.  We  know  both  from  Tacitus  and  Josephus, 
that  he  was  at  that  time  governor  of  Judea.  A  sentence  from  him 
was  necessary,  before  they  could  proceed  to  the  execution  of  Jesus; 
and  we  know  that  the  power  of  life  and  death  was  usually  vested  in 
the  Roman  governor.  Our  Saviour  was  treated  with  derision;  and 
this  we  know  to  have  been  a  customary  practice  at  that  time,  previous 
to  the  execution  of  criminals,  and  during  the  time  of  it.  Pilate  scour¬ 
ged  Jesus,  before  he  gave  him  up  to  be  crucified.  We  know  from  an¬ 
cient  authors,  that  this  was  a  very  usual  practice  among  the  Romans. 
The  account  of  an  execution  generally  run  in  this  form : — He  was 
stripped,  whipped,  and  beheaded,  or  executed.  According  to  the  evan¬ 
gelists,  his  accusation  was  written  on  the  top  of  the  cross ;  and  vve 
learn  from  Suetonius  and  others,  that  the  crime  of  the  person  to  be  ex¬ 
ecuted  was  affixed  to  the  instrument  of  his  punishment.  According 
to  the  evangelists,  this  accusation  was  written  in  three  different  lan¬ 
guages;  and  we  know  from  Josephus,  that  it  was  quite  common  in  Jer¬ 
usalem  to  have  all  public  advertisements  written  in  this  manner.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  the  evangelists,  Jesus  had  to  bear  his  cross;  and  we  know, 
from  other  sources  of  information,  that  this  was  the  constant  practice 
of  these  times.  According  to  the  evangelists,  the  body  of  Jesus  was 
given  up  to  be  buried  at  the  requpst  of  friends.  We  know  that,  unless 
the  criminal  was  infamous,  this  was  the  law,  or  ti^e  custom  with  all 
Roman  governors.'” 

“  These,  and  a  few  more  particulars  of  the  same  kind,  occur  within 
the  compass  of  a  single  page  of  the  evangelical  history.  The  circum¬ 
stantial  manner  of  the  history  affords  a  presumption  in  its  favour,  ante¬ 
cedent  to  all  examination  into  the  truth  of  the  circumstances  them¬ 
selves.  But  it  makes  a  strong  addition  to  the  evidence,  when  we  find, 
that  in  all  the  subordinate  parts  of  the  main  story,  the  evangelists 
maintain  so  great  a  consistency,  with  the  testimony  of  other  authors, 
and  vvilh  all  that  we  can  collect  from  other  sources  of  information,  as 
to  the  manners  and  institutions  of  that  period.  It  is  difficult  to  con¬ 
ceive,  in  the  first  instance,  how  the  inventor  of  a  fabricated  story 
would  hazard  such  a  number  of  circumstances,  each  of  them  supplying 
a  point  of  comparison  with  other  authors,  and  giving  to  the  enquire? an 
additional  chance  of  detecting  the  imposition.  And  it  is  still  more 
difficult  to  believe,  that  truth  should  have  been  so  artfully  blended  with 
falsehood  in  the  composition  of  this  narrative,  particularly  as  we  per¬ 
ceive  nothing  like  a  forced  introduction  of  any  one  circumstance  — 
There  appears  to  be  nothing  out  of  place,  nothing  thrust  in  with  the 


DEBATE. 


29 


view  of  imparting  an  air  of  probability  to  the  history.  The  circum¬ 
stance  upon  which  we  bring  the  evangelists  into  comparison  with  pro¬ 
fane  authors,  is  often  not  intimated  in  a  direct  form,  but  in  the  form  of 
a  slight  or  distant  allusion.  There  is  not  the  most  remote  appearance 
of  its  being  fetched  or  sought  for.  It  is  brought  in  accidentally,  and 
flows  in  the  most  natural  and  undesigned  manner  out  of  the  progress 
of  the  narrative.” 

But  as  from  the  extraordinary  circumstantiality  of  these  historians 
and  writers,  so  from  every  lineament  of  their  character,  from  every  ac¬ 
tion  of  their  lives,  from  all  their  labors  and  sufferings  in  the  cause,  we 
may  derive  irrefragable  proofs  of  their  sincerity.  To  the  whole  phen¬ 
omena  of  the  characters  of  the  original  witnesses,  it  has  been  often  ob¬ 
jected,  or  rather  insinuated,  that  men  have  been  frequently  moved  by 
pride  of  opinion,  the  hope  of  reward,  by  avarice  or  ambition,  to  feign 
characters,  and  impose  upon  the  credulity  of  the  world:  that  it  is  nc£~ 
improbable  but  that  the  original  reporters  and  publishers  of  Christiani¬ 
ty  conspired  together  from  some  of  these  sinister  motives  to  impose  up¬ 
on  the  credulity  of  posterity.  Singular  conspiracy  indeed!  A  con¬ 
spiracy  to  make  mankind  just,  merciful,  pure,  forgiving  and  affection¬ 
ate  to  one  another;  to  teach  them  to  live  in  accordance  with  human 
nature,  its  origin  and  its  destiny ;  to  fix  all  their  supreme  hopes  upon 
objects  unseen  and  future;  and  to  deny  themselves  of  all  unhallowed 
gratifications!  Singular  conspiracy,  on  the  part  of  the  conspirators, 
to  forsake  all  eartliborn  interests,  to  expose  themselves  to  shame,  per¬ 
secution,  and  death,  for  making  mankind  pure  and  happy;  to  court 
infamy  with  those  in  power,  and  to  render  themselves  obnoxious  to 
the  indignation  of  all  the  reputed  w7ise,  religious,  and  honorable 
among  men !  Astonishing  conspiracy,  which  promises  to  the  conspi¬ 
rators  the  absence  of  all  worldly  good,  and  the  presence  of  all  tempo¬ 
ral  evils,  in  proportion  as  they  would  be  successful  in  accomplishing 
the  objects  for  which  they  had  conspired!! 

Any  suspicion  or  conjecture  against  the  Founders  of  Christianity, 
drawn  from  any  document  upon  earth,  Christian  or  infidel,  is  as  unrea¬ 
sonable  as  Atheism  itself. 

Viewed  in  whatever  light  we  may,  the  Apostles,  and  first  propaga¬ 
tors  of  Christianity,  are  the  most  extraordinary  men  the  world  ever 
saw.  As  historical  writers  and  laborers  in  the  establishment  of 
Christianity,  they  leave  a  character  perfectly  sui  generis.  They  ap¬ 
pear  to  have  been  selected,  not  only  because  they  were  obscure  and  il¬ 
literate,  but  because  they  were  men  of  the  humblest  capacity.  I 
have  often  admired  the  wisdom  of  the  Founder  in  selecting  such  ad¬ 
vocates  of  his  cause.  He  wanted  eyeivitnesses  and  ear  witnesses ,  and 
selected  men  from  a  calling  which  was  more  favorable  to  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  good  eyes  and  ears  than  perhaps  any  other.  Good  eyes  and 
ears  were  bet^gr  qualifications  for  the  original  Apostles,  than  all  the 
learning  ana  talents  of  the  Archbishops  of  York  and  Canterbury — 
Good  eyes,  good  ears,  and  a  good  memory,  were  the  only  indispensa¬ 
ble  qualifications  to  constitute  such  witnesses  as  Jesus  Christ  requi* 
red.  The  most  important  part  of  their  office  was  to  identify  the  person 
Vol.  2.  3* 


30 


DEBATE 


of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  attest  the  fact  of  his  resurrection  frern  the  dead. 
To  know  his  voice,  and  to  distinguish  his  person,  were  matters  of  more 
consequence  than  most  of  us  imagine.  In  truth,  upon  this  depended 
the  proof  of  the  very  fact,  upon  which  all  Christianity  rests:  viz.  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead.  Now,  I  ask,  what  school 
more  favorable  to  qualify  men  for  such  an  office,  than  the  fisherman’s 
life?  Men  whose  ears,  and  whose  eyes,  arb  accustomed  to  the  open 
air,  by  night  and  day ;  to  the  roaring  of  the  billows,  and  who  are  con¬ 
stantly  observing  the  face  of  nature,  are  the  most  likely  to  possess  those 
senses  in  the  greatest  perfection .  And,  ridicule  the  idea  who  may,  I 
will  contend,  that  good  eyes,  and  good  ears,  were  first  rate  qualifica¬ 
tions  in  an  Apostle — a  defect  in  either  would  have  made  them  perfectly 
incompeten  t  to  the  duties  of  that  office. 

But  this  was  not  all.  He  wanted  plain,  unlettered  men;  men  rath¬ 
er  approaching  to  dullness  than  to  acuteness  of  intellect ;  that  inge¬ 
nuity  itself  might  not  be  able  to  attach  suspicion  to  their  testimony. — 
They  were  neither  fluent  nor  intelligent.  They  had  no  personal 
charms  derived  from  learning  or  lalent.  On  the  other  hand,  it  ap¬ 
pears,  from  their  frequent  colloquies  with  Jesus,  that  they  were  un¬ 
commonly  dull  of apprehension.  Had  the  original  witnesses,  whose 
first  duty  it  was  to  identify  the  person  of  Jesus,  and  to  prove  his  resur¬ 
rection,  been  men  so  acute  and  learned  as  Paul,  educated  in  the  best 
schools  of  that  day,  and  possessed  of  such  a  knowledge  of  men  and 
tilings,  some  might  have  attributed  their  success  more  to  natural  than  to 
supernatural  aids. 

The  duty  of  the  original  eye  witnesses  and  ear  witnesses  who  were 
to  identify  the  person,  narrate  the  miracles,  and  repeat  the  discourses 
of  the  Messiah,  in  all  their  first  embassies,  was  to  proclaim  a  few  facts 
without  comment,  and  to  enforce  the  necessity  of  Reformation ,  because 
of  the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  approach  of  his  reign.  He  did 
not  send  them,  as  some  suppose,  to  make  orations  or  sermons  upon 
texts  of  Scripture,  but  to  proclaim  that  the  era  of  Reformation  had  ar¬ 
rived,  and  to  confirm  their  proclamation  by  miraculous  benefits  be¬ 
stowed  promiscuously  upon  all. 

There  never  was  such  a  model  of  finished  human  testimony,  since 
or  before,  as  that  which  the  New  Testament  exhibits;  in  which  no  hu¬ 
man  being,  how  ingenious  or  malicious  soever,  can  find  a  flaw,  or  even  a 
weakness. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  glance  at  another  of  its  grand  characteristics. 
First  comes  the  rough,  bold,  and  zealous  Baptist,  just  dressed  up  to 
the  taste  of  the  times.  To  understand  this  singular  appearance  of 
John,  you  must  recollect  that  the  Jewish  people  were  at  this  time  di- 
vided  into  two  religious  sects,  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees.  The 
Pharisees  were  the  most  numerous  and  decent  religionists  in  their  day. 
The  Sadducees  were  the  most  wealthy  class  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and 
indulged  themselves  in  all  sensual  pleasures. — Like  the  rich  generally, 
they  wished  for  no  future  state,  and  fondly  believed  there  was  none. — 
They  had  not  much  moral  influence  with  the  people  on  these  ac¬ 
counts,  But  the  Pharisees  had  ,  Nov/  it  was  more  necessary  that  the 


debate; 


31 

pretensions  of  John  should  be  favorably  regarded  by  the  Pharisees 
than  the  Sadducees:  for  if  favorably  received  by  the  Pharisees,  the 
more  general  would  be  the  reception  of  the  Messiah  by  the  whole  na¬ 
tion.  Now  the  Pharisees  placed  the  highest  degree  of  sanctity,  just  in 
such  a  demeanor,  dress,  and  manner  of  life,  as  John  the  Baptist  assu¬ 
med.  Thus  he  dressed  himself  to  the  taste  of  those  who  could  give 
the  most  influence  to  his  message.  Hence  we  find  that  so  soon  as  Iris 
preaching,  dress,  food,  and  manner  of  life,  were  known,  the  Jews  in  Je¬ 
rusalem  deputed  very  honorable  characters,  both  Priests  and  Levites, 
to  wait  upon  him  to  hear  his  testimony,  and  to  report  it  in  the  metrop¬ 
olis.  Thus  the  testimony  of  John  in  favor  of  the  Messiah  was  favora¬ 
bly  announced  through  J  udea,  and  to  the  nation.  In  all  respects,  the 
testimony  of  the  harbinger  wonderfully  accords  with  that  of  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  the  twelve  original  Heralds,  both  in  its  general  character  and 
accompaniments 

But  with  regard  to  the  testimony  of  the  twelve  original  witnesses, 
T  have  to  remark,  that  not  one  of  them  understood  for  years  either  the 
nature  or  design  of  the  mission  of  Jesus.  This  fact,  if  correctly  un¬ 
derstood,  and  applied,  is  of  immense  importance  to  the  Christian  pub¬ 
lic  in  correcting  some  mistakes  into  which  they  have  fallen,  and  it 
gives  very  great  additional  weight  to  the  testimony  of  the  Apostles, 
respecting  the  capital  item  in  the  Record,  viz.  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
from  the  dead.  They  all,  without  exception,  expected  the  Messiah 
would  found  an  earthly  kingdom,  and  reign  over  it  forever.  Their 
imaginations  pictured  out  to  them  the  mighty  conquests,  and  illustri¬ 
ous  victories,  they  would  achieve  under  him.  Even  the  most  gifted 
saints  who  departed  not  from  the  temple,  when  they  first  saw  the  won¬ 
derful  child,  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  it  spake  in  the  ancient  pro¬ 
phets  (not  always  understood  by  them  whose  tongues  uttered  its  sug¬ 
gestions)  expressed  their  joy  and  hopes  in  such  strains  as  indicated  ex¬ 
pectations  similar  to  those  of  his  disciples — “  that  we,  said  they,  being 
delivered  from  our  enemies  might  worship  him  without  fear  all  the 
Jays  of  our  lives.”  They,  one  and  all,  expected  an  all-conquering 
king,  in  the  person  of  Jesus.  Hence  so  much  of  the  war  spirit  in  some 
of  the  Apostles,  and  so  much  worldly  ambition  in  the  mother  of  Zebi- 
dee’s  sons.  Let  my  two  sons,  said  she,  sit,  good  master,  one  on  your 
right,  and  the  other  on  your  left,  when  you  ascend  the  throne.  A  cru¬ 
cified  Messiah  was  as  far  from  her  thoughts,  as  the  day  of  judgment  is 
now  from  the  anticipations  of  Mr.  Owen.  Not  a  man  or  woman  on 
earth,  till  within  a  few  days  of  the  event,  could  understand  or  brook  the 
idea  of  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  Apostles  were  quite  disinterested  in  leaving 
their  occupations  to  follow  Jesus.  This  diminishes  nought  from 
their  testimony.  They  expected  he  was  able  to  reward  them ;  and  that 
he  would  reward  them.  They  looked  for  something  in  this  world  when 
they  first  set  out  as  volunteers  in  his  cause.  Peter  says — u  Now  Lord, 
what  shall  we  have,  who  have  forsaken  all,  and  followed  you?”  He 
made  him  a  liberal  promise  which  pleased  him  and  his  associates  too. 
But  this  promise,  even  then,  they  misapplied.  When  he  told  them, 


32 


DEBATE. 


without  a  figure,  that  he  would  be  crucified,  they  could  not  believe  if; 
so  contrary  was  this  issue  of  his  life  to  their  expectations.  And  when 
the  Roman  soldiers  and  the  chief  priests  came  to  take  him  before  the 
Sanhedrim,  Peter  was  more  disposed  to  fight  than  to  surrender.  In  a 
word,  the  whole  company  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  male  and  female, 
were  disappointed  when  Jesus  was  crucified.  Fear  and  consternation 
seized  them  all.  Peter  acted  the  coward,  and  they  all  fled.  Even  on 
the  day  of  his  resurrection,  while  two  of  them  were  going  from  Jeru¬ 
salem  to  Emmaus,  they  spake  of  his  demise  as  a  complete  frustration 
of  all  their  hopes.  “  We  expected ,”  said  they,  “  that  he  would  have 
redeemed  Israel”  But,  alas!  we  are  disappointed.  He  has  not  re¬ 
deemed  Israel,  was  their  conviction  at  that  moment.  A  temporal  re¬ 
demption  was  their  expectation.  And  as  for  his  resurrection  from  the 
dead,  so  far  from  plotting  any  story  about  it,  it  was  the  farthest  thought 
from  their  mind ;  the  female  disciples  were  preparing  to  embalm  the 
body,  when  they  found  the  grave  empty ;  and  when  they  told  the  disci¬ 
ples  that  “  the  Lord  was  risen  indeed ,”  their  16  words  seemed  to  them 
as  idle  tales,  and  they  believed  ihem  not.” 

Now  this  being  the  expectation  of  these  witnesses,  as  every  docu¬ 
ment  on  earth  proves — to  suppose  them  capable  of  plotting  and  execu¬ 
ting  such  a  fraud,  as  the  stealing  of  the  body,  betrays  the  grossest  ig¬ 
norance  of  the  whole  history  of  the  times,  of  the  nation,  and  of  the 
Apostles.  Toothing  can  be  more  plain  than  that  when  Joseph  the  Sen¬ 
ator  petitioned  the  Governor  for  the  body,  and  interred  it,  the  hopes 
and  prospects  of  the  disciples,  as  respected  worldly  objects,  were  buried 
in  the  same  grave  with  it. 

Hence  the  incredulity  of  all  the  Apostles  at  first  hearing  of  his  resur¬ 
rection,  and  the  stubborn  incredulity  of  Thomas  who  happened  to  be 
absent  when  the  Lord  appeared  to  the  others — I  will  not  believe ,  said 
he.  I  would  not  believe  my  own  eyes:  for  unless  I  handled  him  and 
felt  the  wounds  made  by  the  spear  and  the  nails,  I  would  not,  I  could 
not,  believe.  But  a  single  sight  of  Jesus  overcame  all  his  resolution, 
and  he  is  constrained  to  exclaim,  My  Lord  and  my  God! 

But  as  I  am  brought  forward  to  this  most  wonderful  of  all  events, 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ ,  which  is,  too,  the  capital  item  in  the 
Apostolic  testimony ;  and  the  fact  on  which  the  whole  religion  and 
hopes  of  Christianity  depend  and  terminate,  I  feel  strongly  disposed  to 
shew  that  it  is  the  best  attested  fact  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  For  I 
wish  to  have  it  placed  upon  record,  and  to  be  known  as  far  as  this  work 
ever  shall  extend,  either  in  time  or  place,  that,  in  our  view,  the  shor¬ 
test  and  best,  because  the  most  irrefragable  way,  to  prove  the  whole 
truth  and  absolute  certainty  of  the  Christian  religion,  is  to  prove  the 
resurrection  of  J  esus  Christ  from  the  dead.  This  proved,  and  Deism, 
Atheism,  and  Scepticism  of  every  name,  fall  prostrate  to  the  ground. 
The  Atheist  will  himself  say,  let  this  be  proved,  that  Jesus  Christ  rose 
from  the  dead,  walked  upon  this  earth,  eat,  drank,  and  talked  with  men 
for  forty  days  afterwards,  and  in  the  presence  of  many  witnesses  ascen¬ 
ded  up  into  Heaven,  and  after  his  ascent  thither,  sent  down  infallible 
proofs  that  he  was  well  received  in  the  Heavenly  world;  and  I  will  be¬ 
lieve. 


DEBATE. 


4J 

v 

I  beg  the  indulgence  of  this  assembly  here.  I  wish  to  be  diffuse 
this  one  point.  I  desire  it  for  the  sake  of  every  saint  and  sinner 
here — or  who  may  read  this  discussion.  I  will  aim  at  doing  more 
than  proving  the  fact,  though  this  shall  be  kept  continually  in  view, — 
This  fact  proved,  and  all  is  proved.  This  is  not  a  conclusion  to  which 
I  have  come  from  my  own  reasoning  merely,  nor  from  my  own  experi¬ 
ence,  though  both  lead  to  it.  It  is  a  conclusion  to  which  the  wisest  of 
Christians  have  been  led.  But  that  which  gives  the  casting  vote  in 
the  court  of  my  understanding,  is  the  fact  that  Paul  sets  the  exam¬ 
ple. 

Paul  was  not  one  of  the  original  twelve.  He  was  not  chosen  to  be 
a  companion  of  Jesus,  to  be  an  eye  and  ear  witness  of  what  Jesus  said 
and  did.  He  was  called  to  attest  and  proclaim  the  truth  of  Christian¬ 
ity  to  the  world;  to  the  Pagan  world,  savage  and  civilized. — -All  gen¬ 
tile  nations  were  embraced  in  his  commission.  He  saw  Jesus ,  after  he 
had  spent  some  months  or  years  in  persecuting  him.  Now  the  ques¬ 
tion  is,  how  did  this  astonishing  man  argue  the  truth  of  Christianity 
against  the  philosophic  Greek,  Epicurean,  or  Stoic?  How  did  he 
plead  its  truth  with  Barbarian,  Scythian,  noble  and  ignoble.  To  as¬ 
certain  this,  we  must  follow  him  from  Jerusalem  to  Athens,  from  A- 
thens  to  Rome,  from  city  to  city,  from  nation  to  nation ;  and  after 
mingling  with  his  congregations  in  all  places,  we  shall  hear  him  rest  all 
upon  the  fact  of  Christ’s  resurrection.  Begin  where,  and  with  whom 
he  may,  here  always  he  makes  his  stand. 

We  shall  just  hear  him  in  Athens.— “  Athenians,”  says  he,  u  you 
are  in  all  things  teb  much  addicted  to  the  worshipping  of  demons.  I 
see  that  you  have  Erected  an  altar  to  the  unknown  God.  This  being, 
whom  you  worship  without  knowing  him,  I  now  declare  to  you :  God 
that  made  the  world,  and  all  things  therein,  seeing  he  is  Lord  of  heav¬ 
en  and  earth,  dweHeth  not  in  temples  made  with  human  hands,  neither 
is  he  served  as  though  he  needed  any  thing;  seeing  he  gives  to  all  life, 
and  breath,  and  all  things,  and  has  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations 
of  men  who  inhabit  the  earth ;  now  one  of  your  own  poets  hath  said — 
u  For  we  his  offspring  are — Now  let  me  reason  with  you  on  your 
own  principles.  If  we  are  the  offspring  of  the  Deity,  there  must  be 
some  similitude  between  him  and  us,  as  between  parent  and  child. — - 
We  can  walk,  and  speak,  and  act;  but  your  Gods  are  dumb,  and  can¬ 
not  move.  They  have  no  seeing  eye,  nor  hearing  ear,  else  the  spiders 
would  not  spin  their  threads  over  their  eyes,  and  weave  their  webs  over 
their  ears.  Yet,  you  say,  “  We  are  the  offspring  of  God.”  Thus  ’tis 
easy  to  refute  their  superstition.  But  after  pulling  down  their  fine 
air-built  speculations,  he  appears  in  the  majesty  of  the  Gospel.  He  an 
flounces  the  Divine  proclamation.  This  ignorant  superstition  of  yours, 
God,  says  he,  has  hitherto  overlooked;  but  now  he  commands  all  men 
every  where  to  reform.  Reformation  and  remission  of  sins,  he  pro¬ 
claims  and  enjoins.  These  he  connects  with  the  day  of  judgment: — for, 
continues  ho,  he  has  appointed  a  day  in  which  he  will  judge  the 
world,  by  that  person  whom  he  has  constituted  the  judge  of  living  and 
dead,  concerning  which  matters  ho  has  given  proof,  faith,  or  assurance 


DEBATE, 


to  all  the  world,  by  raising  him  from  the  dead.  Here  he  stands.: 
this  proves  the  whole  mission  of  Jesus,  and  his  appointment  to  be  the 
supreme  judge.  They  had  heard  him  talk  about  tiie  anastasis  in  the 
market  place;  but  not  knowing  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  they  sup¬ 
posed  this  anastasis  was  a  god  or  goddess  which  Paul  had  proclaimed. 
But  let  it  be  remembered,  that  not  only  in  the  market  place  with  the 
Epicureans  and  Stoics,  but  when  amidst  the  areopagus ,  or  aldermen 
of  the  city,  he  makes  the  all  conquering  proof  of  his  doctrine,  the  res¬ 
urrection  of  Jesus  from  the  dead. 

But  that  I  may  argue  the  truth  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ 
from  the  dead,  in  your  presence,  with  the  greatest  possible  effect  on 
this  promiscuous  audience,  let  me  take  another  argument  from  this  A- 
postleas  my  text.  Permit  me  to  open  the  New  Testament: 

1.  Cor.  15.  You  will  find  Paul  in  argument  with  some  disciple  of 
Epicurus,  or  some  Sadducean  dogmatist.  We  shall  hear  him 
state  the  old  Gospel  which  he  so  successfully  proclaimed.  This  old 
Gospel  was  not  so  full  of  dogmas  and  opinions  as  some  of  the  modern. 
We  have  become  so  spiritual  that  our  religion  is  rather  a  religion  of 
opinions  than  of  facts.  Angels  can  live  on  opinions,  or  abstract 
truths,  for  aught  I  know;  but  so  soon  as  mortals  begin  to  live  on  opin¬ 
ions,  they  become  lean.  The  primitive  Christians  believed  facts,  repo¬ 
sed  in  them,  and  drew  their  joys  from  them.  But  let  us  hear  Paul 
state  his  Gospel — “  Moreover,  brethren,  I  will  declare  that  Gospel 
to  you,  which  1  once  proclaimed  among  you ;  which  yon  then  recei¬ 
ved  as  true,  in  which  you  now  profess  to  stand ;  and  by  which  you  are 
saved,  provided  you  hold  it  in  your  memory,  unless  forsooth,  ’tis  all  a 
lie,  and  so  in  believing  it,  you  have  believed  in  vain.” — “  I  delivered 
to  you  when  I  first  came  to  Corinth,  this  Gospel — 1st.  That  Jesus 
Christ  died  for  our  sins:  2d.  That  he  was  buried;  and,  in  the  third 
place,  that  he  rose  again  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures. — 
This  was  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end,  of  Paul’s  Gospel;  whether  it 
suit  or  non  suit  the  fastidious  taste  of  the  times. — He  proceeds  to 
prove  the  third  fact,  not  so  much  to  prove  it,  as  to  argue  from  it,  as  an 
established  fact,  one  admitted  by  all  the  congregation  of  Corinth,  and 
by  myriads  of  Christians  throughout  the  world. 

Old  Plato  reasoned  about  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  but  in  the 
genuine  spirit  of  Christianity,  Paul  avers  that  Jesus  Christ  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  our  bodies.  The  dispute  among  the  Jews  was  not 
about  the  immortality  of  the  soul;  but,  shall  the  generations  of  die 
dead  ever  comeback  again.  This  was  the  question  which  the  Phari¬ 
sees  and  the  Sadducees  argued.  This  is  the  grand  point  which  must 
be  always  kept  in  view.  Only  shew  me  the  man,  who,  on  the  lestimo^ 
ny  of  the  Apostles  a.nd  prophets,  believes  that  Jesus  Christ  rose  from 
the  dead,  and  I  will  engage  to  shew  you  a  Christian,  not  only  in  faith, 
but  in  works.  A  belief  in  this  fact  is  thejfon^  etprincipium  of  Chris¬ 
tianity — the  source  from  which  the  practice  of  all  Christian  virtues 
must  be  derived.  This  is  the  principle  which  leavens  the  whole  mass  - 
this  is  the  balm  ofGilead,  the  cordial  which  calms,  and  cheers,  and 
.comforts  the  he, art 


DEBATE, 


kJO 

A  person  may  believe  opinions  (it  is  however  a  misapplication  of 
the  term  believe)  until  his  soul  freezes,  or  falls  asleep  (pardon  die  ex¬ 
pression.)  Facts,  testimony,  and  faith,  belong  to  the  same  chapter; 
and  the  last  can  only  be  in  company  with  the  former  two.  But  we 
shall  soon  wander  from  the  point  before  us.  The  old  Gospel  was  sum¬ 
marily  comprehended  in  these  three  facts.  The  meaning  of  these 
facts  is,  what  is  called,  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 

Paul  proceeds  to  state  the  evidence  on  which  the  third  fact  was  pro¬ 
claimed  in  Corinth.  He  stales  a  number  of  times,  that  Jesus  was 
seen  alive ;  first  by  Cephas — then  by  all  the  Apostles — then  by  500 
disciples  at  one  time — then  by  James — then  by  all  tiie  Apostles — and 
last  of  all  he  was  seen  by  himself.  Tne  number  of  times  and  witnes¬ 
ses  greatly  transcend  aii  hat  is  ever  required  to  prove  any  fact.  He, 
however,  simply  asserts  the  fact  of  his  having  been  seen  so  often  and 
by  so  many  witnesses,  the  majority  of  whom  are  appealed  to  as  still 
living.  We  have  the  fact  of  his  resurrection  here  asserted,  and  the 
evidence  adduced.  Now  for  he  argument  derived  from  the  evidence 
submitted.  To  estimate  the  weight  of  this,  let' it  be  remembered  that 
Paul  had  some  bitter  enemies  in  Corinth.  These  were  the  old  mate¬ 
rialists,  the  Sadducees.  Very  like  my  triend  Mr.  Owen,  the}  held 
to  no  spirit,  resurrection,  nor  future  state.  Now,  as  opposers  of  the 
Apostle,  they  would  be  disposed  to  detect,  if  possible, any  error,  weak¬ 
ness,  flaw,  or  falsehood,  in  the  argument. — Mark  how  he  challenges 
them — “  How  say  some  atnong  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead ?”  They  had  insulted  him.  He  does  not  spare  them.  Surely 
in  the  polished,  shrewd,  and  captious  city  of  Corinth,  which  Cicero 
complements  as  the  lumen  totius  Graecice ,  the  eye  of  all  Greece.— 
Surely,  I  say,  if  Paul  is  vulnerable,  if  his  facts  are  false,  if  his  argument 
be  inconclusive,  the  u  eye  of  all  Greece'1'1  will  see  it;  and  the  wounded 
pride  of  his  opponents  will  publish  it  to  the  world. 

When  I  came  to  you  first,  did  I  not  proclaim  the  resurrection  of  Je¬ 
sus?  Did  I  not  prove  it?  Did  you  not  believe  it  ?  Why  then  deny 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  saints ;  for  both  stand  or  fall  together. — 
If  the  dead  saints  are  not  raised,  then  why  was  Christ  raised  ?  and  you 
know,  if  he  was  not  raised,  and  we  affirmed  that  he  was,  we  are  found 
liars :  our  preaching  and  your  faith  are  both  vain.  You  are  yet  m  your 
sins. 

Did  I  not  tell  you,  he  was  seen  by  me  also?  Why  did  you  believe 
me?  Were  not  the  signs  of  an  Apostle  with  me?  Besides  you  knew 
my  history.  The  Jews  all  knew  it;  and  some  of  you  are  acquainted 
with  it.  I  am  proud  to  confess  it  was  not  my  education,  nor  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  which  surrounded  me  from  birth  to  manhood,  which  made 
me  what  I  am.  I  was  born  a  Jew,  and  all  my  prospects  were  Jewish. — 
My  ancestors  on  both  sides  were  Jews.  My  preceptor  Gamaliel,  was 
a  learned  Doctor  of  the  Jewish  law;  I  was  educated  in  the  metropolis, 
at  his  feet.  I  was  intimate  with  the  whole  sanhedrim.  I  was  brought 
up  in  the  greatest  antipathy  against  Jesus  and  the  Christians.  I  be* 
came  a  persecutor  as  soon  as  I  finished  my  education.  I  went  even  to 
strange  cities  in  pursuit  of  Christians,  male  and  female.  All  this,  my 


DEBATE. 


>'£S 

education  and  the  circumstances  which  surrounded  me  from  birth  to 
manhood,  prompted  me  to.  But  contrary  to  the  influence  of  both,  by 
the  evidence  which  I  have  detailed  to  you,  I  was  constrained  to  re¬ 
nounce  these  vicious  influences,  and  to  proclaim  the  faith  which  you 
have  received.” 

We  shall  now  let  Paul  plead  his  own  cause  with  the  Corinthian  mate¬ 
rialists. 

He  opens  the  case — he  asserts  the  fact — Jesus  rose  from  the  dead. 
He  summonses  the  witnesses.  They  depose  that  they  saw  the  same 
identical  person  who  was  crucified  and  buried,  alive  again.  That  they 
had  the  most  indubitable  evidence  of  the  fact  of  his  resurrection. — 
They  saw  him,  handled  him,  eat  with  him,  drank  with  him,  and  con¬ 
versed  with  him,  and  saw  him  ascend  into  Heaven. 

Paul’s  first  argument  on  the  premises,  is  a  reductio  ad  aksvrdum 
You  Sadducees,  that  are  members  of  the  congregation  in  Corinth,  be¬ 
lieved,  and  still  declare  your  belief,  of  the  above  testimony,  that  Jesus 
rose  from  the  dead.  Now  if  you  deny  the  future  resurrection  of  the 
saints,  you  make  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  of  none  account.  For  why 
should  Christ  alone  rise  to  die  no  more,  as  one  of  the  sons  of  men  1 — 
If,  then,  you  would  prove  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  you 
must  deny  a  fact  which  all  Christians  admit,  and  which  you  yourselves 
admit  upon  the  aforesaid  evidence,  namely,  the  undeniable  fact  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus.  To  deny  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  is,  then? 
to  deny  your  own  acknowledged  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 

2.  Again,  if  Christ  be  not  raised,  our  proclamation  of  that  fact  is 
false,  and  your  belief  predicated  thereupon,  is  also  false.  This  is  ano¬ 
ther  reductio  ad  absurdum. 

3.  4  gain,  we  have  been  false  witnesses  concerning  God — when  we 
said  that  he  raised  up  Christ:  if,  indeed,  your  assertion  is  true,  that  the 
dead  are  not  to  be  raised,  we  are  not  merely  deceivers  of  men,  but  re- 
proachers  of  God.  This  is  inadmissible,  as  all  our  deeds  declare. 

4.  Again,  on  your  hypothesis,  faith  is  useless.  You  are  still  in  your 
sins.  This  is  contrary  to  your  own  experience. 

5.  Also,  all  who  have  died  for  attesting  their  belief  in  Christ’s  res¬ 
urrection,  have  thrown  their  lives  away,  and  have  actually,  on  your  prim 
ciples,  perished . 

6.  And  we  too,  who  are  suffering  shame,  and  hazarding  our  lives  ev¬ 
ery  day,  for  proclaiming  this  fact,  are  of  all  men  the  most  miserable:  for 
we  gain  nothing  in  this  life,  as  you  yourselves  know,  but  stripes,  reproa¬ 
ches,  and  dangers,  for  publishing  the  fact  of  his  resurrection.  If  we 
should  have  to  fight,  with  the  wild  beasts  at  Ephesus,  for  the  amuse¬ 
ment  of  our  adversaries,  what  would  be  the  avails,  if  there  be  no  resuiv 
rection,  nor  future  state? 

7.  But,  again,  what  is  more  reasonable  upon  your  own  principles,  be¬ 
lieving,  as  you  do,  the  five  books  of  Moses,  than  that  all  the  saints  by 
one  man  should  live  again,  seeing  that,  by  a  man  they  all  die. 

8.  But,  in  the  last  place,  if  you  will  not  admit  the  truth  of  the  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  dead,  your  creed  ought  to  be  reduced  to  the  standard 
of  the  brute ;  and,  like  them,  making  eating,  and  drinking,  and  all  am 


DEBATE. 


37 


rnal  enjoyments,  the  all-engrossing  concern  of  life.  For  death  will 
soon  reduce  us  back,  upon  your  principles,  to  senseless  matter.  So 
reasons  ihe  AposJe  Paul  with  the  Sadducean  materialists,  who  lived 
too  soon  to  deny  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  but  not  too  soon  to  Question 
the  ultimate  resurrection  of  ail  the  dead. 

I  ought,  perhaps,  to  apologize  to  some  present,  for  the  manner  in 
which  we  connect  the  argument  of  the  Apostle  in  this  chapter.  You 
nous'  know  that  we  do  not  subscribe  to  that  system  of  text  preachin  - 
which  authorizes  a  man  to  make  as  many  sermons  eis  there  are  verses! 
in  a  chapter — and  often  times  these  sermons  on  these  texts,  are  as  de¬ 
tached  from  the  scope  in  which  they  stand,  as  if  the  whole  New  Testa¬ 
ment  was  a  book  of  proverbs.  Hence  we  cannot  agree  with  him  who 
makes  these  words,  “  if  in  t  his  life  only  we  have  hope  by  Christ  we 
are  of  all  men  the  most  miserable,*5,  a  text  to  prove,  that  all  the  rich  and 

honorable  Christians  in  this  day  are  of  all  men  the  most  miserable _ 

nor  with  him  who  makes  these  words — -u  As  by  Adam  all  die,  even 
so  by  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,'5  a  proof  that  all  men,  good  an& 
evil,  shall  be  for  ever  happy.  This  text  preaching,  which  has  made  t he 
Bible  the  most  unmeaning  book  in  the  world,  has  contributed  much  to 
make  such  men  as  Mr.  Owen,  sceptics.  Indeed  the  sects  and  parties 
which  now  exist,  built,  as  they  are,  upon  text  talcing  and  sermon  ma 
king,  are  the  most,  formidable  weapons  with  which  the  sceptics  attack 
the  citadel  of  truth.— But  yet  they  might  as  reasonably  blame  the  Tnri 
for  all  the  darkness  now  on  this  globe,  as  charge  Christianity  with  such 
perversions  as  those  to  which  we  now  allude. 

Luther  and  Calvin  began  a  great  reformation,  and  ever  since  we 
have  been  quarrelling  about  what  Luther  and  Calvin  meant; and  thus 
people  get  to  hating  one  another  on  account  of  religious  opinions.— 
Whenever  men  will  make  the  belief  of  Christian  facts,  and  not  an  ar¬ 
gument  in  abstruse  opinions,  or  in  the  inferential  ‘reasonings  of  some 
orthodox  commentator,  the  bond  of  Christian  union,  divisions,  and 
all  their  evil  concomitants,  will  cease;  but  so  long  as  Christians 
demand  unity  of  opinion,  or  a  concurrence  in  the  conclusion  of  some 
philosophic  or  speculative  mind,  essential  to  Christian  faith  and  Chris’ 
tian  character,  so  long  will  discords  and  divisions  abound. 

Sceptics  sometimes  boast,  that  they  are  more  courteous  to  those  who 
differ  from  them  than  Christians.  So  well  they  may  boast!  But 
there  is  not  so  much  real  cause  of  triumph  in  this  matter,  as  we  sup¬ 
pose.  They  feel  so  little  interest  in  all  things  pertaining  to  a  future 

state,  that  it  gives  them  no  concern  what  any  person  thinks  about  it. _ _ 

But  Christians  feel  so  much  at  stake,  so  vast  an  interest,  in  all  religious 
matters,  that  I  can  excuse  Them  much  more  easily  for  being  somewhat 
warmed  at  times,  than  I  can  praise  the  stoical  apathy  of  the  sceptics.  If 
I  were  a  materialist,  I  might  be  as  courteous,  and  as  indifferent  to  the 
opinions  of  others,  as  my  friend  Mr.  Owen.  But  should  I  ever  appear 
to  feel  any  more  in  earnest  than  he,  it  must  be  attributed  to  the  grea¬ 
ter  interest  I  feel  in  all  matters  which  are  connected  with  immortality 
It  rouses  a  Christian,  to  make  him  a  bankrupt  by  a  quibble,  to  rob  him 
of  the  hope  of  immortal  glory.  While  I  disclaim  all  sectarianism,  and 
Vol.  2,  4 


38h 


DEBATE, 


till  sectarian  feeling,  I  would  be  the  last  to  compliment  away  for  a  smile, 
a  single  filing  of*sacred  truth. 

But  to  return  to  the  close  of  the  Apostle’s  most  triumphant  argu¬ 
ment  with  the  Sadducean  materialist. 

What  could  induce  us  to  die  every  day,  to  rise  every  morning  deter 
mined  to  die,  if  called  upon,  rather  than  to  deny  the  truth  which  wc 
promulge?  VVhat  could  induce  us  not  only  to  hazard  death,  but,  while 
we  live,  to  be  accounted  the  off-scouring  of  the  earth  and  the  filth  of  all 
things;  to  suffer  hunger,  nakedness,  and  stripes,  for  attesting  and  prc- 
mulging  falsehoods?  Has  ever  the  like  occurred?  If  we  be  deceivers 
knowingly,  and  in  such  a  case  as  this,  if  deceivers,  we  must  be  design¬ 
edly  so — do  we  not  bear  false  witness  in  the  presence  of  (iod,  and  do 
we  not  expose  ourselves  to  the  severest  punishment?  We  must  wil¬ 
lingly  prefer  pain  to  happiness,  ifw&  are  deceivers — for  pain  is  our 
present  earthly  gain,  and  pain  must  be  our  future  reward.  We  are 
then  not  only  of  all  men  the  most  miserable  here,  but  must  be' so  here¬ 
after  11 — It  cannot  be;  we  must  cease  to  be  accounted  human  beings, 
before  we  can  be  accounted  deceivers. 

But,  says  some  sceptic  (for  Mr.  Owen  fails  to  make  objections,  and 
we  will  make  them  for  him,)  How  many  thousands  have  suffered 
death  in  attestation  of  false  religions?  How  many  have  suffered  them¬ 
selves  to  be  burned  or  crushed  to  pieces  under  the  ponderous  car  of 
J.^gernaut,  in  attestation  of  their  religion?  Will  you,  then,  make  the 
martyrdom  and  sufferings  of  the  ancient  witnesses,  a  proof  of  the  veri¬ 
ty  of  their  religion,  and  reject  the  same  as  proof  of  the  truth  of  many 
Bagan,  and,  what  you  would  call,  anti-Christian  religions?  This  is 
something  like  you  Christians — but  it  is  a  good  rule  which  works 
both  ways ;  and  if  you  will  prove  Christianity  to  be  divine,  because 
some  of  its  votaries  suffered,  you  will  be  able  to  prove  all  the  religions 
of  the  world  divine,  for  the  same  reason;  for  some  of  their  votaries suf 
fered. 

Not  so  fast  with  your  conclusion. — All  that  we  contend  for  is,  that 
martyrdom  proves  the  sincerity  of  the  witness.  This  is  all  we  want.-— 
Now  we  all  admit  that  a  man  may  be  sincerely  wrong  in  his  opinions^ 
and  so  misled  as  to  die  for  them,  rather  than  to  retract.  But  if,  rn 
matters  of  fact,  such  as  the  assassination  of  Julius  Caesar,  such  as  the 
death  of  Napoleon,  or  the  battle  of  Bunker’s  Hill,  where  the  fact  is 
submitted  to  all  the  senses^  our  senses  could  not  be  relied  on,  there 
would  be  an  end  to  all  certainty  in  the  world. — Now,  when  a  person  is 
so  fully  persuaded  of  such  facts  as  to  die  in  attestation  of  them,  the 
death  of  such  a  person  is  not  only  a  proof  of  his  sincerity ,  but  of  the 
fact ,  because  it  is  an  object  of  sensible  proof  in  which  there  was  no 
possibility  of  deception. 

The  martyr  to  an  opinion,  in  dying,  says :  I  sincerely  think .  But 
the  martyr  to  a  fact,  in  dying,  says;  I  most  assuredly  saw,  or  I  cer¬ 
tainly  heard.  Now  the  possibility  of  thinking  wrong,  even  after 
having  thought  for  years,  is  quite  conceivable;  but  the  possibility  of 
seeing  or  hearing  wrong,  or  not  seeing  or  hearing  at  all,  when  oppor, 
tunities  have  been  frequent,  and  every  tvay  favorable,  is  inconceivable. 


a  nr;  “• 

±/LjoA  i  i. . 


A  person  who  soes  an  object  only  once,  or  hears  a  narrative  only  once, 
can  with  difficulty  be  deceived  or  misled:  but  where  an  object  has  been 
repeatedly  addressed  to  the  eye,  or  to  the  ear,  deception  is  not  to  be 
supposed.  Every  man  may  test  this  principle,  by  enquiring  how  much 
more  certain  he  is  that  a  friend  is  dead  whom  he  saw  expire,  than  he  is 
of  the  truth  of  any  opinion  derived  from  the  mere  comparison  of  ab¬ 
stract  propositions. 

It  was  for  publishing  facts,  sensible  facts,  and  not  for  propagating 
opinions,  that  all  the  original  martyrs  suffered  and  died.  Martyrdom, 
therefore,  proves  the  sincerity  of  the  martyr,  who  dies  for  an  opinion; 
but  it  proves  the  truth  of  the  fact,  when  a  person  dies  in  attestation  of 
a  sensible  fact.* 

But  so  soon  as  we  have  rebutted,  and  I  hope  refuted,  the  objection 
made  to  the  superior  credibility  of  the  original  witnesses,  from  the  fact 
of  their  sufferings  and  martyrdom,  I  am  assailed  by  another.  Gran¬ 
ted,  for  the  moment,  says  some  sceptic,  that  you  have  fairly  made  out  the 
fact  of  Christ’s  resurrection,  by  the  testimony  of  his  friends;  still,  there 
is  a  suspicion  resting  upon  that  testimony,  just  from  the  fact  that  all 
the  witnesses  were  Christians. — Let  us  have  some  sceptical  Jew,  or 
some  sceptical  Greek,  affirming  the  fact — produce  seme  respectable 
Roman  author,  like  Tacitus  or  Suetonius,  who  affirms  the  same  fact, 
and  then  you  may  claim  our  assent  with  more  reason. 

Strange  illusion  this,  which  compels  a  person  to  reject  the  better, 
and  to  believe  the  worse  testimony. — Now  why  prefer  the  testimony  of 
a  man  who  will  assert  a  great  practical  truth,  and  not  accord  with  it  in 
his  behaviour,  to  the  testimony  of  another,  who  espouses  the  same 
truth  and  lives  conformably  to  it.  Does  the  fact  of  a  person’s  living 
conformably  to  what  he  testifies,  discredit  his  testimony  ?  Yet  this  is 
precisely  the  logic  of  this  objection.  The  man  who  cries  fire,  and.sita 
in  the  burning  house,  is  more  to  be  believed,  than  the  man  who  cries 
fire,  and  runs  out  of  it!  Now  suppose  Tacitus  had  said  that  Je¬ 
sus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  and  that  he  believed  it,  would  he  not 

*  Mr.  Addison  regards  the  courage  and  patience  shewn  by  these  wit¬ 
nesses  under  their  tortures  as  of  itself  supernatural  and  miraculous.  “  I 
cannot  conceive  (says  he)  a  man  placed  in  the  burning  chair  at  Lyons, 
amid  the  insults  and  mockery  of  the  crowded  amphitheatre,  and  «till  kee¬ 
ping  this  seat;  or  stretched  upon  a  grate  over  coals  of  fire,  and  breathing 
out  his  soul  among  the  exquisite  sufferings  of  such  a  tedious  execution 
rather  than  renounce  his  religion  and  blaspheme  his  Saviour.  Such  tri¬ 
als  seem  to  me  above  the  strength  of  human  nature,  and  able  to  over¬ 
bear  reason,  duty,  faith,  conviction,  nay  and  the  most  absolute  certainty 
of  a  future  state.  Humanity,  unassisted  in  an  extraordinary  manner, 
must  have  shaken  off  the  present  pressure,  and  have  delivered  itself 
out  of  such  dreadful  distress,  by  any  means  that  could  have  been  sug¬ 
gested  to  it.  We  can  easily  imagine,  that  any  person,  in  a  good  cause*, 
might  have  laid  down  their  lives  at  a  gibbet,  the  stake,  or  the  block-*- 
but  to  expire  leisurely,  among  the  most  exquisite  tortures,  when  they 
might  have  come  out  of  them  even  by  a  mental  reservation,  or  a  hy¬ 
pocrisy  which  was  not  without  the  possibility  of  being  followed  by 
repentance  and  forgiveness,  has  something  in  it  so  far  beyond  the  force 
and  natural  strength  of  mortals,  that  we  cannot  but  think,  that  there 
was  some  miraculous  power  to  support  the  sufferer.”  Reporter. 


DEBATE, 


4u 

have  been  enrolled  among  the  Christians?  And  so  of  ail  others,  Jews 
and  Pagans.  Tlie  instant  they  believod  the  fact,  they  would  have  cea¬ 
sed  to  be  Jews  and  Pagans— -they  would  have  been  embodied  in  the 
ranks  of  Christians.  So  that  a  little  common  sensej  or  a  little  reflec¬ 
tion,  would  have  taught  such  a  sceptic  in  Christianity,  that  in  asking 
for  such  evidence,  he  only  asked  for  an  impossibility— yes,  an  impossi¬ 
bility  as  great  as  to  place  two  substances  in  the  same  spot  at  the  same 
instant.  If  I  could  find  a  Pagan  such  as  Tacitus,  affirming  that  Jesus 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  and  he  still  continuing  a  Pagan,  I  would 
have  said  that  he  did  not  believe  it  himself,  or  else  viewed  at  as  an  in¬ 
operative  opinion.  Nay,  indeed,  we  have  infinitely  better  testimony 
than  that  of  Tacitus,  or  a  thousand  such — for  we  have  the  testimony 
of  Paul,  and  myriads  of  Jews  and  Greeks  who  lived  in  those  times 
and  places,  and  had  access  to  the  evidences;  who  were  as  hostile  to 
Christians  and  Christianity,  as  any  sceptics  now  can  be;  and  yet,  so 
overpowering  was  the  evidence,  that  from  enemies  they  became  friends* 
Now,  to  a  logician,  every  convert  made  to  Christianity,  in  those  days, 
is  a  disinterested  witness;  and  a  most  credible  one  too.  For,  if  thou¬ 
sands  ofindividuals,  and  of  all  ranks  and  degrees,  Niccdimis  and  Jo¬ 
seph  amongst  the  Jews,  the  Roman  Proconsuls,  the  Athenian  Mayor 
Dionysius,  down  through  all  the  ranks  in  Judea,  Greece  Rome,  and  to 
the  very  slaves  themselves,  embraced  at  the  peril  of  rank,  fortune,  and 
good  name,  of  life  and  limb,  the  testimony  of  the  Apostles  living  in 
their  own  times,  with  all  the  evidences  triable  by  all  the  means  which 
we  could  wish  to  have  had — surely  we  have  disinterested  witnesses  by 
the  hundred,  thousand  and  myriad.  I  would  not  rank  him  amongst, 
the  sane  in  intellect,  who  would  not  admit  that  the  three  thousand  on 
Pentecost,  converted  to  the  Christian  faith ;  with  all  the  cotemporary 
converts,  for  twenty  or  thirty  years,  were  disinterested  witnesses. — - 
They  were  so.  Their  conversion  was  a  proof  of  the  facts  attested,  and 
their  changing  ranks  made  them  only  better  witnesses,  than  had  they 
continued  to  admit  the  facts  without  being  governed  by  them.  I  hope 
we  shall  hear  no  more  about  disinterested  witnesses,  when  we  have  my¬ 
riads  of  them  ready  to  obey  the  summons. 

The  hour  of  adjournment,  I  am  admonished,  has  arrived.  Perhaps 
Mr.  Owen  wishes  to  be  heard.  Before  I  sit  down,  1  would  observe,, 
that  it  is  due  to  the  community,  to  the  importance  of  the  subject,  and 
to  ourselves,  that  we  should  bring  this  subject  to  a  legitimate  close.— 
Circumstances  to  which  I  have  before  alluded,  have  deprived  me  of 
bringing  forward  say  two-thirds  of  the  documentary  evidence  I  expec¬ 
ted  to  offer.  I  do  wish  my  friend,  Mr.  Owen,  to  pay  the  greatest  at¬ 
tention,  and  to  offer  every  objection  be  can  frame  to  this  argument. — 
We  entreat,  any  other  person  present,  who  hasuny  objection,  to  make 
ft  known,  either  by  word  or  writing.  We  do  confidently  believe,  that 
we  are  able  to  demonstrate,  that  we  have  not  been  following  any  cun¬ 
ningly  devised  fable,  but  that  we  are  compelled,  by  every  rational  con¬ 
sideration,  to  admit  the  truth  of  the  divine  oracles;  and  to  repose  im¬ 
plicit,  faith  on  that  grand  fact  on  which  the  whole  of  Christianity  is 
predicated. 


DEBATE. 


42 


Saturday,  1  Gtli  April,  1829 — Forenoon, 

Mr.  Chairman — 

When  interrupted,  yesterday  evening,  by  the  arrival  of  the  hour 
of  adjournment,  we  were  engaged  in  demonstrating  the  truth  and  cer¬ 
tainty  of  the  historic  fact,  on  which  is  predicated  the  Christian  reli¬ 
gion.  I  mean  the  great  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  the  man ,  Christ  Je¬ 
ms,  from  the  dead.  We  progressed  so  far  in  the  proof  of  this  fact,  as 
to  shew  not  only  the  testimony  of  tiie  original  witnesses  themselves, 
but  also  the  method  in  which  tiiey  argued  upon  the  evidence,  and  the 
reasons  urged  why  their  testimony  should  be  accredited.  The  Apos¬ 
tles,  we  Saw,  presented  themselves  before  the  public  as  the  most  com¬ 
petent  and  credible  witnesses,  that  the  world  ever  saw.  They  resem 
bled,  in  no  one  point,  persons  carried  away  by  enthusiasm,  or  attach¬ 
ment  to  opinions;  about  which  honest  men  might  differ;  but  as  men 
whose  sole  business  it  was  to  proclaim  facts ,  which  had  been  submit¬ 
ted  to  the  cognizance  of  all  their  senses.  They  do  not  merely  affirm, 
that  they  only  saw  the  Saviour  after  his  resurrection.  They  urge  tlid 
matter,  not  only  as  affording  ocular  and  audible,  but  every  other  kind 
of  sensible  proof.  They  proclaim  that  he  repeatedly  and  familiarly 
conversed  with  them,  for  forty  days;  and  that, during  that  time,  he  had, 
by  many  infallible  proofs ,  shewn  himself  to  be  the  identical  person 
whom  they  had  seen  crucified,  and  concerning  whose  identity  there 
could  not  exist  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Their  testimony  differs,  toto 
celo ,  from  any  testimony  on  the  subject  of  speculative  opinions.— 
Their  sincerity  is  also  a  sincerity  sui  generis,  of  its  own  peculiar  kind* 
The  difference  between  martyrdom  for  tenacity  of  opinion,  and  for  at¬ 
testation  of  fact,  we  have  shewn  to  be  immeasurable  Martyrdom  is, 
in  all  cases,  evidence  of  sincerity:  in  the  former  case,  it  only  proves  be^ 
lief  in,  and  tenacity  of  principles:  in  the  latter  case,  inasmuch  as  it  is 
impossible  for  all  the  senses  of  man  to  be  imposed  upon,  there  cannot, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  be  any  st  ronger  proof  of  the  verity  of  a  sensible 
fact,  than  to  see  men  dying  in  attestation  of  it. 

These  men  were  never  accused  of  any  crime,  except  what  grew  out. 
of  the  pernicious  influence  which  a  belief  in  this  fact  was  supposed  1o 
have  upon  mankind.  We  shall  show,  from  all  the  annals  of  ecclesias¬ 
tic  history,  that  their  persecutions  originated  in  a  dread  of  thcr influence 
which  the  promulgation  of  these  facts  was  supposed  to  possess.  The 
sole  misdemeanor  charged  upon  them,  was  their  fearless  dc^elopement 
of  this  fact. 

We  have  stated  that,  on  the  morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the 
body  was  missing — we  have  shewn  that  His  resurrection  was  not  anti- 
cipated  by  any  of  his  disciples;  that  there  was  not  an  individual  in  the 
whole  Christian  fraternity  that  had  the  remotes-  expectation  of  his  res¬ 
urrection.  On  the  contrary,  their  expectation  was  that  he  would  have 
redeemed  Israel.  This  precludes  ajl  possibility  of  his  friends  stealing 
the  body,  for  they  could  have  no  temptation  to  steal  it. 

We  must  look  at  the  state  of  parties,  at  this  time,  in  Jerusalem.— 
They  were  divided  into  the  opponents  and  friends  of  Christianity.-— 
Vol.  2.  4* 


*2 


DEBATE, 


Th  ere  were  no  neutrals.  The  abduction  of  the  body  can  be  accoun¬ 
ted  for  only  in  two  ways — 1st.  His  friends  must  have  been  the  thieves; 
but  to  give  color  to  this  suspicion,  they  must  have  anticipated  such  an 
'influence  upon  society,  as  that  which  actually  did  result  from  the  fact 
oi  the  resurrection.  But  this,  it  lias  been  shewn,  they  never  did  anti  • 
cipate.  If,  2dly,  his  enemies  had  stolen  the  body  and  had  it  in  their 
possession,  they  would  have  produced  it,  in  order  to  confound  the  op 
posite  party.  Suppose  (hat,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  first  began  to  be  remarked,  that  they 
.had  tden  die  body  in  their  possession,  the  bare  production  of  it  would 
have  silenced  the  Christians  forever. — The  fact  of  the  non-production 
of  the  body,  by  the  enemies  of  Christ,  proves,  conclusively,  that  they 
had  not  got  it. 

The  historians  say,  that  the  Jewish  authorities  placed  a  guard  over  the 
sepulchre.  When  the  absence  of  the  body  was  discovered,  the  senti¬ 
nels,  in  their  own  exculpation,  declared  that  his  disciples  stole  him 
away  whilst  they  slept.  The  story  itself  was  incredible,  and  the  an- 
thor  could,  therefore,  be  no  better. 

But,  on  analysing  the  natural  feelings,  both  of  his  enemies  and 
friends,  we  can  discover  no  motive  which  could  prompt  either  of  them 
to  such  an  abduction.  The  whole  accumulation  of  evidence  is  of 
such  a  character,  that,  in  order  to  estimate  the  exact  weight  of  it,  we 
must  take  into  view  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  We  have  not 
merely  their  naked  assertion  that  they  had  seen  the  Saviour.  The 
weight  of  the  evidence  does  not  rest  merely  upon  this  statement;  nor 
does  it  rest  upon  our  inability  to  account  for  the  absence  of  the  body, 
and  its  resuscitation;  although  all  the  witnesses  concurred,  yet  the 
proof  rests  not  there.  Though  these  testimonies  all  corroborate  and 
support  each  other,  still  the  sequence  and  dependence  of  (he  facts,  are 
so  arranged  in  all  the  histories  of  these  times,  that  the  weight  of  the 
testimony  rests  not  upon  these  alone,  but  upon  circumstances  of  still 
greater  moment,  connected  with  these,  viz.  the  personal  sufferings  of 
-he  disciples — the  devotion  of  their  whole  lives  to  the  attestation  and 
promulgation  oftiiis  fact.  This  is  a  very  different  kind  of  testimony 
from  that,  of  a  man  who  should  attest  any  particular  fact,  when  the 
truth  ov  falsehood  of  the  fact,  could,  in  no  wise,  interest  him.  The 
concurrent  testimony  of  a  thousand  persons  in  proof  of  any  mar¬ 
vellous  nyent,  would  not  be  the  strongest  evidence,  if  it  were  not  an 
--event  of  sifoli  a  character,  as  ever  afterwards  to  exercise  a  paramount 
influence  ovcv  their  whole  lives,  and  give  birth  to  an  entire  change  of 
conduct.  But  the  naked  assertion  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  evidence, 
compared  with  thb^rinciples  which  the  fact  itself  necessarily  involves. 
I  he  twelve  Apostle\and  many  of  their  coadjutors,  who  were  the  earli¬ 
est  converts  to  Christianity,  and  some  of  whom  had  as  fair  a  start  in  the 
race  for  honor  and  distinction:  these  individuals,  I  say,  all  go  forward 
in  attestation  of  a  simple  facty  and  thereby  expose  themselves  to  not  on¬ 
ly  the  persecutions  of  the  Jews, hut  also  of  the  Romans;  for  they,  also, 
began  to  be  jealous  of  the  Christians.  They  suffered  not  only  the 
loss  of  popularity  with  their  countrymen,  but  they  endangered 


DEBATE 


4J 

themselves  with  the  Sanhedrim,  and  with  the  Roman  authori¬ 
ties.  The  motives  which  influenced  them,  in  declaring  this  truth, 
could  have  been  of  no  ordinary  character,  since  t  heir  attestation  invol¬ 
ved  the  sacrifice  of  every  worldly  interest.  And  not  only  this, 
but  they  were  assured  by  the  Saviour  that,  for  this  very  cause,  they 
would  be  put  to  death.  lie  told  Peter  that  this  cause  would  one  day 
cost  him  his  life. 

Peter  was  not  a  brave  man.  He  shews  himself,  in  one  instance,  to 
be  under  the  influence  of  the  greatest  w  eakness.  He  denied  his  Lord 
to  save  himself  from  persecution.  These  men  were,  without  any  re¬ 
markable  exception,  as  great  cowards  as  any  that  are  to  be  found  now- 
a-davs.  To  be  told,  in  the  first  instance,  that  their  declaration  of  this 
truth  would  procure  their  persecution  and  death,  was  presenting  the 
matter  in  such  a  light  as  would  have  overcome  their  resolution — but 
when  once  they  had  received  the  knowledge  that  the  Lord  had  risen, 
they  became  as  bold  as  lions.  After  this,  we  see  Peter  and  John 
standing  up  in  the  Temple,  and  proclaiming  this  truth  in  open  defiance 
of  the  whole  sanhedrim.  Here  we  see,  that  the  influence  of  the  belief 
of  this  fact  of  the  resurrection,  made  cowards  brave.  We  see  the  tim¬ 
id  Peter  standing  up  boldly  with  his  associates,  men  of  no  address,  and 
with  no  arm  of  flesh  to  support  them;  yet  they  fearlessly  proclaim  the 
fact.  They  are  put  into  prison;  when  released,  they  go  back  to  the 
Temple  and  repeat  the  proclamation,  and  travel  from  place  to  place,  in 
order  to  disseminate  it  far  and  wide;  until,  at  last,  the  opposite  party 
began  to  perceive,  that  if  they  did  not  put  forth  all  their  power,  the  ex¬ 
isting  order  of  things  would  be  subverted  by  this  sedition.  To  put  a 
stop  to  the  further  spread  of  it,  the  disciples  were  martyrized. 

There  is  nothing  like  this,  in  the  ancient  or  modern  world.  Herd 
you  see  men  acting  contrary  to  all  the  ordinary  principles  of  human 
conduct — men  naturally  timid,  shaking  off  their  timidity  and  dying, 
rather  than  recant  their  proclamation  of  a  fact.  They  did  not  die  for 
their  tenacious  attachment,  to  any  speculative  opinion,  but  for  asserting 
that  they  had  seen  their  crucified  Saviour  risen  from  the  dead,  &c. — * 
Having  received  those  proofs,  they  risqued  and  sacrificed  life  in  order 
to  attest  and  to  promulgate  the  fact.  The  weight  of  the  testimony 
does  not  consist  in  any  of  these  circumstances  alone,  but  in  the  whole 
body  of  the  evidence,  taken  in  connexion  with  its  inseparable  ad¬ 
juncts. 

But  we  are  not  yet  done  with  the  proofs.  There  is  no  other  histori¬ 
cal  fact  of  equal  antiquity,  that  can  be  supported  by  one  thousandth 
part  of  the- testimony  that  this  is.  There  is  no  principle  or  criterion  of 
evidence,  but  what  is  to  be  found  in  this  attestation.  Even  experi¬ 
ence  contributes  its  share  to  make  this  matter  of  fact  more  clear,  than 
any  other  historic  fact  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  antiquity. 

There  now  exists  the  institution  of  a  day  consecrated  to  the  com¬ 
memoration  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  We  are  not  aware  of  the 
peculiar  force  of  this  institution.  Had  there  been  no  weekly  appro¬ 
priation  of  time  before  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  the  commencement  of 
such  an  appropriation  would  be  an  irrefragable  monument  of  the  event. 


44 


DEBATE 


But  still  it  is  attended  with  more  force  than  usually  accompanies  a  new 
institution.  There  was  the  abolition  of  the  seventh  day  among  the 
first  converts,  as  well  as  the  appointment  of  the  first.  The  seventh 
day  was  observed  from  Abraham’s  time,  nay,  from  the  creation.  The 
Jews  identified  their  own  history  with  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
day.  They  loved  and  venerated  it  as  a  patriarchal  usage.  But  it  was 
not  primarily  observed  on  that  account — for  it  was  given  to  them  as  a 
part  of  their  national  compact.  You  will  find  the  Lord  enjoins  the 
Sabbath  day  upon  them  with  this  preface — “  I  brought  you  out  of  the 
land  of  bondage — therefore  keep  the  Sabbath  holy.”  The  observance 
of  this  day,  therefore,  is  not  so  much  to  be  regarded  as  an  usage  deri¬ 
ved  from  the  patriarchs,  as  a  divine  national  institution,  intended  to  per¬ 
petuate  the  memory  of  that  -wonderful  deliverance,  which  the  Lord  had 
wrought  out  for  them.  Here,  then,  is  a  nation  strongly  attached  to 
this  institution  of  the  Sabbath  day,  because  their  forefathers  had  ob¬ 
served  it.  We  well  know  the  powerful  influence  of  ancient  national 
customs.  Men  love  them,  nay,  venerate  them,  because  their  forefa¬ 
thers  .were  attached  to  them.  But  taking  into  view  the  Te-enactment 
©f  that  day,  and  the  making  it  a  part  of  the  national  institution,  and  we 
find  the  Sabbath  existing  in  the  most  powerful  force,  and  sanctioned 
by  the  highest  authority.  Now  to  abandon  the  observance  of  that  day, 
as  every  Christian  did,  and  to  substitute  anew  day  of  the  week  having 
a  different  object  and  view,  was  greatly  more  difficult  than  to  originate 
an  institution  entirely  new — more  difficult  than  to  institute  it  co-ordi¬ 
nately  with  the  old  Sabbath  day,  so  as  to  perpetuate  the  observance  of 
the  first  and  the  seventh  day  also.  I  presume  that  even  Christians 
have  not  sufficiently  appreciated  the  import  of  this  evidence.  It  would 
have  been  more  easy  to  have  superinduced  the  first  day,  and  left  the 
seventh  day  standing,  because  of  its  antiquity,  and  as  an  important 
part  of  the  national  covenant,  than  to  change  the  day  from  the  seventh 
to  -the  first  of  the  week.  For  these  reasons,  we  perceive,  that  it  must 
have  been  much  more  difficult  to  abolish  the  old  institution  than  to  ori¬ 
ginate  a  new  one. 

You  will  remember,  that,  our  Saviour  was  frequently  charged  with 
not  keeping  the  Sabbath — how  often  was  he  accused  of  Sabbath  brea¬ 
king:  there  was  no  disrespect  of  the  Jewish  ritual,  so  frequently  charged 
upon  him.  flow  did  he  refute  the  accusation?  Why,  says  lie,  the  Son  of 
Man  is  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  day.  After  his  resurrection,  he  explained 
this  (and  other  sayings) — and  we  find  no  difficulty  in  understanding  a 
dictum  in  which  we  recognize  a  principle  entirely  new,  which 
is  not  referrible  to  the  decalogue,  and  which,  in  fact,  abrogates  that 
precept  of  it  which  enjoins  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day.  It  was 
not  the  seventh  part  of  time,  but  the  seventh  day,  which  was  claimed 
by  the  Lord  in  the  first  instance.  The  commandment  was  this : — - 
ic  But  the  seventh  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God.”  The  reason 
assigned,  must  be  changed,  before  the  day  of  observance  could  be  al¬ 
tered.  <£  The  Lord  rested  on  the  seventh  day  and  hallowed  it.”  We 
could  not  substitute  the  observance  of  the  fifth  for  the  fourth  of  July, 
because  there  exists  no  rational  pretext  for  it.  Net  so  with  regard  tc 


DEBATE 


4o 

the  consecration  of  the  seventh  part  of  our  time.  But  the  substitution 
of  tii e  first  day  for  the  Jewish  Sabbath;  was  as  positive  an  origination, 
of  a  new  religious  institution,  as  the  least  of  the  passover,  or  Pente¬ 
cost,  or  circumcision,  or  any  other  part  of  tire  Jewish  ritual. — But 
what  distinguished  the  first  day  of  the  week?  And  why  was  it  set 
apart  ?  Solely  in  commemoration  of  a  new  creation .  The  last  Sabbath  day 
was  kept  by  Jews  in  the  tomb;  and  it  was  so  ordered  as  exactly  to  coin¬ 
cide  with  that  symbolic  representation  of  things  which  we  find  in  the  old 
Testament.  You  shall  not  go  out  of  your  house  on  the  sabbath  day,  you 
shall  rest  within  your  house.  Now  the  Saviour  did,  through  this  day  * 
lie  in  the  grave.  But  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  was  the  commencement  of  anew  creation.  Sublime  as  were  the 
reasons  which  originally  influenced  the  Patriarchs  to  keep  the  Sabbath 
day,  incomparably  more  sublime,  are  those  which  now  influence  Chris¬ 
tians  to  observe  it.  lienee  the  institution  and  consecration  of  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  in  Commemoration  of  the  matter  of  fact  that  our  Sa¬ 
viour  rose  from  the  dead,  on  the  morning  of  that  day,  is  a  positive  com 
memorative  institution,  in  direct  attestation  of  the  truth  of  the  matter 
of  fact  and  of  the  unspeakable  importance  of  the  occasion.  This  was 
not  an  event  to  be  engraven  on  pillars  of  marble  in  order  to  perpetuate 
it,  but  upon  the  hearts  of  Christians — for  all  Christian  hopes  and  joys, 
must  ever  spring  from  it.  It  is  a  perpetual  commemorative  institution, 
of  the  birth  of  immortal  hope,  of  the  dawn  of  life  and  immortality,  up* 
on  the  human  race. 

Whilst  examining  the  Divine  mission  of  Moses,  we  remarked  that 
the  criteria  of  the  verity  of  historic  facts,  were  these  :  That  the  facts 
should  have  been  sensible  ones ;  should  have  been  witnessed  by  many 
persons;  should  have  some  commemorative  institutions;  and  that  those 
commemorative  institutions  should  have  been  continuous  from  the  in¬ 
stant  in  which  the  facts  took  place,  down  to  our  own  time.  All  these 
strictly  apply  to  this  institution.  For  we  read,  in  the  New  Testament 
history,  that,  from  the  day  of  his  resurrection,  the  Lord  himself  honor-* 
ed  its  weekly  return.  This  was  the  day  in  which  he  was  wont  to 
have  interviews  with  his  disciples.  And  from  that  day  until  now,  all 
Christians,  Jews  and  gentiles,  have  celebrated  it.  To  feel  the  force 
of  the  argument,  let  us  place  before  our  minds  a  Jew,  zealous  of  the 
law  of  Moses,  standing  before  a  Christian  preacher*  He  is  convinced 
of  the  fact  of  the  resurrection,  is  baptized,  and  thus  becomes  a  Chris¬ 
tian.  In  becoming  a  Christian,  he  not  only  rejects  the  whole  of  the 
Jewish  economy,  but  ceases  to  observe  an  institution  as  ancient  as  the 
creation,  and  becomes  an  observer  of  the  first  day  for  new  reasons, 
and  in  obedience  to  a  new  Master.  The  revolution  wrought  in  such 
an  individual,  is  a  sample  of  the  power  of  truth,  and  of  the  changes 
which  Christianity  made  upon  whole  communities  at  its  first  promul¬ 
gation. 

O  #  # 

All  histories  declare,  that  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  day  has 
been  coni  inuous,  from  the  morning  of  the  resurrection  down  to  the 
present  day.  All  the  criteria  of  infallible  evidence,  appear  in  this 
instance.  The  resurrection  was  witnessed  by  many,  the  commemoro* 


ItEBATE, 


4S 

five  institution  takes  place  immediately,  and  lias  been  perpetuated 
down  to  the  present  hour.  The  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  has  been  opposed  because  the  seventh  was  enjoined  in  the  Jew¬ 
ish  ritual.  But. they  who  argue  thus,  are  not  thoroughly  converted 
to  Jesus  Christ — they  have  not  been  divorced  from  the  law — and  seem 
not  to  regard  the  first  day  in  the  light  of  a  commemorative  institution 
at  all.  They  seem  to  forget,  or  not  to  know,  that  the  observance  of 
days  must  be  necessarily  commemorative  or  prospective :  for  all  time, 
abstract  from  this  consideration,  is  alike  holy  and  religious.  They 
certainly  live  in  the  smoke  of  the  great  city  Babylon,  who  observe  the 
seventh  day  in  commemoration  of  the  work  of  Creation ;  rather  than 
the  first  day  of  the  week  in  commemoration  of  the  Resurrection  of  our 
Lord.  But  we  must  proceed  to  another  evidence  of  the  Resurrection. 

Before  Jesus  had  ascended  from  Mount  Olivet,  he  told  them  they 
were  not  to  leave  the  city  of  Jerusalem  in  order  to  promulgate  the 
resurrection,  until  they  were  clothed  with  new  powers,  every  way  ade¬ 
quate  to  confirm  their  proclamation.  u  Tarry  there,  (said  he)  until 
you  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high.”  The  commemorative  day 
of  pentecost  had  fully  arrived.  In  the  metropolis,  at  this  time,  tlier 
was  but  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples.  They  were  all  convened 
in  one  place  on  the  morning  of  that  memorable  day;  that  day  on 
which  the  first  sheaf  of  wheat  was  to  be  waved  in  the  air  or  carried  over 
their  heads,  as  a  thank  offering  for  the  new  Harvest.  Mark  the  coinci¬ 
dence  of  time,  and  the  accomplishment  of  the  ancient  symbol.  On 
that  day,  the  earnest  of  the  harvest,  he  commences  the  new  economy; — - 
that  the  converts  of  that  day  might  indicate  the  immense  in-gathering 
of  the  nations  to  the  fold  of  the  Messiah.  Now,  when  the  day  of  pen¬ 
tecost  was  fully  come,  that  very  day,  in  commemoration  of  the  Saviour’s 
resurrection,  as  “  the  first fruits  of  them  that  slept,”  that  first  day  of 
the  week — while  the  whole  nation  was  assembled  to  celebrate  this  great 
festival,  and  his  disciples  convened  to  commemorate  his  resurrection,  be¬ 
hold  the  sound  of  a  mighty  rushing  wind  is  heard,  and  all  eyes  and  ears 
are  turned  to  the  place  whence  it  proceeded.  While  they  are  flock¬ 
ing  from  all  quarters  to  this  place,  in  an  instant  many  tongues  of  fire 
are  seen  encircling  the  persons  of  the  apostles.  These  tongues  of  lam 
bent  flame,  which  covered  the  heads  and  faces  of  these  apostles,  Xvere 
emblems  of  those  foreign  tongv.es  which,  in  a  moment  of  time,  they 
were  able  fluently  to  speak  without  ever  having  learned  them.  Not 
only  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  saw  and  heard  the  wonders  of  that  day  , 

,  but  persons  assembled  at  this  great  festival  from  all  the  Roman  em¬ 
pire,  heard  and  saw  these  tokens  of  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of  the 
Lord.  There  were  present  foreigners  from  Rome,  Parthia,  Media, 
Persia,  Mesopotamia,  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  Asia  Minor,  Phrygia,  E- 
gypt,  Pamphilia,  Crete,  and  all  the  African  coasts  of  the  Mediterrane¬ 
an.  There  were,  of  all  languages  and  nations,  auditors  and  spectators 
of  this  event.  They  heard  the  marvellous  sound  from  Heaven,  and 
saw  the  tongues  of  fire.  They,  moreover,  heard  the  Galileans,  with 
their  Galilean  brogue,  pronouncing  all  the  languages  of  the  world; 
Speaking  to  every  man.  in  hrs  vernacular  tongue,  the  wonderful  work? 


DEBATE-, 


47 


of  God.  Peter  explained  the  matter  to  them  all.  He  gave  meaning 
and  emphasis  to  the  whole  scene.  u  The  oracle  of  your  prophet  Joel 
is  this  day  fulfilled.  Jesus  has  been  received  into  the  Heavens.  He 
promised  us  supernatural  aid  to  attest  Ins  resurrection  He  nas  now 
accomplished  it.  Let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know,  assuredly,  that 
God  has  made  that  Jesus  whom  you,  with  wicked  hands,  by  the  Ro¬ 
man  soldiers,  slew,  the  anointed  Lord  or  King  of  the  Universe.  He  is 
now  in  Heaven  placed  upon  that  throne  which  governs  all,  and  has 
received  from  his  Father  this  gift,  as  a  token  of  his  love,  and  approba¬ 
tion  ofhis  wonderful  works  on  earth,  which  ho  has  now  exhibited  up-' 
on  us  in  the  midst  of  you.” 

In  full  conviction  of  all  they  saw  and  heard,  as  confirmatory  of  this 
proclamation,  and  deeply  convicted  of  tiieir  guilt  and  danger,  they  ex¬ 
claimed,  “  Men  and  brethren ,  what  shall  we  do?”  Seeing  them  deep  ¬ 
ly  penitent  of  their  former  course,  Peter  answers  their  question  by  an¬ 
nouncing  to  them  the  gospel,  or  good  news,  which  he  was  authorized 
now,  for  the  first  time,  to  proclaim  to  the  nation.  He  makes  his  proc¬ 
lamation  in  language  clear  and  forcible — u  Reform  (said  he)  and  be 
immersed,  or  as  it  is  in  Greek ,  be  baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  for  the  remission  of  your  sins;  and  you  shall  re¬ 
ceive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit :  for  the  promise  you  have  heard  from  Jo¬ 
el,  is  to  you,  and  your  children,  and  to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even  to  as  ma¬ 
ny  as  tiie  Lord  our  God  shall  call.”  They  rejoiced  that  remission  could  be 
so  easily  received  under  the  reign  of  the  Messiah,  and  forthwith  were 
h&ptized  for  the  remission  of  their  sins,  and  were  filled  with  all  joy, 
and  peace,  and  good  hope ;  so  that  they  eat  their  food  with  gladness, 
and  simplicity  of  heart,  praising  God.  Now  let  me  ask,  what  sort  of 
vouchers  are  these  to  the  truth  of  the  resurrection  and  ascension  of  Je¬ 
sus?  Will  the  wonders  of  that  day,  witnessed  by  thousands  of  the 
mpst  disinterested  persons,  nay,  many  of  them  embittered  enemies  to 
the  truth  of  Christianity ;  I  say,  will  the  testimony  of  three  thousand 
one  hundred  and  twenty  persons,  in  attestation  of  a  fact  happening  on 
the  most  public  occasion,  even  on  a  national  anniversary ,  in  the  me¬ 
tropolis,  frequented  and  crowded  with  strangers,  from  all  nations  un¬ 
der  Heaven,  b©  admitted  in  the  courts  of  sceptics  as  good  evidence! 

I  would  now  ask,  what  could  be  added  to  the  cumulative  evidences 
of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus?  The  uncontradicted  fact,  that  the  ac 
counts  we  now  have  of  it,  were  written  at  the  times  and  places  alle  ¬ 
ged — the  number  and  character  of  the  witnesses ;  the  sensible  and  fro 
quent  interviews  which  they  had  with  him;  the  length  of  time  lie  con 
tinued  with  them ;  his  visible  ascension  into  Heaven  in  the  presence  of 
all  of  them ;  the  descent  of  the  holy  spirit,  just  now  mentioned  in  attes  - 
tation  of  his  reception  into  Heaven;  the  appointment  of  one  day  in  eve¬ 
ry  week  to  commemorate  it;  the  effects  it  produced  at  home  and 
abroad;  and  the  sufferings  and  reproaches  attendant  on  the  publication 
of  it,  which  terminated  only  with  the  martyrdom  of  most  of  the  origi  ¬ 
nal  witnesses.  Isay,  to  all  this,  what  could  be  added?  And  yet, 
when  all  this  is  said,  but  a  feeble  representation  of  the  amount  of  evL 
den.ee  and  <J.oeumentarY  proof,  is  presented. 


48 


DEBATE. 


We  shall  follow  the  witnesses  a  iitti©  farther.  The  Saviour  rose  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week.  He  skewed  nimself  alive,  by  many  infallible 
proofs,  during  forty  days.  He  appointed  ins  disciples  10  meet  vvicii 
him  on  a  specilied  day,  on  a  Mount  which  lie  liad  named:  they  did  so. 
He  gave  them  orders  concerning  their  future  course.  They  asked  him 
a  question  concerning  his  kingdom,  which  he  declined  answering  at 
that  time.  He  forthwith  ascended  up,  gradually  receding  from  their 
sight,  towards  Heaven.  They  stood  gazing  after  him,  expecting  him 
to  descend ;  and  might  have  stood  there  till  the  sun  descended,  had 
not  two  angels  descended  to  console  them,  with  the  tidings  that  he  was 
gone  to  Heaven,  never  to  return  until  lie  came  to  judge  the  world. — - 
They  went  to  Jerusalem — waited  for  ten  days.  Pentecost  arrived — • 
the  incidents  of  that  day  we  have  noticed.  The  facts  of  his  resurrec¬ 
tion  and  ascension,  were  then  fully  proved,  to  the  conviction  of  thou¬ 
sands,  in  one  day.  But  we  must  accompany  them  a  little  farther,  and 
scrutinize  their  doctrine  and  their  progress. 

The  next  incident  in  Luke’s  History  of  the  labors  of  some  of  the 
Apostles,  presents  another  marvellous  scene  to  our  eyes.  Peter  and 
John  are  going  up  into  the  Temple  at  three  in  the  afternoon  ;  when 
■all  the  devout  persons  of  Jerusalem  assembled  for  prayer.  A  notable 
cripple,  more  than  forty  years  old,  well  known  to  many  of  the  citizens 
of  Jerusalem,  perhaps  to  all  of  them,  because  he  was  every  day  car¬ 
ried  and  laid  upon  a  couch,  at  the  Beautiful  gate  of  the  Temple,  was 
in  the  act  of  asking  alms  from  two  of  the  Apostles,  then  ascending  the 
stairs.  Peter  and  John  told  him  to  look  on  them.  He  did  so,  expec 
ting  to  receive  alms,  Peter  said,  silver  and  gold  I  have  none,  but  such 
as  I  have  I  give  you — “  In  the  name  of  Jesus  ike  Nazar ene ,  rise  up 
and  walk”  He  caught  him  by  the  hand.  The  cripple  arose,  stood, 
walked,  leaped,  shouted,  praised  the  Lord  Messiah,  The  congrega¬ 
tion  arose,  crowded  out  into  Solomon’s  portico,  which  held  many 
thousands.  They  looked  with  astonishment,  first  on  the  cripple,  then 
on  Peter  and  John.  Peter  opened  his  mouth  to  explain  this  fact  to 
them.  He  declined  all  praise,  as  due  to  him,  for  this  miracle  of  heal¬ 
ing-  the  power  passed  through  the  name  of  Jesus.  He  then  told 
them  how  they  had  treated  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  Pontius  Pilate, 
how  they  renounced  him  and  released  a  murderer.  Then  he  asserts 
his  resurrection — and  claims  merely  the  honor  of  being  a  witness  of 
this  fact.  He  explains  how  the  cripple  was  cured;  shews  them  their 
error;  excuses  their  infidelity,  as  arising  from  a  misapprehension  of  the 
prophets ;  appeals  to  their  own  prophets ;  shews  that  Moses  had  distinct¬ 
ly  pointed  the  nation  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  In  conclusion,  he  infor¬ 
med  them,  that  God,  having  raised  up  his  son  from  the  dead,  authori¬ 
zed  them  j#;vsZ  to  announce  him  to  the  seed  of  Abraham,  with  the  assu¬ 
rance  that  God  would  yet  bless  and  pardon  them,  every  one  of  them, 
who  turned  from  his  iniquities.  Here  the  number  of  the  male  disciples 
is  augmented  to  five  thousand. 

They  were  interrupted,  at  this  time,  by  the  priests  and  the  captain 
of  the  Temple  guard.  The  Sadducees  disliked  this  new  way  of  pro¬ 
claiming  the  resurrection  of  tire  dead  in  the  person  of  Jesus,  for  it 


m BATE. 


was  irresis  table,  and  like  to  demolish  their  whole  salt.  They  impris¬ 
oned  Peter  and  John.  The  next  day,  the  whole  sanhedrim  in  the  ci 
ty,  many  being  present  who  had  tried  and  condemned  Jesus,  assembled 
to  try  and  interrogate  these  two  witnesses  of  the  resurrection.  Peter, 
formerly  a  coward,  and  constitutionally  a  coward,  rises  above  himself, 
and  with  the  utmost  courage  and  confidence,  addresses  them  on  the 
indictment,  in  the  following  words Rulers  of  the  people  and  sen¬ 
ators  of  Israel — if  we  are  this  day  examined  about  the  benefit  confer¬ 
red  upon  the  cripple,  by  what  means  he  has  been  cured,  be  it  know:, 
to  you,  and  to  all  the  people  of  Israel,  that  by  the  name  of  Jesus. of 
Nazareth,  whom  you  crucified,  whom  God  has  raised  from  the  dead — 
yes,  by  him,  this  man  stands  before  you  sound.  This  is  the  stone 
which  was  set  at  nought  by  you  builders,  that  is  become  th°  head 
of  the  corner.  Neither  is  there  any  other  name  under  heaven 
among  men  in  which  we  can  he  saved.” 

When  they  saw  the  boldness  of  Peter  and  John,  perceived  that  they 
were  illiterate  men,  and  in  private  stations  of  life,  they  were  astonish¬ 
ed;  and  recollected  that  they  had  seen  them  in  company  with  Jesus, 
about  the  time  of  his  trial;  and  when  they  saw  the  cripple,  standing 
sound  and  active  before  them,  they  were  every  man  silent  and  con¬ 
founded.  After  sending  them  out  of  the  council  chamber  for  a  lit 
tie,  they  consulted  on  the  measures  next  to  be  pursued.  That  a  sig¬ 
nal  miracle  was  done  by  these  men,  they  said,  they  could  not  de¬ 
ny,  for  it.  was  manifest  to  all  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem;  but  to  prevent 
its  spreading  farther,  they  agreed  to  severely  threaten  them  to  speak  no 
more  in  that  name.  They  did  so.  But  Peter  proposed  them  a  ques¬ 
tion  which  they  did  not  answer  to  this  day — ■“  Whether,  (said  he)  is  it 
righteous,in  the  sight  of  God,  to  obey  you  rather  than  God?  Decide 
this,  if  you  please.'5’  They  threatened  them  and  dismissed  them  -  for 
because  of  the  veneration  of  the  people,  and  the  publicity  of  the  good 
deed  done  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  they  dare  do  no  more  than  threaten 
them. 

Thus  they  proceeded  in  Jerusalem.  Multitudes  flocked  to  the  me¬ 
tropolis  from  the  surrounding  country  and  villages;  and  Peter  became 
ns  famous  for  his  miraculous  powers  in  that  city,  as  Jesus  had  been.— 
They  imprisoned  him  and  some  of  his  associates;  but,  the  next  morn¬ 
ing,  they  found  them  in  the  Temple,  declaring  the  resurrection  and 
proclaiming  reformation.  The  angel  of  the  Lord  discharged  their 
from  prison;  and  now  the  whole  senate  are  alarmed,  and  begin  to  fear 
that  the  blood  of  Jesus  would  come  upon  them.  “  So  mightily  grew 
the  word  of  the  Lord  and  prevailed.”  They  had  Peter  and  bis  asso¬ 
ciates  called  before  them  again.  They  enquired,  why  they  had  disre 
garded  their  threats?  Peter,  in  his  Christian  boldness,  replied  to  tlie 
charge  of  having  filled  Jerusalem  with  their  doctrine  in  defiance 
of  those  threats,  in  these  words — u  It  is  necessary  to  obey  God  rather 
■^han  you.” — his  was  his  apology.  But  he  must  do  more  than  apolo¬ 
gize.  He  must  attest  the  all-conquering  fact.  He  adds :  ‘  “  The 
God  of  our  Fathers  has  raised  up  Jesus  whom  you  slew,  hanging  him 
oi\  a  tree.  IIu»  has  God  exalted  at  kis  right  hand,  to  be  a 
Vol  2.  b 


DEBATE. 


60 

prince  and  a  savjou^,  t©  give  reformation  to  Israel  and  forgivaicg? 
of  sins.  And  we  are  witnesses  of  these  things,  and  the  holy  spirit 
also,  whom  God  has  given  to  them  who  submit  to  iiis  government. 
Had  it  not  been  for  Gamaliel  the  Pharisee ,  who  had  some  reason,  as 
well  as  a  strong  prepossession  in  favor  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead) 
they  would  have  attempted  their  martyrdom.  They  were  released, 
and  home  they  went  “  rejoicing  that  they  were  accounted  worthy  to 
suffer  shame  for  his  named3 

So  they  progressed,  till  myriads,  of  the  Jews  became  obedient  to  the 
faith.  Even  many  of  the  priests  were  baptized,  and  the  crucified  Je¬ 
sus  was  worshipped  by  tens  of  thousands  of  those  who  had  once  con  ¬ 
sidered  him  an  impostor,  or  as  a  doubtful  character.  The  Sanhedrim 
became  more  exasperated.  The  Sadducees  are  enraged.  Stephen  is 
murdered,  invoking  the  name  of  the  Lord ,  and  attesting,  with  his  last 
breath,  that  he  saw  jesus  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God. — 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  who,  at  that  time,  consented  to  the  death  of  Stephen, 
afterwards  converted,  saw  jesus  and  attested  it  with  his  blood.  How 
increasing  yet  the  evidence  of  the  Resurrection  and  ascension  of  Jesus 
Christ! 

Persecution  dispersed  the  disciples  from  the  metropolis — the  congre¬ 
gation  is  broken  up:  all  are  dispersed  through  Judea  and  Samaria, 
except  the  Apostles.  They  continue  where  the  persecution  rages- 
most — and  courageously  hazard  all  in  attesting  the  resurrection.  The 
land  of  Judea  falls  before  these  dispersed  proclaimers — and  Samaria 
rejoices  in  the  Lord.  But  to  specify  the  conquests  of  this  truth,  would 
be  to  narrate  the  whole  Acts  of  the  Apostles. — Let  the  sceptics  exam¬ 
ine  Luke’s  narrative  through;  his  memoirs  of  J esus  Christ,  and  his 
Acts  of  Apostles;  and  then  reply. 

Were  we  to  follow  these  Apostles  to  Gentile  cities,  we  should  find 
them  proclaiming  the  same  facts,  and  we  should  see  the  same  results 
attending.  In  the  presence  of  magistrates,  philosophers,  and  priests, 
•they  narrate  the  same  facts,  exhibit  the  same  proofs — and  all  ranks  amt 
degrees  submit  to  die  government  of  the  Messiah.  The  idols  are  hurl¬ 
ed  from  their  seats,  the  temples  are  deserted,  and  no  price  is  offered 
for  victims.  Rome  itself,  is  now  convulsed,  and  the  Gallileans  are 
likely  to  fill  the  imperial  city  with  their  doctrine.  The  Roman  wri¬ 
ters  now,  we  may  expect,  will  notice  them,  as  soon  as  the  Gospel 
makes  inroads  upon  their  superstitions.  Here  then  we  shall  close  the 
testimony  of  the  authors  of  the  New  Testament,  and  we  will  enquire 
what  the  Pagans  have  to  say  about  these  wTonderful  events. 

But  I  must  again  remark,  how  much  more  attention  is  paid  to  the 
testimony  of  infidel  Jews  and  Pagans,  than  to  believing  Jews  and  Pa- 
gansjby  those  who  pretend  to  be  so  rational  as  to  doubt  the  truth  of 
.Christianity.  How  often  have  we  heard  such  persons  say,  “  Produce 
some  disinterested  witness ,  some  Pagan,  or  some  Jew,  who  was  never 
converted  to  Christianity,  who  will  attest  the  Gospel  facts,  and  we 
will  believe.”  We  will  believe  an  incredible  witness,  and  reject  the 
cteJible!  We  would  believe  Tacitus,  but  we  will  not  believe  Paul.~ 
fVet  Tacitus  assert  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  and  we  will  contend  r:o 


DEBATE, 


51 

longer.  Well  now,  suppose  Tacitus  had  unequivocally  said,  Jesvs 
rose  from  the  dead.  What  would  have  been  our  logical  conclusion 
Either  that  Tacitus  was  a  Christian,  or  a  hypocrite;  and  if  either  the 
one  or  the  other,  he  would  be  unworthy  of  credit  amongst  sceptics.— 
For,  if  he  were  a  Christian,  he  would  be  cts. objectionable  as  Paul  or  Pe- 
ter :  for  these  rationaU  have  no  other  objection  to  their  testimony, 
than  because  it  was  exparte ,  or  because  it  was  the  testimony  of  friends. 
Now  if  Tacitus  had  said  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead,- and  continued 
an  idolater,  he  must  have  acted  the  part  of  a  knave  or  a  hypocrite. 
He  could  not  sincerely  believe  this  fact  and  continue  a  worshipper  of* 
idols.  His  testimony,  in  that  case,  would  be worth  nothing.  It  is 
much  more  forcible  as  it  stands,  for  he  goes  just  as  far  as  he  could 
go,  to  continuo  a  Pagan,  and  be  worthy  of  credit.  The  rationals 
would  have  us  to  produce  an  impossibility  as  glaring,  as  to  place  two 
substances  in  the  same  place  at  the  same  time.  They  would  have  us 
to  produce  an  unbelieving  Pagan,  speaking  and  acting  as,  and  being, 
in  fact,  a  believing  Pagan.  They  want  a  Jew  or  a  Pagan  who  will 
speak  like  a  Christian,  but  who  will  not  act  like  one.  Now  as  far  as  I 
can  judge  of  testimony,  I  would  incomparably  prefer  the  testimony  of 
the  person  whose  life  conforms  to  his  testimony,  to  the  testimony  of 
the  person  whose  life  and  whose  testimony  disagree.  Now  if  I  found 
the  words  of  Tacitus  to  differ  from  his  character,  I  would  not  rely  up- . 
on  them  as  I  do :  and  taking  into  view  the  character  of  the  man,  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  his  testimony  is  altogether  credible :  and 
I  am  sure  proves  every  thing  that  we  wish,  and  every  thing  that  an  in¬ 
fidel  can  require.* 

The  same' may  be  said  of  other  Pagan  authorities.  Taking  into 
view  their  times,  circumstances,  and  general  character,  I  presume 
they  are  all  worthy  and  credible  witnesses.  Josephus  too,  excepting  that 
interpolation  found  in  some  copies,  is  a  good  witness;  net  respecting  Je 
sus  Christ,  but  many  of  the  facts  and  circumstances  recorded  or  alluded 
to  in  the  historical  books  of  the  New  Testament.  But  it  is  more  to 
shame  than  to  convince  sceptics,  that  we  trouble  ourselves  with  the  tes  ¬ 
timonies  of  either  unbelieving  Jews  or  Pagans.  Those  who  will  not 
believe  such  witnesses  as  sacrificed  all  temporal  enjoyments,  and  laid 
down  their  lives  in  attesting  tlie  Christian  facts,  who  were  above  all 
temptation  to  deceive;- — so  numerous,  so  well  attested  by  their  cotem¬ 
poraries,  for  all  moral  excellence,  will  never  be  convinced  by  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  Pagans  like  themselves. 

Perhaps  I  should  place  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  infidel,  Pagan,  and 
Jewish  witnesses,  the  testimony  of  one  Judas  Iscariot,  a  traitor  to  J,e- 
sus  Christ.  The  testimony  of  a  traitor  is  sometimes  more  worthy  of 
credit  than  the  testimony  of  a  friend.  This  Judas,  as  the  case  now 
stands,  is  a  better  test  imony  than  the  combined  testimony  of  the  eleveir 
friends,  Judas  had  long  been  a  familiar  acquaintance,  and  ranked 

*  I  find  that  I  had  given  these  ideas  in  my  speech,  on  Friday  even¬ 
ing  ;  having  forgotten  this  circumstance,  I  made  the  same  remarks 
on  Saturday  morning,  and  give  them  a  second  time  as  I  find  them  in 
the  report* 


DEBATE 


amongst  the  most  intimate  friends  of  Jesus.  He  wks  enrolled  among 
.he  twelve  Apostles.  He  had  been  so  impartially  treated  by  Jesus? 
that,  until  the  night  he  betrayed  him,  not  one  of  the  others  could 
suspect  that  ho  would  prove  a  traitor.  Now,  had  there  ever  been  the 
least  reserve  shewn  by  Jesus  to  Judas,  or  had  he  been  treated  in  any 
way  less  confidentially  than  any  of  the  other  Apostles,  so  soon  as  Jesus 
told  them  that  one  of  them  should  betray  him,  all  eyes  would  have  tur* 
ned  to  Judas.  To  him  they  would  have  all  pointed.  Instead  of  say 
mg,  one  by  one,  6i  Lord ,  is  it  they  would  have  said  within  them¬ 

selves,  it  is  Judas.  He  had  been,  during  the  whole  ministry  of  Jesus, 
most  intimately  acquainted  with  his  speeches  and  his  actions.  If  any 
tiling  insincere ,  political ,  or  contrary  to  the  ostensible  object  of  the 
mission  of  Jesus,  had  ever  transpired  in  secret,  or  if  ever  there  had  been 
njiy  conspiracy  amongst  his  followers,  to  delude  or  impose  upon  the 
nation,  Judas  must  have  known  it.  This  must  be  conceded  by  all' 
who  have  ever  read  the  Gospel  histories. 

Now  that  Judas  was  a  designing,  selfish,  covetous-  and  insincere  ad^c- 
herent  to  the  party,  must  also  he  conceded.  Seeing  things  going  con¬ 
trary  to  his  calculations,  that  no  immediate  gain,  honor  or  advantage 
was  likely  soon  to  accrue — in  an  evil  hour,  his  passion  for  gain  impel¬ 
led  him  to  seize  the  first  opportunity  of  making  as  much  as  possible,  by 
way  of  reprizals,  for  his  disappointment  in  attaching  himself  to  the  re- 
'  inue  of  Jesus.  He  therefore  covenanted  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver, 
the  sum  for  which  J  oseph  was  sold  into  Egypt,  to  deliver  into  the  cus¬ 
tody  of  the  sanhedrim,  the  person  of  Jesus.  He  did  so.  Now  had  he 
keen  able  to  impeach  Jesus  of  aught  amiss  in  word  or  deed,  it  is  evident 
he  had  the  disposition  and  the  opportunity;  nay,  to  extenuate  his  own 
conduct  even  in  the  eyes  of  the  chief  priests  and  elders,  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  for  him  to  make  a  disclosure ;  but  he  had  nothing  to  disclose, 
save,  after  a  little  reflection,  the  agonies  of  his  own  mind.  I  have,  said 
he,  betrayed  innocent  blood.  Heart  rending  thought!  Here  is  the 
money :  release  him.  If  you  have  done  so,  we  care  not,  said  the  Priests ; 
'hat  is  your  concern,  not  ours.  Now  the  import  of  the  testimony  of 
Judas  is  something  like  the  following : 

A.  B.  is  accused  of  some  base  or  unworthy  action.  Eleven  ofhis 
intimate  friends  and  acquaintances,  all  of  good  character  too,  are  sum¬ 
moned  to  give  testimony  in  favor  of  A.  B.  They  all  give  him  a'good 
character  and  exculpate  him  from  the  charge.  Their  testimony,  tho’ 
not  the  same  words,  concurs  in  every  grand  point  or  fact.  There  is  a 
twelfth  person  summoned,  who  is  known  to  the  court  and  jury  to  be 
at  that  instant  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  accused.  He  is  interrogated* 
and  deposes — •“  That  he  has  been  intimately  acquainted  with  A.  B., 
for  years,  and  that  never  did  he  know  him  speak  an  unbecoming  word, 
or  commit  an  unworthy  action,  in  any  one  instance,  either  bearing  up¬ 
on  the  accused  or  any  other  human  being.  Nay,  so  far  from  that,  he 
has  lived  the  most  exemplary  life,  and  his  whole  conduct  has  beon 
nothing  but  a  bright  display  of  purity,  piety,  and  benevolence;  and, 
moreover,  adds  he,  I  do  not  think  him  capable  of  an  evil  word  or  deed.**’ 
Now  such  a  testimony  weighs  as  much,  yes,  weighs  more,  with  the  j** 


DEBA'm 


S3 


:y'  tliait  the  testimony  of  many  friends,  however  u ^exception able  their 
character.  Now  just  such  a  witness  was  Judas.  I  have  betrayed  in¬ 
nocent  blood, said  lie;  1  have  been  instigated  by  the  devil :  my  soul 
has  no  rest;  and  peace  lias  departed  from  me.  For  so  worthy  a  per  ¬ 
son  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  never  lived — release  him,  or  I  die.  He  dies: 
and  though  a  felo  dese ,  he  is  a  martyr  to  the  truth  of  the  pretensions 
and  character  of  Jesus. 

We  shall  now  pr&sentto  this  audience  a  few  extracts  from  the  histo¬ 
rians  of  those  times,  from  the  edicts  of  the  Roman  emperors,  and  other 
public  documents : — 

«  Josephus,  the  Jewish  historian,  was  cot.emporary  with  the  Apos¬ 
tles,  having  been  born  in  the  year  37.  From  his  situation  and  habits, 
he  had  every  access  to  know  all  that  took  place  at  the  rise  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion. 

“  Respecting  the  founder  of  this  religion,  Josephus  has  thought  fit 
to  be  silent  in  his  history.  The  present  copies  of  his  work  contain 
one  passage  which  speaks  very  respectfully  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  as¬ 
cribes  to  him  the  character  of  the  Messiah.  But  as  Josephus  did  not 
embrace  Christianity,  and  as  this  passage  is  not  quoted  or  referred  to 
till  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  it  is,  for  these  and  other  rea 
sons,  generally  accounted  spurious.  It  is  also  according  to  the  man¬ 
ner  of  Josephus,  in  other  parts  of  bis  History,  to  pass  over  in  silence 
what  appeared  to  make  against  his  nation.  When  he  wrote,  the 
Christian  religion  had  made  considerable  progress,  and  every  thing 
respecting  it  must  have  been  well  known  to  him.  He  had  therefore  no 
middle  way.  It  was  necessarry  either  to  enter  somewhat  particularly 
into  the  subject,  or  £o  pass  it  over  entirely.  To  have  mentioned  it,  as  is 
done  in  the  passage  in  question,  would  have  been  to  condemn  himself. 
His  testimony,  then,  to  Christianity,  is  found  in  his  silence;  and  espe¬ 
cially  as  he  was  a  priest,  is  abundantly  string.  Not  having  embraced 
the  Christian  religion,  and,  at  the  same  time,  being  unable  to  contra¬ 
dict  the  facts  on  which  it  was  founded,  or  to  set  them  aside,  he  passes 
it  quietly  by.  The  minute  description  he  has  given  of  the  other  reli¬ 
gious  sects  in  Judea,  fully  proves  that  his  silence  was  that  of  design,  to 
which  his  circumstances  compelled  him, 

“  His  account,  however,  of  the  civil  and  religious  affairs  of  Judea,  of 
the  Princes  and  Rulers  who  governed  the  nation,  of  the  situations  of 
places,  of  the  customs  of  the  country,  and  of  the  manners  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  the  representation  of  these  things  which 
we  have  in  the  Gospels.  In  addition  to  this,  he  lias  given  a  decided 
testimony  to  the  appearance  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  also  an  account 
of  his  being  put  to  death  by*Herod.  The  reason  lie  assigns  for  his 
execution  is  different  from  that  given  by  the  sacred  historian;  but  as  to 
the  fact,  there  is  an  entire  coincidence  between  them.  Ilis  words 
are — u  Some  of  the  Jews  thought  Herod’s  army  was  destroyed  of  God, 
he  being  justly  punished  for  the  slaughter  of  John,  who  was  surnamed 
the  Baptist.  For  Herod  had  put  that  good  man  to  death,  although  he 
exhorted  the  Jews,  after  having  exercised  virtue  and  righteousness  to;* 
wards  one  another,  and  having  performed  the  duties  of  piety  towards 
Vol,  2 .  5* 


DEBATE. 


•j  4 

God,  to  come  to  baptism.  For  thus  baptism  would  bo  acceptable*  te- 
him,  not  if  they  abstained  from  some  sins  only,  but  if,  to  purity  of'  body, 
they  joined  a  soul  first  cleansed  by  righteousness.  But  when  many 
gathered  round  him,  for  they  were  much  pleased  with  the  hearing  of 
such  discourses,  Herod,,  fearing  lest  the  people,  who  were  greatly  un¬ 
der  the  influence  of  his  persuasion,  might  be  carried  to  some  insurrec¬ 
tion  (for  they  seemed  to  do  nothing  but  by  his  counsel)  judged  that  it 
might,  be  better  to  seize  him  before  any  insurrection  was  made,  and  to 
take  him  off,  than,  after  affairs  were  disturbed,  to  repent  of  his  negli¬ 
gence.  Thus  he,  by  the  jealousy  of  Herod,  being  sent  bound  to  Mach- 
®rus,  was  there  put  to  death;  and  the  Jews  thought,  that,  on  account 
of  the  punishment  of  this  person,  destruction  had  befallen  the  army, 
God  being  displeased  with  Herod In  this  passage,  Josephus  attests 
John's  preaching  and  baptism,  and  the  general  attention  which  his  min¬ 
istry  attracted,  as  well  as  his  being  put  to  death  by  Herod, 

“  Under  the  Homan  government,  it  was  customary  for  governors  of 
provinces  to  send  to  the  Emperor  an  account  of  remarkable  transac¬ 
tions  in  the  places  where  they  resided.  Referring  to  this  custom,  Eu¬ 
sebius  says — £i  Our  Saviours  resurrection  being  much  talked  of 
throughout  Palestine,  Pilate  informed  the  Emperor  of  it,  as  likewise  of 
his  miracles,  which  he  had  heard  of,  and  that,  being  raised  up  after  he 
had  been  put  to  death,  he  was  already  believed  by  many  to  be  a  God.” 
These  accounts  were  never  made  public,  nor  were  any  similar  ones 
ikely  to  be  published,  as  such  accounts  were  intended  for  only  the  in¬ 
formation  of  government  Augustus  forbade  publishing  the  acts- of 
the  senate.  But  the  above  fact  is  attested  by  Justin  Martyr  in  his  first 
apology,  which,  in  the  year  140,  was  presented  to  the  Emperor  Anto¬ 
ninus  Pius  and  the  senate  of  Rome.  Having  mentioned  the  crucifixion 
of  Jesus,  and  some  of  the  circumstances  of  it,  he  adds — “  And  that 
:hese  things  were  so  done,  you  may  know  from  the  acts  made  in  the 
time  of  Pontius  Pilate.”  Tertullian,  in  his  Apology,  about  the  year 
1*98,  having  spoken  of  our  Saviour’s  crucifixion  and  resurrection,  his 
appearances  to  his.  disciples,  and  his  ascension  to  Heaven  in  the  sight 
of  the  same  disciples,  who  were  ordained  by  him  to  preach  the  Gospel 
over  the  world,  goes  on — Of  all  these  things  relating  to  Christ,  Pi¬ 
late,  in  his  conscience  a  Christian,  sent  an  account  to  Tiberius,  then 
Emperor.” 

“  In  another  part  of  the  same  Apology,  he  speaks  to  this  purpose : — 
£i  There  was  an  ancient  decree,  that  no  one  should  be  received  for  a 
deity  unless  he  was  first  approved  offy  the  senate.  Tiberius,  in  whose 
time  the  Christian  religion  had  its  rise, paving  received  from  Pales¬ 
tine  in  Syria  an  account  of  such  thing  as  manifested  our  - Saviour’s  di¬ 
vinity,  proposed  to  the  senate,  and  giving  his  own  vote  as  first  in  his 
favour,  that  he  should.be  placed  among  the  gods.  The  senate  refused* 
because  he  had  himself  declined  that  honor.  Nevertheless,  the  Em¬ 
peror  persisted  in  his  own  opinion,  and  ordered,  that  if  any  accused 
the  Christians  they  should  be  punished.” 

u  These  testimonies  are  taken  from  public  Apologies  for  the  Christ 
Gan  religion,  presented,  or  proposed  and  recommended,  to  the  Empe 


DEBATE. 


56 


ror  and  senate  of  Rome,  or  to  magistrates  of  public  authority  and 
great  distinction  in  the  Roman  empire. 

“Tacitus,  the  Roman  historian,  was  bom  in  the  year  61  or  62.  He 
was  Pnetor  of  Rome  under  Domitian  in  88,  and  Consul  in  the  short 
reimi  of  Nerva  in  97.  In  giving  an  account  of  the  great  fire  at  Rome 
in  the  10th  of  Nero,  about  tairty  years  after  our  Lord*s  aseension,  he 

says _ •“  To  suppress,  therefore,  this  common  rumour,”  (viz.  that  the 

Emperor  himself  had  set  fire  to  the  city,)  “  Nero  procured  others  to 
be  accused,  and  inflicted  exquisite  punishments  upon  those  people  who 
were  in  abhorrence  for  their  crimes,  and  were  commonly  known  by  the 
name  of  Christians,  They  had  their  denomination  from  Chnstus, 
who,  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  was  put  to  death  as  a  criminal  by  the 
procurator,  Pontius  Pilate.  This  pernicious  superstition,  though 
checked  for  a  while,  broke  out  again,  and  spread  not  only  over  Judea, 
the  source  of  this  evil,  but  reached  the  city  also,  whither  flow  from  all 
quarters  all  things  vile  and  shameful,  and  where  they  find  shelter  and 
encouragement.  At  first,  they  only  were  apprehended  who  confessed 
themselves  of  that  sect;  afterwards  avast  multitude,  discovered  by 
them :  all  which  were  condemned,  not  so  much  for  the  crime  of  burning 
the  city,  as  for  their  enmity  to  mankind.  Their  executions  were  so 
contrived  as  to  expose  them  to  derision  and  contempt.  Some  were 
covered  over  with  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  torn  to  pieces  by  dogs; 
some  were  crucified;  others,  having  been  daubed  over  with  combusti¬ 
ble  materials,  were  set  up  as  lights  in  the  night  time,  and  thus  burnt  to 
death.  'Nero  made  use  of  his  own  gardens  as  a  theatre  upon  this  oc* 
casion,  and  also  exhibited  the  diversions  of  the  circus,  sometimes 
standing  in  the  crowd  as  a  spectator,  in  the  habit  of  a  charioteer;  at 
other  times  driving  a  chariot  himself,  till  at  length  these  men,  though 
really  criminal,  and  deserving  exemplary  punishment,  began  to  be 
commiserated  as  people  who  were  destroyed,  not  out  of  a  regard  to  the 
public  welfare,  but  only  to  gratify  the  cruelty  of  one  man.” 

“  Such  is  the  testimony  of  Tacitus,  who  lived  in  the  same  age  with  the- 
Apostles,  to  the  principal  facts  which  relate  to  the  origin  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel,  as  well  as  to  its  rapid  progress.  He  here  attests  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  put  to  death  as  a  malefactor,  by  Pontius  Pilate,  procurator  under 
Tiberius;  that,  from  Christ,  the  people  called  Christians  took  their 
name;  that  this  religion  had  its  rise  in  Judea;  that  thence  it  was  prop 
agated  into  other  parts  of  the  world,  as  far  as  Rome,  where  Christians 
were  very  numerous ;  and  that  they  were  reproached  and  hated,  and 
underwent  many  and  grievous  sufferings. 

“  Suetonius,  another  eminent  Roman  historian,  was  bom  about  the 
year  70.  He  says,  in  his  History  of  the  Life  of  the  Emperor  Claudi¬ 
us,  who  reigned  from  the  year  41  to  54,  that  “ho  banished  the  Jews 
from  Rome,  who  were  continually  making  disturbances,  Chrestus  be¬ 
ing  their  leader.”  The  first  Christians  being  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
#  were  for  a  while  confounded  with  the  rest  of  that  people,  and  shared 
in  the  hardships  that  were  imposed  on  them.  This  account,  however, 
attests  what  is  said  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  (xviii.  2,)  that  Claudi¬ 
us  had  commanded  all  Jews  to  depart  from  Rome,  when  Aquiia  and 


DEBATE 


Priscilla,  two  Jewish  Christians,  were  compelled  to  leave  it.  In  the 
life  of  Nero,  whose  reign  began  in  54,  and  ended  in  68,  Suetonius 
says,  ££  The  Christians  too  were  punished  with  death :  a  sort  of  people 
addicted  to  a  new  and  mischievous  superstition.” 

££  On  the  foregoing  passage  of  Tacitus,  and  in  reference  to  the  perse¬ 
cution  of  the  Christians  under  Nero,  Gibbon  remarks,  “  T’he  most  scep¬ 
tical  criticism  is  obliged  to  respect  the  truth  of  this  extraordinary  fact, 
and  the  integrity  of  this  celebrated  passage  of  Tacitus.  The  former 
is  confirmed  by  the  diligent  and  accurate  Suetonius,  who  mentions 
the  punishment  which  Nero  inflicted  on  the  Christians,” 

££  In  this  persecution  Paul  is  said  to  have  been  beheaded. 

“  The  reign  of  the  Emperor  Domitian,  under  whom  the  second  pejT= 
secution  of  the  Christians  took  place,  began  in  the  year  81,  and  termi¬ 
nated  in  the  year  96.  Domitian  made  inquiry  after  t lie  posterity  of 
David,  and  two  men  were  brought  before  him  of  that  family.  u  At 
that  time,”  says  Hegesippus,  “  them  were  ye£  remaining  of  the  kindred 
of  Christ  the  grandsons  of  Jude,  who  was  e  xiled  his  brother  according 
to  the  flesh.  These  some  accused  as  beiitg  of  the  race  of  David,  and 
Evocatus  brought  them  before  Domitianus  Caesar;  for  he  too  was 
afraid  of  the  coming  of  the-vChrjSt,  as  well  as  ilerod.”  Of  these  men, 
Mr.  Gibbon  says,  “  They  frankly  confessed  their  royal  origin,  and  their 
near  relation  to  the  Messiah;  but  they  disclaimed  any  temporal  views, 
and  professed  that  his  kingdom,  which  they  devoutly  expected,  was 
purely  of  a  spiritual  and  angelic  nature.  When  they  were  examined 
concerning  their  origin  and  occupation, they  shewed  their  hands,  har¬ 
dened  with  daily  labour,  and  declared  that  they  derived  their  whole 
subsistence  from  the  cultivation  of  a  farm  near  Cocaba,  of  the  extent 
of  about  24  English  acres,  and  of  the,  value  of  three  hundred  pounds 
sterling.  The  grandsons  of  St.  Jude  were  dismissed  with  compassion 
and  contempt. 

££  During  the  third  persecution,  which  began  in  the  year  100,  in  the 
third  year  of  the  Emperor  Trajan,  the  younger  Pliny  was  appointed 
pro-consul  of  Bithynia,  a  province  of  the  Roman  Empire,  on  the  Eux- 
ine  Sea.  In  that  distant  country  there  were  now  vast  numbers  of 
Christians,  against  whom  the  pro-consul,  according  to  the  Emperor^s 
edict,  used  great  severity.  Being  desirous  of  more  full  information 
how  to  proceed  against  the  Christians,  and  u  being  moved,”  as  Eusebius 
says, ££  at  the  multitude  of  those  who  wrere  slain  for  the  faith,”  he  wrote 
thd  following  letter  to  Trajan,  in  the  year  107,  which  was  formerly  no¬ 
ticed,  and  in  the  same  year  received  the  limperor’s  rescript. 

££  Pliny,  to  the  Emperor  Trajan,  wisheth  health  and  happiness.  It 
is  my  constant  custom,  sir,  to  refer  myself  to  you,  in  all  matters  con¬ 
cerning  which  I  have  any  doubt.  For  who  can  better  direct  me  where 
I  hesitate,  or  instruct  me  where  I  am  ignorant?  I  have  never  been 
present  at  any  trials  of  Christians;  so  that  I  know  not  well  what  is  the 
subject-matter  of  punishment  or  ofinquiry,  or  what  strictness  ought  to 
be  used  in  cither.  Nor  have  I  been  a  little  perplexed  to  determine 
whether  anj  difference  ought  to  be  made  upon  account  of  age,  or  whe 
the*  the  young  and  tender#  and  the  full  grown  and  robust,  ought  to  be 


DEBATE' 


57 


treated  all  alike;  whether  repentance  should  entitle  to  pardon,  or  whe* 
ther  all  who  have  once  been  Christians  ought  to  be  punished,  though 
they  are  now  no  longer  so;  whether  the  name  itself,  although  no  crimed 
be  detected,  or  crimes  only  belonging  to  the  name,  ought  to  be  punish¬ 
ed.  Concerning  all  these  things  I  am  in  doubt. 

« In  the  mean  time  I  have  taken  this  course  with  all  who  have  been 
brought  before  me,  and  have  been  accused  as  Christians.  I  have  put 
the  question  to  them,  Whether  they  were  Christians?  Upon  their 
confessing  to  me  that  they  were,  I  repeated  the  question  a  second  and 
a  third  time,  threatening  also  to  punish  them  with  death.  Such  a& 
still  persisted,  I  ordered  away  to  be  punished;  for  it  was  no  doubt 
with  me,  whatever  might  be  the  nature  of  their  opinion,  that  contuma¬ 
cy  and  inflexible  obstinacy  ought  to  be  punished.  There  were  others 
of  the  same  infatuation,  whom,  because  they  are  Roman  citizens,  I 
have  noted  down  to  be  sent  to  the  city. 

“  In  a  short  time,  the  crime  spreading  itself,  even  whilst  under  per* 
secution,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  divers  sorts  of  people  came  in  my 
way.  An  information  was  presented  to  me,  without  mentioning  the 
author,  containing  the  names  of  many  persons,  who,  upon  examina¬ 
tion,  denied  that  they  were  Christians,  or  had  ever  been  so;  who  re¬ 
peated  after  me  an  invocation  of  the  gods,  and  with  wine  and  frankin¬ 
cense  made  supplication  to  your  image,  which,  for  that  purpose,  I  had 
caused  to  be  brought  and  set  before  them,  together  with  the  statues  of 
the  deities.  Moreover  they  reviled  the  name  of  Christ,  none  of  which 
things,  as  is  said,  they  who  are  really  Christians  can  by  any  means  be 
compelled  to  do.  These,  therefore,  I  thought  proper  to  discharge. 

a  Others  were  named  by  an  informer,  who  at  first  confessed  them¬ 
selves  Christians,  and  afterwards  denied  it;  the  rest  said  they  had  been 
Christians,  but  had  left  them  some  three  years  ago,  some  longer,  and 
one  or  more  above  20  years.  They  all  worshipped  your  image,  and  the* 
statues  of  the  gods; — these  also  reviled  Christ.  They  affirmed  that 
the  whole  of  their  fault  or  error  lay  in  this,  that  they  were  wont  to  meet- 
together,  on  a  stated  day,  before  it  was  light,  and  sing  among  themselves 
alternately  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  God;  and  bind  themselves  by  an  oath, 
not  to  the  commission  of  any  wickedness,  but  not  to  be  guilty  of  theft, 
or  robbery,  or  adultery,  never  to  falsify  their  word,  nor  to  deny  a  pledge 
committed  to  them,  when  called  upon  to  return  it.  When  these  things 
were  performed,  it  was  their  custom  to  separate,  and  then  to  come  to¬ 
gether  again  to  a  meal,  which  they  ate  in  common,  without  any  disor¬ 
der;  but  this  they  had  forborne  since  the  publication  of  my  edict, 
by  which,  according  to  your  commands,  I  prohibited  assemblies. 

i{  After  receiving  this  account,  I  judged  it  the  more  necessary  to  ex¬ 
amine,  and  that  by  torture,  two  maid-servants,  which  were  called  min¬ 
isters.  Rut  I  have  discovered  nothing  beside  a  bad  and  excessive  su¬ 
perstition. 

(i  Suspending  therefore  all  judicial  proceedings,  I  have  recourse  to 
you  for  advice ;  for  it  has  appeared  unto  me  a  matter  highly  deserving 
consideration,  especially  upon  account  of  the  great  number  of  persons 


53 


DEBATE 


both  sexes  likewise,  are  accused,  and  will  be  accused.  Nor  has  the 
contagion  of  this  superstition  seized  cities  only,  but  the  lesser  towns  ah 
$o,  and  the  open  country.  Nevertheless  it  seems  to  me  that  it  may  be 
restrained  and  corrected.  It  is  certain  that  the  temples,  which  were 
almost  forsaken,  begin  to  be  more  frequented.  And  the  sacred  solem¬ 
nities,  after  a  long  intermission,  are  revived.  Victims  likewise  are  ev-' 
ery  where  bought  up,  whereas  for  some  time  there  were  few  purcha¬ 
sers.  Whence  it  is  easy  to  imagine  what  numbers  of  men  might  be 
reclaimed,  if  pardon  were  granted  to  those  who  shall  repent.” 

To  the  above  letter,  the  Emperor  Trajan  sent  the  following  answer  s. 

u  Trajan  to  Pliny*  wisheth  health  and  happiness, 

u  You  have  taken  the  right  method,  my  Pliny,  in  your  proceedings 
with  those  who  have  been  brought  before  you  as  Christians;  for  it  is 
impossible  to  establish  any  one  rule  that  shall  held  universally.  They 
are  not  to  be  sought  for.  If  any  are  brought  before  you,  and  are  con¬ 
victed,  they  ought  to  be  punished.  However,  he  that  denies  his  being 
a  Christian,  and  makes  it  evident  in  fact,  that  is,  by  supplicating  to  our 
gods,  though  he  be  suspected  to  have  been  so  formerly,  let  him  be  par¬ 
doned  upon  repentance.  But  in  no  case,  of  any  crime  whatever,  may* 
a  bill  of  information  be  received, without  being  signed  by  him  who 
presents  it;  for  that  would  be  a  dangerous  precedent,  and  unworthy  of 
my  government.” 

a  In  the  above  letters,  w*e  have  a  public  and  authentic  attestation  to 
the  amazing  growth  of  the  Christian  religion,  which  had  made  such 
progress  in  the  remote  country  of  Bithynia,  that  the  pagan  temples 
were,  according  to  Pliny,  “  almost  forsaken;”  he  also  mentions  that 
there  had  been  Christians  in  that  country  twenty  years  before.  Theix 
blameless  lives,  the  purity  of  their  religious  worship,  their  obedience 
to  their  civil  rulers,  in  giving  up  what  they  did  not  consider  to  be  en¬ 
joined  by  Divine  authority,  and  their  fortitude  in  suffering,  and  steady 
perseverance  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  are  all  unequivocally  attested  by 
their  persecutors. 

“  The  Emperor  Adrian  was  born  in  the  year  7 G.  He  reigned  20 
years  from  the  death  of  Trajan,  in  117.  Trajan’s  edict  being  still  in 
force  against  the  Christians,  they  suffered  persecution  under  Adrian’s 
reign,  although  he  published  no  new  edict  against  them.  Upon  occa¬ 
sion,  however,  of  the  apologies  which  Quadratus  and  Aristides  presen¬ 
ted  to  him  at  Athens  in  the  year  126,  that  persecution  was  moderated. 
Of  Aristides,  Jerome  says,  “  he  was  a  most  eloquent  Athenian  philos¬ 
opher,  and  ih  his  former  habit  he  presented  to  the  Emperor  Adrian,  at 
the  same  time  with  Quadratus,  a  book  containing  an  account  of  our 
sect,  that  is  an  apology  for  the  Christians,  which  is  still  extant,  a  mon¬ 
ument  with  the  learned  of  his  ingenuity,”  This  apology  is  now  lost. 
To  Quadratus  was  ascribed  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  he  is  said  to  have 
been  “  a  disciple  of  the  Apostles.”  The  follow  ing  is  all  that  remains 
of  the  Apology  which  he  presented  to  Adrian.  “  The  works  of  our 
Saviour  were  always  conspicuous,  for  they  were  real,  both  they  that 
were  healed,  and  they  that  were  raised  from  the  dead;  who  were  seen 
Dot  only  when  they  were  healed  or  raised,  but  for  a  long  time  after- 


DEBATE. 


£$ 

w£r<f  3 ;  nor  only  whilst  be  dwelt  on  this  earth,  but  also  after  his  depar¬ 
ture,  and  for  a  good  while  after  it,  in  so  much  that  some  of  them  have 
reached  to  our  times.” 

«  We  are  informed  by  Eusebius,  that <(  Serenius  Granianus,proconsul# 
\yrote  to  the  Emperor  Adrian,  that  it  seemed  to  him  unjust  that  the 
Christians  should  be  put  to  death,  only  to  gratify  the  elamours  of  th& 
people,  without  trial.”  The  apologies  of  Aristides  and  Quadratus* 
presented  about  the  same  time  with  the  above  letter,  appear  to  have 
contributed  to  procure  tho  following  favourable  rescript  fronr  the  Em¬ 
peror  Adrian.  a  Adrian  to  Manucius  Fundanus;  I  have  received  a 
letter  written  to  me  by  the  illustrious  Sorenius  Granianus,  whom  you 
have  succeeded.  It  seems  then  to  mo,  that  this  is  an  affair  which, 
ought  not  to  be  passed  over  without  being  examined  into,  if  it  were 
only  to  prevent  disturbance  being  given  to  people,  and  that  you  may 
not  be  left  for  informers  to  practise  their  wicked  arts.  If,  therefore, 
the  people  of  the  province  will  appear  publicly,  and  in  a  legal  way 
charge  the  Christians,  that  they  may  answer  for  themselves  in  court, 
let  them  take  that  course,  and  not  proceed  by  importunate  demands 
and  loud  clamours  only.  For  it  is  much  the  best  method  if  any  bring 
accusations,  that  you  should  take  cognizance  of  them.  If,  then,  any 
qne  shall  accuse  and  make  out  any  thing  contrary  to  the  laws,  do  you 
determine  according  to  the  nature  of  the  crime;  but,  by  Hercules,  if 
the  charge  be  only  a  calumny,  do  you  take  care  to  punish  the  author 
of  it  with  the  severity  it  deserves.” 

u  In  the  above  rescript,  Trajan^s  edict  is  not  repealed :  according  tp 
which,  if  a  man  was  accused  and  proved  to  be  a  Christian,  a  President 
is  required  to  punish  him,  unless  he  recant.  But  in  a  considerable 
degree,  this  rescript  was  favorable  to  the  Christians.  And  the  perse¬ 
cution,  which  before  had  been  violent,  was  now  restrained  and  mod¬ 
erated. 

u  Besides  the  rescript,  there  is  a  letter  of  Adrian  to  Servianus,  (hus¬ 
band  of  Paulina,  the  Emperor’s  sister,)  who  was  consul  in  the  year  134. 

Adrian  Augustus,  to  the  consul  Servianus,  wisheth  health.  I  have 
found  Egypt,  my  dear  Servianus,  which  you  commended  ^o  rne,  all  over 
fickle  and  inconstant,  and  continually  shaken  by  the  slightest  reports 
of  fame.  The  worshippers  of  Serapis  are  Christians,  and  they  are  de¬ 
voted  to  Serapis,  who  call  themselves  Christ’s  bishops.  There  is  no 
ruler  of  the  Jewish  synagogue,  no  Samaritan,  no  presbyter  of  the 
Christians,  no  mathematician,  no  soothsayer,  no  anointer,  even  the  pat-, 
riarch,  if  he  should  come  to  Egypt,  would  be  required  by  some  to  wor¬ 
ship  Serapis,  by  others  Christ.  A  seditious  and  turbulent  sort  of  men. 
However,  the  city  is  rich  and  populous.  Nor  are  any  idle;  some  are 
employed  in  making  glass,  others  paper,  others  in  weaving  linen.  They 
have  one  God;  him  the  Christians,  him  the  Jews,  him  all  the  Gentile 
people  worship.” 

66  ft  is  not  surprising  that  in  the  above  letter  the  Christians  in  Egypt, 
as  to  their  worship,  and  in  other  respects,  are  confounded  with  the 
other  Egyptians.  But  the  inaccuracy  of  the  representation  in  these' 
things  does  not  invalidate  the  general  fact,  which  the  Emperor  here 


DEBATE. 


authenticates,  that  the  Christians,  within  a  century  after  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  of  Jesus,  were  so  numerous  throughout  Egypt. 

“  Antoninus  surnamed  the  Pious,  succeeded  Adrian  in  the  year  138. 
To  this  Emperor,  Justin  Martyr  presented  at  Rome  his  first  apology 
in  the  year  140.  It  is  inscribed  in  this  manner.  “To  the  Emperor 
Titus  ASlius  Adrianus  Antoninus  the  Pious,  and  to  his  son  Verissimus 
and  Lucius,  and  the  Senate,  and  all  the  people  of  the  Romans,  in  be¬ 
half  of  men  gathered  out  of  all  nations,  who  are  unjustly  hated  and  ill 
treated,  I,  Justin,  son  of  Priscus,  son  of  Bacchius,  one  of  them  of  the 
city  of  Flavia  Neapolis,  in  that  part  of  Syria  which  is  caBeS.,  Palestine* 
making  this  address  and  supplication.”  The  following1  are  the  con¬ 
cluding  words  of  this  apology:  “On  the  day  called  Sunday  wo  all 
meet  together;  on  which  day  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  rose  from  the 
dead;  on  the  day  before  Saturday  he  was  crucified;  and  on  the  day  af¬ 
ter  Saturday,  which  is  Sunday,  he  appeared  to  his  x4.postles  and  disci¬ 
ples,  and  taught  them  those  things  which  we  have  set  before  you,  and 
refer  to  your  consideration.  If  these  things  appear  agreeable  to  rea¬ 
son  and  truth,  pay  a  regard  to  them;  if  they  appear  trifling,  reject  them 
as  such;  but  do  not  treat  as  enemies,  nor  appoint  capital  punishment 
to  those  who  have  done  no  harm;  for  we  foretel  unto  you  that  you 
will  not  escape  the  future  judgment  of  God  if  you  persist  in  unright¬ 
eousness  :  and  we  shall  say,  the  will  of  the  Lord  be  done.” 

“  The  copy  of  an  edict  said  to  be  presented  to  the  states  in  Asia,  hi 
consequence  of  the  above  and  other  representations  from  Christians, 

still  extant.  Jt  contains  a  strong  testimony  in  favor  of  the  Chris¬ 
tians;  but  as  its  genuineness  is  doubted;  by  some,  it  is  here  omitted,  as 
well  as  every  thing  among  these  early  testimonies,  of  whose  genuine¬ 
ness  there  is  the  smallest  doubt. 

Marcus  Antoninus  the  philosopher,  succeeded  Antoninus  Pius 
as  Emperor,  in  the  year  161.  There  is  still  extant  a  book  written 
by  him  called  his  “  Meditations.”  In  the  eleventh  book,  the  follow¬ 
ing  passage  occurs,  in  which  he  mentions  the  Christians.  “  What  a 
soul  is  that  vrhich  is  prepared,  even  now  presently,  if  needful,  to  be 
separated1  from  the  body*  whether  it  be  to  be  extinguished,  or  to  be* 
dispersed,  or  to  subsist  still.  But  this  readiness  must  proceed  from  a 
well  weighed  judgment,  not  from  mere  obstinacy  like  the  Christians. 
And  it  should  be  done  considerately,  and  with  giavity,  without  tragical 
exclamations,  and  so  as  to  persuade  another.” 

“  The  foregoing  passage  contains  an  attestation  to  the  fortitude  of 
the  Christians  who  lived  in  the  age  next  to  the  Apostles,  grounded  on 
the  assured  conviction  of  the  truth  of  that  religion  for  which  they  suf¬ 
fered  so  much.  The  Emperor  was  a  bigot  in  religion  and  in  philoso-r 
phy ;  and  nothing  but  his  prejudice  against  Christianity  can  account 
for  his  condemning  that  fortitude  which  he  ought  to  have  approved. 

“  He  ascribes  the  willingness  of  the  Christians  to  die  to  obstinacy, 
and  says,  that  “  a  man  ought  to  resign  life  only  upon  a  well  formed 
judgment,  and  considerately.”  But  did  not  the  Christians  die  in  this 
manner?  He  says,  “it  should  be  done  with  gravity,  and  without  trag- 
exclamations*”  upon  which  it  has  been  observed,  that  “  it  is  no 


DEBATE, 


ft 


a  little  strange  that  a  Stoic,  whose  writings  are  full  of  affectation,  and 
are  all  over  tragical,  should  blame  the  Christians  for  not  dying  with¬ 
out  tragical  noise  and  exclamation.  If  they  then  called  upon  Gcd  and 
Christ  -if’  they  then  exhorted  their  brethren  to  constancy  and  perseve¬ 
rance ;  if  they  expressed  a  contempt  of  this  world  and  its.  fading  enjoj  - 
merits ;  if  they  spake  in  sublime  strains  of  the  felicities  of  the  world  to 
come;  in  a  word,  if  they  triumphed  in  death,  as  some  of  them  did,  there 
is  nothing  in  it  absurd  or  unreasonable,  nothing  but  what  is  truly  ad  mi 
rable.  The  heathen  people  around  them  wanted  nothing  to  make 
them  sensible  of  it  but  a  better  knowledge  of  the  Christian  principles; 
such  a  persuasion  of  the  boundless  power  and  goodness  of  the  One 
God,. creator  of  all,  and  a  well  grounded  expectation  of  eternal  life.'’ 

Tf,  T  Tl  j  1  it  i  a!  .  *  j  j"?  1  •» 


It  will  be  recollected,  that  the  great  persecution  against  the  churches 


h  at  Lyons  and  Vienne  in  France,  some  account  of  which  has  been  gir- 
'  n  already,  took  place  under  this  Emperor,  who  therefore  ought  not  to 

1  •  1 1  •  j!  (Y*  *  p  .  -j  /-vj  -j  •  .  * 


- j  ,  r*' - - - - _ - 1  — - - 

have  spoken  in  this  manner  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Christians. . 

Marcus’s  expressions  denote  great,  uncertainty  concerninga  future 
state  of  existence.  He  is  doubtful  whet  her  the  soul,  when  separated 
from  the  body,  shall  be  “  extinguished  or  dispersed,  or  shall  still  sub¬ 
sist.”  He  says  again, u  To  what  purpose  all  this? ....  You  have  mode 
your  voyage,  and  arrived  at  your  port.  Go  ashore;  if  into  another  life, 
the  gods  are  there;  if  into  a  state  of  insensibility,  you  will  be  210  longer 
distracted  by  pains  and  pleasures,  nor  be  in  subjection  to  this  mean 
vessel.” 

Such  was  the  amount  of  the  speculations  of  Heathen  philosophers 
respecting  a  future  state;  yet,  with  but  few  exceptions,  they  went  hand 
in  hand  in  violently  opposing  that  Gospel,  which,  presenting  to  all 
who  will  take  the  trouble  to  examine  it,  the  most  indubitable  evidence 
of  its  divine  original,  has  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light. 

To  trace  this  chain  of  evidence  any  further,  would  besupeffluous.— 
Nothing  can  be  more  fully  authenticated  than  what  has  been  brought 
forward  on  this  head;  all  of  which  so  forcibly  reminds  us  of  what  '"Paul 
*  said  before  King  Agrippa — “This  thing  was  not  done  in  a  corner”  j 
g  From  these  documents,  it  is  incontrovertibly  evident  that  the  estab  • 
Hshmentand  progress  of  Christianity  was  a  Matter  of  public  and  gene¬ 
ral  notoriety;  that  it  arrested  the  attention  of  all  ranks  and  degrees  of 
men,  Jewish  and  Pagan;  that  all  antiquity,  Jewish  and  Christia?],  ad¬ 
mit  the  Gospel  facts;  namely,  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  a  Jew’  be¬ 
came  the  author  of  a  new  religion  in  Judea,  was  of  the  most  obscure 
birth,  was  famous  for  supernatural  powers;  was  crucified  in,  ot  near 
the  metropolis,  under  Pontius  Pilate,  then  procurator  of  Judea-Uthat 
this  suppressed  the  cause  for  a  little  time;  that  his  resurrection,  orWome 
unexpected  circumstance,  caused  it  to  revive  and  progress  with  uncon 
trollable  power; that  immense  multitudes  in  Judea  and  in  all  parts 
the  Roman  empire  embraced  it;  that  the  Christians  were  a  virtues 
patient,  and  religious  people,  only  censured  for  their  indexible  ad 
rence  to  the  Gospel  facts,  and  unequivocal  reprobation  of  idolat 
yvhich  the  Romans  called  “  obstinacy  that  they  endured  every  kind 


*•.  -V 


‘v  2  .  DEBATE. 

■  .  >  .  f 

>i  indignity,  persecution,  torture  and  death,  rathc-r  than  to  renounce 
their  confidence  in-  Jesus,  and  their  hopes  of  future  happiness. 

It  is  also  unquestionably  evident,  that  it  spread  with  the  utmost  ra-  ' 
pidity  overall  the  Roman  empire;  and  in  about  two  centuries  after  the 
death  of  the  Apostles,  did,  in  despite  of  the  power  of  circumstances,  and 
Mr.  Owen’s,  whole  theory,  establish  itself  upon  the  ruins  of  all  the  ’su¬ 
perstitions  of  ancient  Rome.  In  whatever  fight  we  view  the  conver¬ 
sion  of  Constantine,  whetheras  sincere  or  feigned— (the  latter  is  the 
more  probable) — -it  proves  that  Christianity  had  won  the  day  in  leaven* 
the  minds  of  a  majority  of  the  millions  composing  this  immense  em¬ 
pire,  before  it  had  any  favor  shewn  it  by  the  civil  magistrates,  or  had  a 
single  legal  provision  in  its  favor.  From  the  partial  survey  which  we 
are  now  able  to  take  of  all  the  documents  before  us,  with  others  of  a 
kindred  nature,  it  appears  to  me,  at  least,  that  he  must  believe  a  great¬ 
er  miracle  than  any  which  Christianity  exhibits,  because  altogether 
contrary  to  reason  and  experience,  who  can  prevail  upon  himself  to 
think  that  Christianity  is  either  the  ollspring  of  fraud  or  fiction ;  or  that 
it  is  not,  what  it  purports  to  be,  a  religion  of  supernatural  and  divine 
origin.  ' 

All  sorts  of  witnesses  attest  the  truth  of  the  pretensions  of  Jesus 
Christ — friends,  enemies,  neutrals— Jews,  Christians,  Pagans — belie¬ 
vers,  unbelievers,  and  apostates.  But  still  the  pillars  are  the  twelve 
Apostles.  There  is  admirably  worked  up  in  their  testimony,  more  of 
the  constituents  of  demonstration ,  than  are  to  be  found  in  any  testimony 
ever  exhibited  on  earth.  It  is  a  species  of  testimony,  which,  when 
well  understood  and  carefully  weighed,  produces  a  certainty  in  the 
mind  not  inferior  to  the  certainty  derived  from  demonstration.  sjjp 

“It  is  a  very  singular  circumstance,”  as  one  observes,.  “  in  jbfsCieg- 
simony,  that  it  is  such  as  no  length  of  time  can  diminish.  If  is  foun¬ 
ded  upon  the  universal  principles  of  human  nature,  upon  maxims 
which  are  the  same  in  all  ages,  and  operate  with  equal  strength  in  all 
mankind,  under  all  the  varieties  of  temper  and  habit  of  constitution.—. 
Sb  long  as  it  shall  be  contrary  to  the  first  principles  of  the  human 
mind  to  delight  in  falsehood  for  its  own  sake,  so  long  as  it  shall  be  true 
that,  no  man  willingly  propagates  a  lie  to  his  own  detriment  and  to  no 
purpose,  so  long  it  will  be  certain  that  the  Apostles  were  serious 
and  sincere  in  the  assertion  of  our  Lord’s  resurrection.  So  long  as  it 
shall  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  twelve  men  could  all  be  deceived. in  the 
person  of  a  friend  with  whom  they  had  lived  three  years,  so  long  it 
will  be  certain  that  the- Apostles  were  competent  to  judge  of  the  truth 
an  1  reality  of  the  fact  which  they  asserted.  So  long  as  it  shall  be  in  the 
nature  of  man,  for  his  own  interest  and  ease  to  be  dearer  than  that  of 
another  to  himself,  so  long  it  will  be  an  absurdity  to  suppose  that 
twelve  men  should  persevere  for  years  in  the  joint  attestation"  of  a  lie, 
to  the  great  detriment  of  every  individual  of  the  conspiracy,"  and  with- 
but  any  joint  or  separate  advantage;  when  any  one  of  them  had  it  in 
his  power,  by  a  discovery  of  the  fraud,  to  advance  his  own  fame  and 
fortune,  by  the  sacrifice  of  nothing  more  dear  to  himself,  than  the  rep- 
/ Ration  of  the  rest ;  and  so  long  will  it  be  incredible^  that  the  story  of  our 


ifeBATJi, 


Lord’s  resurrection  was  a  fiction,  which  the  twelve  men  (to  mention  no 
greater  number)  with  unparalleled  fortitude,  and  with  equal  folly  consi/1 
red  to  support;  so  long,  therefore,  as  the  evangelical  history  shall  be 
preserved,  so  long  as  the  books  are  extant,  so  long  the  credibility  of' 
the  Apostle’s  testimony  will  remain  whole  and  unbroken.” 

But  still  we  cannot  dismiss  this  topic,  until  we  glance  at  the  other 
two  commemorative  institutions.  For  not  only  is  there  a  commcmora - 
rathe  day ,  but  two  commemorative  actions,  instituted  to  speak  forth 
the  certainty  and  importance  of  this  event.  These  are  the  Lord's  Sup - 
per  and  Christian  Immersion ,  or  as  it  is  often  called  Christian  Bap¬ 
tism i. — I  place  the  Lord’s  supper  first;  because  first  instituted,  and  be¬ 
cause  it  commemorates  an  event  prior  to  those  which  Baptism  chiefly 
contemplates.  Before  the  Messiah  was  betrayed,  on  the  night  of  the 
Passover,  he  institutes  th e  breaking  and  eating  of  a  loaf,  and  the 
drinking  of  a  cup  of  wine,  jointly  among  his  disciples*;  as  symbolically 
commemorative  of  the  wounding  or  breaking  of  his  body  even  unto 
death,  and  the  shedding  of  his  blood  as  the  seal  of  the  love  of  God  to 
man,  as  a  sin  offering,  or  a  sacrifice  for  sift,  indicative  of  the  great  pa¬ 
cification;  of  the  reconciliation  of  a  sinful  world  to  the  character  and 
government  of  God .  This  wonderful  scheme  or  plan  of  things  for  the 
redemption  of  man,  now  consummated  by  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of 
the  Son  of  God,  was  to  be  adumbrated  or  portrayed  in  a  solemn  com¬ 
memorative  institution,  from  that  moment  till  the  end  of  time.  And 
so  in  all  the  public  meetings  of  the  Christian  communities  on  the  com¬ 
memorative  day,  this  commemorative  action,  this  Christian  festival,  is 
to  be,  as  it  was  from  the  beginning,  observed.  Not  a  single  first  day ' 
of  the  weak  has  since  transpired,  not  one  week  since  the  first  constitu¬ 
tion  pfthe  Christian  church,  without  the  celebration  of  the  Lord’s  sup¬ 
per.  Till  the  days  of  Constantine,  it  was  universal  in  every  Christian 
congregation  on  earth ;  and  although  some  churches  made  the  celebra¬ 
tion  of  the  Lord’s  death  an  annual  or  semi-annual  thing,  yet  the  Ron 
manists  themselves,  and  some  of  those  called  dissenters,  have  never 
pretermitted  this  observance. 

The  four  grand  criteria  of  Leslie  in  all  their  force,  apply  to  this  in¬ 
stitution — the  death  of  Jesus  was  a  public  and  sensible  fact — exhibited 
in  the  face  of  open  day,  and  before  many  witnesses — the  supper  insti¬ 
tuted  in  anticipation  of  it,  the  night  in  which  he  was  betrayed,  has  con¬ 
tinued  from  that  time  till  the  present  moment,  now  nearly  1800  years, 
and  in  defiance of«scepticism,  will  continue  till  Jesus  comes  to  judge 
the  world.  J  6 

After  the  resurrection  of  J esus.  and  before  his  ascension  into  Heav¬ 
en,  his  last  act  is  the  institution  of  Christian  immersion  into  the  name 
eftue  Fatner,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  introduces 
fins  institution  by  avowing  that  “  all  authority  in  Heaven  earth 
was  delegated  to  him  as  the  Son  of  man.’^  u  Therefore,”  adds  lie, u  go 
you,  my  Apostles,  into  all  the  world,  and  convert  the  nations,  bapti 
zing  them  into  the  name,"  &c.  I  would  not  be  thought,  my  friends,  to 
be  influenced  by  any  sectarian  peculiarity  in  speaking  of  this  institution 
*  f-rus*  J  kave  given  you  evidence,  at  least,  that  I  have  no  sectional,  par  - . 


DEBATE 


or  sect  arian  feelings  in  this  common  cause.  I  am  sorry  that  the  na  ¬ 
ming  of  this  institution  in  English  gives  offence  to  some,  1  choose  here  to 
use  the  Greek  word  baptizing  instead  of  the  English  word  immersing ;  and 
I  would  not  mention  this  institution  at  this  time,  if  I  could  do  justice  to 
this  cahse  without  it.  But  we  all  agree,  and  know,  and  feel,  that 
this  commemorative  institution  is  one  of  the  memorials ,  yes,  one  of  the 
most  important  monumental  actions  in  the  Christian  religion,  and 
what  is  called  the  Christian  world.  For  while  the  Lord’s  day  com- 
memoratesWerely  the  time  of  the  Resurrection,  while  the  Lord’s  Sup¬ 
per  commemorates  merely  the  death  of  the  Redeemer — this  institution 
commemorates  his  death ,  burial  and  resurrection — the  former  indirectly, 
the  latter  two — directly,  symbolically  and  explicitly.  All  Christians 
know  that  this  was  the  converting  act ,  or,  to  speak  less  offensively,  it 
was  the  act  en  joined  in  the  commission  for  converting  the  nations  of 
the  world.  Hence  the  very  place  which  it  occupies,  and  the  relation 
which  it  bears  to  the  object  and  end  of  the  mission,  gives  great  empha¬ 
sis  to  it.  “  Disciple  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name,  or  con¬ 
vert  the  nations,  baptizing,”  &c.  The  active  participle,  shews  its  im¬ 
portance,  as  much  as  the  words  of  J  esus  to  Nicodemus,  “  Except  a  man 
be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit ,  he  cannot  enter  my  kingdom”  (that 
was  the  kingdom  which  he  was  about  to  establish  upon  this  earth.) — - 
But  all  Christendom  agree  in  this,  that  this  is  the  first  action ,  ne¬ 
cessary  to  making  or  forming  a  disciple.  Even  some  of  our  brethren 
are  so  impatient  for  its  influences,  that  they  carry  their  new  bom  in¬ 
fants  to  it.  All  this  proves  that  all  Christendom  now,  as  they  did  from 
the  beginning,  esteemed  this  as  the  first  act ,  formative  of  a  disciple  of 
Christ;  as  far,  at  least,  as  a  profession,  or  public  avowal  of  Christianity, 
imports.  And  why  has  this  been  almost  as  universal  as  Christianity 
itself?  Because  that  it  alludes  to,  and  commemorates,  the  great  Tacts 
—the  burial  and  resurrection  of  Christ.  Jesus  died,  was  buried,  and 
rose  again.  So  we  die  unto  all  authority  and  hope,  save  that  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  the  Messiah,  and  consequently  unto  sin  in  this  act.  We, 
as  all  dead  persons  are,  are  then  buried  with  Christ  for  a  short  time;  he 
for  a  short  time  in  the  earth,  and  we  for  a  short  time  in  the  water.  We 
also  rise  with 'him;  he  rose  from  the  dead,  and  we  rise  from  our  death 
unto  gin;  to  walk,  and  live,  and  rejoice  in  a  new  life.  He  died  unto 
sin  once;  but  rose  released,  or  “justified  by  the  Spirit from  all  im¬ 
putation;  so  we  rise  released  from  sin,  pardoned,  justified,  believing  in 
him  as  “  having  been  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  raised  for  our  jus¬ 
tification.”  So  admirably  exact  is  this  commemorative  institution, 
which  is  now,  and  has  been  almost  incessantly  observed,  since  the  as¬ 
cension  of  Jesus  into  Heaven.  From  the  day  of  Pentecost  till  now, 
not  an  hour,  and  for  ages  past,  not  a  second  has  passed  without  the  repe¬ 
tition  of  this  commemorative  institution,  in  some  way  or  other.  Till 
the  council  of  Ravcnnah,  till  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  in  England, 
this  ordinance  was  significant  of  the  burial  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ.  For  every  time  that  we  see  a  person  buried  in  the  water  and 
raised  out  of  it,  by  the  power  of  another,  we  see  Jesus  emblematically 
buried  and  raised  again.  And  of  the  millions  who  profess  Christianity 


DEBATE. 


r 


every  one,  (with  the  exception  of  a  few  Quakers,  who  understand  not, 
the  use  nor  meaning  of  commemorative  institutions)  does  actively  or 
passively  submit  to  this  monumental  action,  and  publish,  without  ut¬ 
tering  a,  word,  to  every  spectator,  the  death,  burial,  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus. 

What  a  wonderfully  contrived  institution  this Which  by  positive 
acts ,  which  no  a  priori  principles,  nor  modes  of  reasoning  could  have 
suggested,  keeps  itself  forever  standing  before  the  eyes  of  men.  Christ 
crucified,  pierced,  wounded,  dead,  buried,  quickened  again,  ascending, 
exhibited  in  all  its  sacred  acts  of  worship. — fn  our  prayers,  we  speak 
to  Him,  in  our  praises  we  speak  of  Him,  in  our  positive  acts  of  Wor¬ 
ship,  commemorate  Him,  and  in  our  moral  actions,  imitate  liim. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  next  chapter  of  evidence  which  we  propo¬ 
sed,  viz. 

PROPHECY, 

Though  both  poetry  and  moral  lessons  extemporaneously  expressed, 
have  been  called  prophecy  in  an  enlarged  sense  of  the  term ;  yet,  in  its 
restricted  and 'most  appropriate  use  and  acceptation,  . the  term  denoted 
.  the  foretelling  of  things  future  and  unknown.  It  is,  therefore,  in  this 
sense,  the  word  is  used  in  the  following  argumen  t. 

The  foretelling  of  future  events  depends  upon  a  knowledge  of 
them ;  or  of  the  causes  and  connexions  of  things,  which,  from  establish¬ 
ed  principles,  necessarily  issue  in  certain  results.  All  men  are  posses¬ 
sed  of  a  certain  species  of  this  sort  of  knowledge.  They  have  a  data 
which  enables  them  not  only  to  conjecture,  but  even  to  foreknow  with 
certainty  what  shall  come  to  pass.  This  data  is  either  the  result  of 
experience,  of  reasoning  upon  well  established  principles,  or  upon  tes¬ 
timony.  We  know  that  all  the  living  shall  die;  that  the  trees  will  bud 
andbiossom  in  spring;  that  the  moon  will  change;  a  comet  appear;  or 
that  an  eclipse  of  the  sym  will  happen  on  a  certain  day.  Men  of  ex'v 
traordinary  sagacity  can  penetrate  into  futurity,  and  sometimes  guess, 
conjecture,  and  even  foretell,  upon  a  large  accumulation  of  probabili¬ 
ties,  certain  political  events.  But  still  the  limitations  and  utmost 
bounds  of  this  knowledge,  are  very  narrow ;  and  comparatively  few  are 
the  events  future  of  which  any  man  can  speak  with  certainty. 

But  although  we  admit  that  such  foreknowledge  is  possessed  by 
maily?  yet  the  foundation  on  which  it  rests,  is  not  what  the  sceptical 
philosophers  allow  it  to  be.  For  if  they  were  to  be  put  to  the  test, 
they  could  not  prove  any  topics  or  data  within  the  area  of  the  premises 
from  which  they  reason,  that  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow,  or  that  the  laws' 
of  nature  will  continue  to  operate  as  they  have  done  a  single  day.  Let 
them,  or  let  Mr.  Owen,  set  about  the  proof  of  such  a  position.  But 
that  knowledge  of  future  events  which  we  call  prophecy,  or  which  is 
necessary  to  the  foretelling  of  future  events,  is  possessed  by  no  mere 
man,  and  therefore  no  man,  unaided  by  some  supernatural  knowledge, 
can  foretell  any  future  event,  except  such  as  we  have  already  defined. 
For  example,  no  man  could  have  foretold,  300  years  ago— that  in  the 
island  of  Corsica,  from  a  particular  person  there  living,  would  arise  in 
Vol.  2.  6* 


DEBATE. 


v  \ 

Ou 

three  centimes,  a  man  of  extraordinary  military  prowess  and  political 
skill,  who,  by  a  succession  of  the  most  brilliant  exploits  and  victories, 
should  exile  an  old  dynasty  from  Fiance,  raise  himself  to  imperial  dig¬ 
nity,  affright  the  monarchs  of  Europe,  and  after  having  dazzled  the  world 
with  his  success,  should,  by  a  more  sudden  descent  and  overthrow,  die 
an  exile  in  a  remote  island  of  the  ocean.  No  man  could  have  told,  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  that  in  the  colony  of  Virginia,  from  an  old 
English  family,  there  would,  in  less  than  two  centuries,  arise  a  man 
who  should  be  the  firm  and  undaunted  asserter  of  his  country’s  rights 
—and  by  his  counsel  and  heroic  achievements,  after  a  seven  years’ 
struggle,  not  only  succeed  in  detaching  thirteen  colonies  from  the  des¬ 
potism  of  England,  but  in  establishing  a  new  world  of  republics,  sur¬ 
passing  in  the  march  of  intellect,  in  advances  towards  national  great¬ 
ness,  and  in  all  the  enjoyments  of  rational  liberty,  all  nations  upon 
the  earth.  No  mere  man  could  have  foretold  such  events.  Now  this 
is  precisely  the  species  of  prophecy  of  which  we  are  to  speak  in  this 
branch  of  the  argument.  Such  prophets  and  such  prophecies  do  the 
sacred  oracles  present.  But  before  we  open  the  sacred  volume,  it  is 
necessary  to  premise  still  farther. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  the  existence  of  counterfeits  and  hypo¬ 
crites.  is  a  very  stubborn  and  irrefragable  proof  that  there  is  something 
genuine  and  authentic.  No  man  is  wont  to  pretend  to  any  thing 
which  has  not  somewhere  a  real  existence.  At  least,  we  have  never 
-met  with  such  a  case.  All  pretences  prove  that  something  real  ex¬ 
ists.  Now  amongst  all  nations  there  have  been  false  prophets.  The 
Pagans  had  their  oracles,  their  auguries  and  their  divinations.  Mod¬ 
ern  idolaters  have  their  diviners  and  necromancers.  Jews  and  Chris- 
— tians  alone  possessed,  and  gave  the  original  of  this  idea.  They  alone 
afforded  the  realities  of  which  these  are  the  pretences. 

Great  were  the  ends,  and  most  important  were  the  uses  of  prophecy, 
in  *the  estimation  of  the  author  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  inter¬ 
woven  through  the  whole  web.  Scarce  a  leaf  is  turned  in  the  sacred 
volume  without  some  prophetic  annunciation.  For  giving  to  men  just 
views  of  God’s  omnisciency,  of  his  interest  in  the  human  family,  and 
of  his  government  or  Providence,  and  for  inspiring  them  with  the  spir¬ 
it  of  true  devotion,  the  prophecies  were  promulged. 

But  all  prophecies  have  one  single  end  in  view — Messiah  and  his 
kingdom.  Whether  individuals,  cities,  tribes-,  nations,  empires,  prox¬ 
imate  or  remote  ages,  are  the  burthen  of  the  particular  prophecies,  Je¬ 
sus,  the  Messiah,  is  the  spirit  and  object  of  them  all. 

Had  we  time,  and  the  audience  patience,  to  go  into  a  methodical 
detail  of  the  evidences  arising  from  prophecy,  we  should  have  taken  the 
following  course:  V  "V- 

1.  We  should  have  examined  the  direct,  literal  and  express  prophet¬ 
ic  annunciations  of  the  fates  of  the  great  empires  and  cities  of  anti¬ 
quity.  Amongst  these  the  fates  of  Egypt,  Tyre,  Nineveh,  Babylon 
and  Jerusalem,  would  have  merited  particular  attention. 

2.  The  symbolic  or  figurative  prospective  institutions  of  the  Jews’ 
religion... 


DEBATE, 


3.  The  allusive  and  picturesque  representations  of  double  reference 
first  to  persons  and  events  immediately  pressing  upon  the  attention  of 
the  speaker,  but  ultimately  adumbrating  and  applying  to  the  Messiah 
and  his  kingdom, 

4.  The  direct  literal  and  express  predictions  of  the  Messiah  and 
his  kingdom,  found  in  the  Jewish  scriptures — And 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  the  literal  and  symbolic  prophecies  of  the  New 
Testament,  reaching  down  to  our  own  times,  and  to  the  ultimate  fates 
of  all  the  nations  now  on  earth. 

Such  would  have  been  the  outlines,  were  we  to  go  into  a  general 
examination  of  this  almost  inexhaustible  source  of  evidence,  argu¬ 
ment  and  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  our  religion. 

Under  the  first  head,  we  should  have  read  the  predictions  of  the  fates 
of  Egypt;  particularly  the  29th  and  30th  chapters  of  the  prophecy  of 
Ezekiel,  delivered  589  years  before  the  birth  of  the  Messiah,  and  from 
•  the  History  of  Rollin  and  the  modem  history  of  Egypt,  shewn  that 
these  predictions,  literal  and  direct ,  have  been  fully  accomplished  ; 
that,  from  the  most  renowned  and  powerful  of  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world,  Egypt  has  become  the  “  basest  of  kingdoms  and  no  more  able 
''•'  to  rule  over  the  nations’’ according  to  the  express  declarations  of  the 
Jewish  prophets.  See  Rollin,  vol.  1.  page  213,  et  sequentes. 

We  should  then  have  laid  the  oracles  concerning  Tyre  before  you, 
as  uttered  by  Ezekiel,  chap.  28,  1 — 21.  This  great  city,  who  boasted 
in  her  strength,  wealth,  and  beauty,  and  scoffed  at  Jerusalem,  utterly 
perished,  according  to  the  oracle  delivered  588  years  before  Christ  — 
Rollin,  vol.  2,  pages  30-31. 

Next  we  should  have  called  your  attention  to  the  predictions  con¬ 
cerning  Nineveh,  as  expressed  by  Nahum,  chap.  2.  8,  &.  3-1-9.  by  Ze~ 
phaniah  2.  12 — 15. — In  these  predictions  it  was  distinctly  declared, 
that  the  Lord  would  make  Nineveh  a  desolation  and  dry  like  a  wilder¬ 
ness .  This  oracle  was  delivered  by  Nahum,  710  years  before  the  Mes¬ 
siah,  and  little  more  than  100  years  afterwards  it  was  literary  fulfilled. 
See  also  Rollin,  vol.  2.  43,  44. 

After  this  the  fates  of  Babylon  would  have  come  in  Review— con¬ 
cerning  this  city  we  should  have  read  Isaiah  13 — 1 — 22.  This  pre¬ 
diction  was  delivered  by  Isaiah  739  years  before  Christ,  and  about 
200  years  before  the  destruction  of  Babylon.  But  on  these  fates  of 
Babylon,  we  should  have  read  Isaiah  45-1.  Jeremiah  50,  1 — and  then 
Rollin’s  description  of  its  destruction,  vol.  2,  from  page  102  to  116— 
Philadelphia  Ed.  1825.  But  these  would  require  too  much  time.  Con¬ 
cerning  Jerusalem  we  may  yet  be  somewhat  particular. 

The  predictions  concerning  the  Jews,  are  so  very  minute,  literal 
and  graphical,  extending  through  the  greatest  lapse  of  time,  and  occu¬ 
pying  the  largest  number  of  prophets,  living  through  many  centuries, 
that  it  is  most  astonishing  that  any  rational  being  can  examine  these 
and  the  history  of  this  people,  and  doubt  the  inspiration  of  these 
prophets.  Even  Moses,  in  the  32d  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  gives  the 
whole  prospective  history,  reaching  down  to  times  yet  unborn.  We 
■may,  perhaps,  call  -yout  attention  to 'this  prophecy.  -But  at  .present 


DEBATE. 


Gfc 

we  shall  pass  on,  with  one  or  two  brief  notices,  to  other  ma  bds 
more  direct  bearing. 

Jeremiah  chap.  31,  32,  expressly  declares  that  the  national  consti¬ 
tution  under  which  they  then  stood  should  be  vacated,  and  a  new  one  of 
different  provisions  instituted.  But,  in  connexion  with  this  explicit 
promise  and  prediction,  the  Lord  declares,  that — Sooner  will  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  cease  to  exist,  than  Israel  cease  to  be  a  nation  or  peo-" 
pie  before  him — Jer.  31,  35,  36.  His  words  are,  “Thus  says  the 
Lord,  who  gives  the  sun  for  a  light  by  day,  and  the  ordinances  of  the 
moon,  and  stars,  for  a  light  by  night  ; — If  those  ordinances  depart  from 
my  presence,  says  the  Lord,  then  the  seed  of  Israel  shall  cease  from  be¬ 
ing  a  nation  before  me  for  ever.” — Thus  adds  the  Lord — “  If  heaven 
above  can  be  measured,  and  the  foundations  of  the  earth  can  be 
searched  out  beneath,  I  will  also  cast  off  all  the  seed  of  Israel,  for  all 
that  they  have  done,  says  the  Lord.” — This  prediction  is  now  nearly 
2500  years  old;  and  the  children  of  Israel  remain,  even  in  their  dis¬ 
persion,  a  separate  and  distinct  people.  They  have  not  amalgamated 
with  any  nation,  nor  can  they.  *'Tis  now  nearly  4000  years  since  God 
made  promises  to  Abraham  concerning  his  seed,  which  have  been  ac¬ 
complished  and  are  still  accomplishing.  They  continue  a  separate 
and  distinct  people ;  and  although  the  great  and  mighty  empires  of  the 
Assyrians,  Persians,  Macedonians,  and  Remans,  have  wasted  away, 
still  the  seed  of  Abraham  remains  a  people. 

That  the  Jewish  scriptures  which  contain  these  prophecies,  read  be- . 
fore  the  Christian  era  as  they  now  read,  is  susceptible  of  the  fullest 
proof.  The  version  made  by  order  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  was  com-  ■ 
pleted  nearly  300  years  before  the  birth  of  the  Messiah ;  and  thus  the 
Greeks  were  in  possession  of  these  oracles,  as  well  as  the  Jews.  The 
version  of  the  Seventy  Jews  was  read  in  all  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews, 
where  the  Greek  language  was  spoken;  they  Were  public  property  ages 
before  Jesus  Christ  was  born,  John  the  Baptist,  or  any  of  the  persons  re* 
corded  in  the  New  Testament  history.  No  person  could. have  any  mo¬ 
tive  to  interpolate  them  in  favor  of  these  persons.  They  wanted  mo¬ 
tive  "as  well  as  opportunity.  Admitting,  then,  that  these  oracles  read 
before  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  only  one  hundred  years  before  his 
birth,  as  they  read  now,  no  man  can  with  any  pretension  to  rationality, 
resist  the  claims  and  pretensions  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  he  is  as  ob¬ 
viously  the  scope,  drift,  and  termination  of  these  prophecies,  as  ever 
did  a  conclusion  flow  frorA  any  premises.  Now  that  these  oracles  were 
universally  read,  by  Jews  and  Greeks,  as  they  now  read,  ages  before  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  is  as  well  established  as  any  historic  fact  in  the  litera¬ 
ture  of  the  world.  It  was  then  read  and  known  centuries  before  the 
birth  of  the  Messiah,  that  God  had  said,  that  the  sun,  moon  and  stars 
would  cease  to  shine  in  the  heavens,  sooner  than  this  people  cease  to 
be  a  nation.  No  conquest,  nor  dispersion,  then,  ever  could  annihilate 
their  national  peculiarities.  They  yet  continue,  and  if  there  was  not 
another  prediction,  this  one  alone  is  sufficient  to  convince  them  that 
are  not  so  blind  as  not  to  see  the  force  of  reason,  nor  to  judge  of  the 
weight  gf  testimony,  beyond  all  rational  objection.  It  would  appear 


DEBATE 


69 


that  nothing  is  Wanting  to  gather  this  people  into  their  own  land,  but 
the  destruction  of  the  Ottoman  empire.  This  the  prophecies  seem  to 
indicate.  They  are  ever  prepared  to  return,  for  they  wiil  not  hold  any 
v  real  estate  in  any  country  in  the  world.  Their  expectation  is  to  re¬ 
turn;  and  who  can  say  that  the  evidence  in  favor  of  such  an  event  is 
at  all  doubtful,  or  the  event  itself  improbable?  “Blindness*’  says 
Paul,  “  has  happened  to  them  in  part,  till  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be 
fulfilled,”  then  all  Israel  shall  be  saved,  then  the  Jews  shall  be  con¬ 
solidated  and  become  the  light  of  the  whole  world.  And  so  all  Israel 
shall  yet  be  saved.  “  For  if  the  casting  of  them  away  has  been  the 
means  of  reconciling  the  nations  to  the  love  of  God,  what  shall  the 
restoration  of  Israel  to  the  favor  of  God  be,  but,  as  it  were,  life  from 
the  dead  1”  Then  shall  the  funeral  song  of  infidelity  be  sung.  The 
destruction  of  the  Mahometan  and  anti-christian  kingdoms,  and  the 
restoration  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  to  the  favor  of  God,  are  all  that  is 
necessary  to  the  introduction  of  the  Millennium.  And  that  these 
events  are  upon  the  eve  of  being  born,  no  man  acquainted  with  the 
present  history  of  the  world,  nor  with  the  Christian  prophecies,  can 
doubt. 

.  But  that  many  errors  have  been  committed  in  certain  interpretations 
of  these  oracles,  we  are  willing  to  confess.  But  what  sort  of  errors 
have  they  been?  Errors  arising  from  dates  rather  than  from  a  mis¬ 
take  of  the  symbols;  or  from  localities  rather  than  from  a  failure  to  un¬ 
derstand  the  general  drift  of, them.  Prophecy  is  more  like  a  blank 
map  than  a  full  history.  The  outlines  of  the  countries  and  their  re¬ 
lative  situation,  are  accurately  defined,  but  only  a  few  of  the  principal 
places  are  named.  It  requires  a  very  correct  and  minute  knowledge 
of  the  countries,  such  only  as  travellers  possess,  to  qualify  a  person  to 
affix  to  every  place  its  proper  name.  Now,  in  naming  the  places,  there 
may  many  mistakes  be  committed  by  them  who  know  and  understand 
the  outlines  well.  Such  a  knowledge  of  the  prophecies  all  intelligent 
Christians  may  acquire  who  study  them :  but  few  can,  with  perfect  pre¬ 
cision,  fix  all  the  dates  and  circumstances  belonging  to  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  many  of  these  predictions — we  must  always  consider 
prophecy  rather  in  the  light  of  a  general  chart  delineating  the  outlines 
of  a  country,  than  as  a  topographical  map  fixing  the  locality  of  small 
places. 

But  I  should  have  observed,  ere  now,  that  if  we  had  intended  a  min¬ 
ute  examination  of  all  the  grand  items  of  prophetic  importance,  we 
would  have  paid  some  attention  to  the  symbolic  representations  of  the 
'  .  Jewish  worship  and  history,  as  very  exactly  portraying  the  advent, 
mission,  and  work  of  the  Messiah.  This  is  a  singular  institution.  Tha^ 
a  people  should  be  nearly  1 500  years  attending  to  a  symbolic  worship, 
not  one  of  them  clearly  apprehending  the  import  of  it,  in  all  its  bearings ; 

>  and  that  these  symbols  should,  all  at  once,  burst  forth  upon  a  nation 
like  so  many  witnesses  rising  from  the  dead,  is  as  stupendous  a  display 
of  the  Divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  as  any  other  part  of  the  whole  econ¬ 
omy.  ‘  And  such  was  the  fact.  A  hundred  incidents,  never  before  un¬ 
derstood,  $1!  coincide  in  their  application  to  Jesus  and  his  kingdom^ 


DEBATE 


.sr 


ind  exactly  concur  in  illustrating  his  person,  mission,  life,  death,  res¬ 
urrection,  and  ascension,  as  so  many  commentators.  It  now  appeared 
that  not  only  the  prophecies,  but  the  law  itself,  was  full  of  the  Messiah 
and  a  witness  for  him  with  a  hundred  tongues.  But  all  the  evidenced 
arising  from  this  species  of  prophecy,  we  must  dispense  with  at  this  cri 
sis. 

In  like  manner*  all  those  symbolic  personages  and  typical  cccurren 
ces  which,  though  seeming  to  refer  exclusively  to  persons  and  events 
of  their  own  times  look  forward.  As  the  satirist,  full  of  his  object,  glan¬ 
ces  at  it  in  every  person  and  incident  he  names— so  these  prophets,  full 
of  the  spirit  respecting  the  Messiah,  glance  at  him  through  every 
person  and  event,  as  though  he  was  the  ultimate  object  continually  in 
their  eyes.  I  say,  that  this  double  entendre,  or  as  some  improperly 
call  them,  double  meanings,  apparent  in  many  persons  and  events,  must 
be  omitted  at  this  time — and  instead  of  dilating  upon  those  symbolic 
personages,  events,  and  institutions,  we  will  fix  our  attention  upon  one 
vein  of  the  prophetic  mine,  and  work  it  with  some  degree  of  industry. 
And  here,  perhaps,  we  have  raised  too  much  expectation ;  for  so  ample 
are  the  direct  and  most  explicit  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah  and 
his  kingdom,  that  to  set  these  in  order,  and  pay  a  slight  attention  to 
each,  w<nild  be  more  than  our  present  strength,  opportunity,  and  cir¬ 
cumstances,  might  permit.  But,  without  further  preamble,  wc  shall 
begin. 

A  brief  notice  of  the.  direct  literal  and  express  predictions  oT  the 
Messiah  and  his  kingdom,  found  in  the  Jewish  scriptures,  is  all  that  wc 
shall  now  promise. 

I  ought,  perhaps,  to  name  seven  of  his  most  illustrious  progenitor^, 
who  are  signalized  with  oracles  concerning  him;  all  discriminating 
him,  and  turning  the  eyes  of  an  expecting  world  towards  his  more  im¬ 
mediate  parentage,  according  to  the  flesh. 

Shem,  son  of  Noah,  stands  at  the  head  of  this  list — u  Blessed  be  the 
Lord  God  of  Shem  ”  66  God  shall  persuade  Japheth,  and  he  shall  dwell 
in  the  tents  of  them,  and  Canaan  shall  be  his  servant,”  But  soon  the 
posterity  of  Shem  branches  out  into  numerous  and  powerful  families, 
each  of  which  founds  an  ancient  nation.  Another  discrimination  be¬ 
comes  necessary.  Abraham  is  marked  out,  and  the  God  of  Shem  be¬ 
comes  the  God  of  Abraham.  In  the  seed  of  Abraham  the  blessing 
is  now  promised.  But  Abraham  has  a  son  by  Hagar — several  sons  by 
Kiturah,  and  one  by  Sarah’  which  of  these  shall  be  the  honored  prog¬ 
enitor  ?  u  In  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called ,”  directs  our  eyes  to  this 
branch  of  Abraham’s  descendants.  But  Isaac  has  two  sons,  Jacob  and 
Esau,  which  of  these?  u  The  elder  shall  serve  the  younger,”  gives  the 
superiority  to  Jacob.  Now  Jacohrhas  twelve  sons — and  which  of  these 
shall  have  the  honor  of  giving  a  Saviour  to  the  world?  66  The  sceptre 
shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  law-giver  from  amongst  his  descen¬ 
dants  till  shiloh  come,  and  to  him  shall  nations  come”  But  again, 
Judah  becomes  a  numerous  tribe,  and  still  we  desire  another  limita¬ 
tion.  David,  then,  the  son  of  Jesse,  becomes  the  King  of  Israel,  and 
David’s  son  is  to  become  David’s  Lord— but  David  sings  more  than 


DEBATE,  7! 

a  hundred  songs  concerning  him,  which  detail  his  history  as  if  written 
after  u  the  root  and  offspring  of  David ”  had  finished  all  the  wonders 
of  redemption. 

But  the  indices  that  point  our  way  to  the  Messiah,  do  not  stop  with 
David,  they  multiply  so  long  as  a  prophet  visits  Israel— hence  his 
mother  is  described  as  a  virgin  by  Isaiah— -a  virgin  of  the  family  of 
David. — Singular  prediction. —Behold  the  virgin  shall  conceive  and 
shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  his  name  shall  be  Immanuel.  The  sneers 
and  impious  scoffs  of  sceptics  at  the  nativity  of  Jesus,  had  they  noticed 
this  oracle,  would  have  been  prevented  or  confounded — let  it  then  be 
noticed,  that  700  years  before  this  child  was  born,  it  was  foretold  that 
his  mother  should  be  a  virgin. 

But  the  place  of  his  nativity,  is  also  clearly  and  expressly  named.  So 
clearly  and  unequivocally  was  the  place  of  Messiah’s  birth  ascertained  in 
the  Jewish  scriptures,  that  all  the  priests  and  scribes  in  Jerusalem 
could  tell  Herod  the  place,  without  a  difficulty.  “And  thou  Bethle¬ 
hem  art  not  the  least  among  the  cantons  of  Judah :  for  out  of  thee  shall 
come  a  Governor ,  that  shall  rule  my  people  Israel.” 

But  tiie  time  of  the  birth  and  appearance  of"  the  Messiah,  was 
most  exactly  pointed  out.  And  as  this  is  a  matter  of  great  moment,  I 
^shall  just  notice  the  various  descriptions  of  this  time,  found  in  the  Jew- 
fish  prophets.  It  was  defined  by  several  remarkable  characters — ffiSfe 
chief  are : 

1.  He  was  to  come  before  the  second  temple  decayed,  or  waste 
appear  in  the  second  temple. 

2.  He  was  to  come  before  Judah  ceased  to  furnish  a  governor. 

3.  He  was  to  come  while  the  Roman  emperors  were  in  their  glory.  ’ 

4.  And  he  was  to  come  at  the  end  of  a  definite  number  of  years, 
from  the  permission  given  to  rebuild  the  temple. 

Concerning  the  first  of  these  predictions,  we  have  to  remark  that 
when  the  second  temple  was  building,  the  old  men  who  had  seen  the 
first,  are  said  to  have  wept  when  they  saw  the  second  edifice  progres¬ 
sing,  because  it  was  so  inferior  to  that  which  Solomon  built;  but,  to 
console  them,  it  is  foretold  that  the  glory  of  the  latter  house  shall  great  i 
■ly  excel  that  of  the  former.  So  speaks  Haggai,  Chap/2.  7.  “  I  will 

^hake  all  nations,”  says  the  Lord,  “  and  the  desire  of  all  nations 
shall  come,  and  I  will  fill  this  house  with  glory.”  “  The  glory  of  this 
latter  house  shall  be  greater  than  that  of  the  former”  Arid  why?— 
Let  Malachi  declare— •*“  Behold  1  will  send  my  messenger,  and  he 
shall  prepare  the  way  before  me ;  and  the  Lord  whom  you  seek  will  sud 
daily  come  fours  temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the  covenant  whom 
you  delight  in :  behold,  he  shall  come,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.”  So 
that  it  is  clearly  and  expressly  stated  that  the  Lord  would  come  while 
the  second  temple  was  yet  standing— the  first  temple  was  destroyed  by 
Nebuchadnezzar  on  the  tenth  day  of  August,  583  years  before  Jesus  was 
born — and  so  the  second  was  built  about  500  years  before  the  birth  of 
the  Messiah, 

[Here  Mr.  C.  moved  to  adjourn  till  half  past  two  o’clock  P.  M.J 


72  '  DEBATE.  „ 

Saturday  Afternoon — April  18,  1829. 

" 

Mr.  Chairman — 

When  we  adjourned,  we  were  shewing  that  the  time  of  the  coining 
of  the  Messiah  was  marked  out  and  defined  by  a  variety  of  characters 
that  could  not  be  mistaken. 

The  sceptre  was  not  to  depart  from  Judah  till  Shiloh  came;  But  g- 
it  was  merely  lingering  in  that  tribe  for  some  years  before  the  birth  of 
the  Messiah,  for  the  land  of  J  udea  had  become  a  Roman  province,  but 
still  the  remains  of  the  ancient  regal  power  had  not  been  wrested  from 
the  hands  of  Judah.  But  so  feebly  did  he  grasp  the  sceptre,  that  it 
seemed  to  fail  at  the  crisis  when  the  harbinger  appeared. 

The  prophecy  of  Daniel,  more  circumstantially  describes  the  time 
in  the  wonderful  vision  which  he  explained  for  Nebuchadnezzar.  In 
this  vision,  there  was  a  prospective  view  of  the  history  of  the  world — 
from  the  time  of  the  Chaldean  or  Assy  rian  monarchy  down  to  the  end 
of  time.  That  this  vision  and  prophecy  might  sufficiently  attract  the 
attention,  and  interest  the  feelings  of  all  the  world,  it  was  vouchsafed 
to  an  Assyrian  king,  and  explained  by  a  Jewish  prophet.  The  Jews 
and  Gentiles  are  both  concerned  in  it.  Nebuchadnezzar  had  the  vision 
and  Daniel  interpreted  it.  Thus  Babylon  and  J  erusalem  attest  its 
truth.  In  this  vision,  and  the  interpretation  of  it,  the  four  great  pagan  ^ 
empires  are  most  accurately  defined.  The  golden  head  of  the  image 
which  the  King  saw,  was  avowed  by  Daifiel  to  be  the  Chaldean  Dyn¬ 
asty — the  silver  shoulder. %  was  the  Medo— Persian  dynasty — the  bra¬ 
zen  body,  the  Macedonian  empire— and  the  iron  legs  the  Roman  env  j 
pire.  These  were  the  only  foi&  empires  of  the  Pagan  world  which  at¬ 
tained  to  universal  dominion— -they  all  had  it  for  a  time — they  were 
all  pagan  empires,  and  exactly  delineated  in  this  image.  These  great 
empires  are  represented  in  the  interpretation,  as  the  only  empires  that  j 
should  have  universal  dominion.  The  Assyrian  began  2233  years  be-  j 
fore  the  birthof  Christ,  lasted  1400  years, and  ended  770  years  before 
Christ,  The  Persian  empire  began  538  years  before  Christ,  continued  i 
200  years,  and  fell  336  years  before  the  Christian  era — the  Macedoni- 1 
an  or  Grecian  only  continued  ten  years,  it  began  334  and  ended  324 
years  before  Christ.  The  Roman  began  31  years  before  Christ,  and 
after  continuing  500  years,  ended  A.  Domini  476.  .  ,  7 

Now  it  was  distinctly  said,  that  in  the  days  of  the  last  empire,  the 
God  of  Heaven,  would  set  up  a  kingdom  in  the  world,  which  should 
obtain  the  universal  empire  of  the  world,  and  that  it  would  break  and 
bruise  to  atoms  every  particle  of  the  Pagan  governments;  and  most  as  ¬ 
tonishing  of  all,  it  would  begin  without  human  aid,  or  it  would  resem¬ 
ble  a  stone  cut  out  of  a  mountain  without  hands,  which,  self-propelled, 
should  roll  on,  eiicrease,  smite  this  wonderful  image  of  Pagan  govern-  ^  j 
ment,  demolish  it,  and  fill  the  whole  earth.  Such  was  the  imagery  of  the 
vision.  And  was  not  the  Messiah  born  in  the  days  of  the  C<esars  whq  j 
first  formed  and  governed  the  iron  empire? 

Two  incidents  in  this  prophecy,  are  worthy  of  notice.  1st- 
The  time  fixed  for  the  commencement  of  this  new  kingdom  of  God  \a 


DEBATE. 


73 


the  world :  and  2d.  That  the  Roman  empire  once  subdued  there  should 
never  again  be  a  universal  empire  upon  the  earth  save  that  of  the 
crucified  King.  Now  we  do  know  what  efforts  have  been  made  to 
build  up  great  empires,  and  how  abortive  they  have  all  proved.  The 
most  successful  effort  ever  made  since  the  downfal  of  the  Romans, 
was  that  made  by  Napoleon.  In  the  year  1813  he  controlled  the  tem¬ 
poral  destinies  of  sixty -four  millions  of  human  beings;  but  what  was 
this  number  to  the  whole  population  of  Europe,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  other  three  quarters  of  the  globe1.  Nothing  like  a  universal 
empire  has  ever  been  established  since  the  division  of  the  Roman 
into  ten  comparatively  petty  sovereignties. 

But  Gabriel  informs  Daniel  more  definitely  of  the  date  of  Messiah’s 
birth,  and  of  the  commencement  of  the  last  great  empire.  He  says, 
“Seventy  weeks  are  determined  upon  thy  people,  and  upon  thy  holy 
city,  to  finish  the  transgression,  and  to  make  an  end  of  sin  offerings, 
and  to  make  reconciliation  for  iniquity,  and  to  bring  in  an  everlast¬ 
ing  righteousness,  and  to  seal  up  the  vision  and  prophecy,  and  to 
anoint  the  Most  Holy.  Know,  therefore,  and  understand  that  from 
the  going  forth  of  the  decree  to  restore  and  build  Jerusalem,  unto 
.the  Messiah  the  Prince,  shall  be  seven  weeks,  and  three  score  and  two 
weeks.  The  street  shall  be  built  again,  and  the  walls,  even  in  troublous 
times.  And  after  three  score  and  two  weeks  shall  Messiah  be  cut  off,  but 
not  for  himself;  and  the  people  of  the  Prince  that  shall  come  shall  destroy 
the  city  and  the  sanctuary,  and  the  end  thereof  shall  be  with  a  flood, 
and  unto  the  end  of  the  war  desolations  are  determined.  And  he 
shall  confirm  the  covenant  with  many,  for  a  week,  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  week  he  shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and  oblation  to  cease,  and 
for  the  overspreading  of  abominations  he  shall  make  it  desolate,  even 
until  the  consummation,  and  that  determined  shall  be  poured  upon 
the  desolate.”  When  I  have  made  another  extract  from  Daniel  we 
havfe  all  the  data  before  us.  Chapter  viii.  13.  The  question  there 
proposed  is,  “How  long  shall  be  the  vision  concerning  the  daily  sac¬ 
rifice  and  the  transgression  of  desolation,  to  give  both  the  sanctuary 
and  the  host  to  be  trodden  under  foot  ?”  “And  he  said  to  me,  Unto 
two  thousand  and  three  hundred  days  ;  then  shall  the  sanctuary  be 
cleansed.”  Now,  as  the  Lord  said  to  Ezekiel,  Hi  have  appointed 
one  day  for  a  year,”  and  as  we  find  in  symbolic  language  one  day 
stands  for  a  year,  we  are  at  no  loss  in  coming  to  the  following  con¬ 
clusions  :-r— 

From  the  time  of  the  going  forth  of  the  decree  to  rebuild  Jerusalem 
until  the  death  of  Messiah,  would  be  three  score  and  nine  and  a  half 
weeks;  that  is,  a  period  of  four  hundred  and  eighty-five  or  eighty-six 
years.  Seven  weeks  make  forty-nine  years — sixty -two  weeks  make 
four  hundred  and  thirty-four  years — and  in  the  middle  of  the  week  he 
was  to  establish  the  New  Institution ;  that  is  three  and  a  half  or  four 
years  more.  From  the  going  forth  of  the  decree  to  rebuild  Jerusalem 
to  the  baptism  of  Jesus  was  four  hundred  and  eighty-three  years— 
his  ministry  was  three  and  a  half  years,  or  the  middle  of  one  week ; 
,;then  he  was  cut  off.  And  in  half  a  week,  that  is,  three  and  a  half 
VtfL.  II.  7 


74 


DEBATE  * 


years  more  Christianity  was  sent  to  all  nations.  This  completes  the 
seventy  weeks,  or  four  hundred  and  ninety  years  of  Daniel.  Now, 
from  the  birth  of  Jesus  till  the  general  proclamation  of  the  gospel  was 
about  thirty-seven  years — which,  subtracted  from  four  hundred  and 
ninety,  makes  the  nativity  of  Jesus  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  years 
from  the  commencement  of  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem,  which  oc¬ 
cupied  seven  weeks,  that  is,  forty-nine  years.  Daniel  then  fixes  tho 
time  of  the  nativity;  the  commencement  of  the  kingdom,  or  confirm¬ 
ation  of  the  covenant  ;  and  the  ultimate  cleansing  of  the  sanctuary, 
or  purgation  of  the  Christian  church  from  antichristian  abominations. 
This  last  event  was  to  be  two  thousand  three  hundred  years  from  the 
aforesaid  date.  That  is,  from  the  birth  of  Jesus  about  eighteen  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty-seven  years.  But  all  that  lies  before  us  now  is  the  fact 
that  Daniel  gives  the  whole  time  intervening  from  the  rebuilding  of 
Jerusalem,  after  its  destruction  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  till  the  birth  of 
Jesus. 

Now  from  these  premises  it  is  clearly  established  that  the  Messiah 
should  be  born  while  the  second  temple  was  standing ;  before  the  scep¬ 
tre  and  a  lawgiver  finally  departed  from  Judah;  in  the  reign  of  the 
Homan  Cesars;  and  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  years  from  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem.  And  does  not  the  event 
exactly  correspond  with  the  predictions? 

But  so  clearly  was  the  event  predicted,  and  so  general  was  the 
knowledge  of  it,  through  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Jewish  scrip¬ 
tures,  then  read  through  the  Roman  empire,  that  the  expectation 
became  general,  that  at  this  time  some  wonderful  personage  was  to  be 
born,  who  would  put  the  world  under  a  new  government.  This 
singular  fact  show:s  that  the  prophecies  concerning  the  time  in 
which  the  Messiah  should  be  born  were  so  plain  in  the  estimation  of 
all  who  read  them,  as  to  preclude  all  doubt  as  to  the  time  of  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  the  Messiah,  But  some  w  ill  ask,  Where  is  the  proof  of 
the  fact  that  such  an  expectation  was  general?  I  answer,  The  his¬ 
tory.  apd  poetry  of  Rome  prove  it.  We  shall  summon  some  of  their 
historians  and  the  Mantuan  bard,  to  give  their  evidence  in  the  case  — 

Suetonius,  in  the  life  of  Vespasian — “Percrebuerat  oriente  toto 
vetus  et  constans  opinio,  esse  in  fatis,  ut  eo  tempore,  Judea  profecti 
rerum  potirentur  ”  An  ancient  and  constant  tradition  has  obtained 
throughout  all  the  East,  that  in  the  fates  it  was  decreed,  that,  about 
that  time,  ^some  who  should  come  from  Judea  would  obtain  the  do¬ 
minion  of  the  world.” 

Cornelius  Tacitus  speak's  to  the  same  effect  when  speaking  of  the 
prodigies  which  preceded  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  He  says, 
^Pluribus  persuasio  inerat,  antiquis  saCerdotum  literis  contineri, 
eo  ipso  tempore  fore,  ut  valescerct  oriens,  profectique  Judate  rerum 
potirentur.”  That  ^many  understood  them  as  forerunners  of  that 
extraordinary  person,  whom  the  ancient  books  of  the  priests  did 
foretell  should  come  about  that  time  from  Judea  and  obtain  th§  do¬ 
minion.” 


DEBATE. 


75 


From  the  Jewish  prophets,  the  Pagan  Sibyls  gave  out  their  oracles, 
so  that  the  expectation  was  universal.  The  same  year  that  Pompey 
took  Jerusalem  one  of  the  sybil  oracles  made  a  great  noise*  “that 
Nature  was  about  to  bring  forth  a  king  to  the  Romans.”  Suetonius 
says  this  so  terrified  the  Roman  senate  that  they  made  a  decree  that 
none  born  that  year  should  be  educated.  And  in  his  life  of  Augustus, 
he  says,  that  “those  whose  wives  were  pregnant  that  year  did  each 
conceive  great  hopes  applying  the  prophecy  to  themselves.”  “Senat- 
tum  exterritum  censuise,  ne  quis  illo  anno  genitus,  educaretur,  eos 
qui  gravidas  uxores  haberent,  quod  ad  se  quisque  spern  traheret 
curasse  ne  senatus  consultum  ad  yErarium  deferretur.” 

Appian,  Sallust,  Plutarch,  and  Cicero,  all  say  that  this  prophecy 
of  the  Sibyls  stirred  up  Cornelius  Lentulus  to  think  that  he  was  the 
man  who  should  be  king  of  the  Romans.  Some  applied  it  to  Cesar. 
Cicero  laughed  at  the  application,  and  affirmed  that  this  prophecy 
should  not  be  applied  to  any  one  born  in  Rome. 

Even  Virgil  the  Poet,  who  wrote  his  fourth  Eclogue  about  the  time 
of  Herod  the  Great,  compliments  the  Consul  Pollio  with  this  prophecy. 
Supposing  it  might  refer  to  his  son  Salomons  then  born.  Virgil  sub¬ 
stantially  quotes  and  versifies  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  and  applies 
them  to  this  child  Saloninus : — 

Ultima  Cumsel  venit  jam  car  minis  aelas: 

Magnus  ab  integro  sxclorum  nascitor  ordo. 

Jam  nova  progenies  coelo  demittitur  alto. 

Tu  modo  nascenti  puero,  quo  ferrea  primum 

Desinet,  ac  toto  surget  gens  aurea  mundo. 

The  last  age,  decreed  by  Fate,  is  come? 

And  a  new  frame  of  all  things  does  begin. 

A  holy  progeny  from  Heaven  descends. 

Auspicious  be  his  birth!  which  puts  an  end 
To  the  iron  age!  and  from  whence  shall  rise 
A  golden  state  far  glorious  through  the  earth! 

Then  the  poet  alludes  to  Isaiah  lxv.  17.  “The  wolf  and  the  lamb 
shall  feed  together,  and  the  Lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  o.x.  They 
shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain: — 

- Nec  magnos  metuent  armenta  leones: 

Occidet  et  serpens,  et  fallax  herba  veneni 

Occidet.  K 

Nor  shall  the  flocks  fierce  lions  fear, 

Nor  serpent  shall  be  there,  nor  herb  of  poisonous  juice. 

Then  the  expiation  of  Daniel  is  referred  to: 

Te  duce,  si  qua  manent  sceleris  vestigia  nostri, 

Irrita  perpetua  solvent  formidine  terras. 

By  thee  what  footsteps  of  our  sins  remain. 

Are  blotted  out,  and  the  whole  world  set  free 
From  her  perpetual  bondage  ai)4  her  fear. 


Tt>  DEBATE. 

The  very  words  of  Haggai  iast  quoted  are  by  the  po<5t  next  reier, 
red  to: — 

Aggredere,  o  magnOs  (aderit  jam  tempus)  honores, 

Chara  Deum  soboles,  magnum  Jovis  incrementum. 

Aspice  convexo  nutantem  pondere  rnundum, 

Terrasque,  tractusqe  maris,  ccclumque  profundum: 

Aspice,  veaturo  hetentur  ut  omnia  s«eclo. 

Enter  on  thy  honors!  Now’s  the  time 

Offspring  of  God!  O  thou  great  gift  of  Jove! 

Behold  the  world! — heaven,  earth,  and  seas  do  shake! 

Behold  how  all  rejoice  to  greet  that  glorious  day  l 

Virgil, as  if  he  were  skilled  in  the  Jewish  scriptures  goes  on  to  state 
that  these  glorious  times  should  not  immediately  succeed  the  birth  of 
that  wonderful  child: — 

Pauca  tamen  suberunt  prise ae  vestigia  fraudis; 

—  Erunt  etiam  altera  bella. 

Yet  some  remains  shall  still  be  left 

Of  ancient  fraud}  ami  wars  shall  still  go  on. 

Now  the  question  is  not,  Whether  Virgil  applied  this  partly  to 
Augustus,  Pollio,  or  Saloninus  then  born ;  but,  Whether  he  did  not 
apply  it  to  the  general  expectation  every  where  prevalent  that  a  won¬ 
derful  person  was  to  be  born,  and  a  new  age  to  commence? 

The  Jews  have  been  so  confounded  with  these  prophecies  and 
events,  that  such  of  them  as  did  not  believe,  have  degraded  Daniel 
from  the  rank  of  a  great  prophet,  to  one  of  the  inferior  prophets ; 
and  others  have  said  that  there  were  two  Messiahs  to  come — one  a 
suffering,  and  one  a  triumphant  Messiah.  But  the  excuses  of  man¬ 
kind  for  their  unbelief  are  so  frivolous  and  irrational,  that  they  de¬ 
serve  pity  rather  than  argument.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however, 
that  not  only  the  Gentiles,  the  proselytes  to  the  Jews*  religion,  the 
eastern  magi;  but  myriads  of  the  Jews  themselves  recognized  these 
evidences,  and  bowed  to  their  authority. 

But  not  only  are  the  time  and  place  of  the  birth  of  the  Messiah 
pointed  out  in  plain  and  direct  predictions,  but  many  of  the  prominent 
incidents  in  his  life.  I  once  attempted  to  enumerate  the  distinct  an4 
independent  predictions  concerning  the  Messiah  and  his  kingdom, 
but  after  progressing  beyond  a  hundred,  I  desisted  from  the  under¬ 
taking,  perceiving,  as  is  said  by  John,  that  the  testimony  concerning 
Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  I  will  just  mention  a  few  incidents  in 
the  prophetic  communications  concerning  him.  That  he  should  go 
down  into  Egypt,  and  be  called  back  to  Nazareth;  the  appearance, 
spirit,  and  mission  of  John  the  Harbinger;  the  slaughter  of  the 
infants  by  the  decree  of  Herod;  his  general  character,  meekness, 
mildness,  and  unostentatious  appearance.  “A  bruised  reed  ho 
was  not  to  break;  a  smoking  taper  he  was  not  to  quench;’*  he  was 
to  use  no  sword,  spear,  sceptre,  nor  torch,  until  he  made  his  laws 
victorious.  He  was  to  make  his  most  august  entry  into  Jerusalem, 


DEBATE, 


•  77 


mounted  upon  an  ass;  he  was  to  be  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  griefs ;  his  zeal  was  to  be  so  intense  as  to  consume  and  waste  his 
corporeal  vigor;  he  was  to  be  betrayed  bv  a  familiar  friend;  when 
delivered  up,  his  friends  were  to  forsake  him;  his  condemnation  was 
to  be  extorted  in  violation  of  law  and  precedent;  he  was  to  be  sold 
for  thirty  pieces  of  silver;  the  money  was  to  be  appropriated  to  the 
purchase  of  the  potter’s  field;  he  was  to  be  scourged,  smitten  on  the 
face,'  wounded  in  the  hands  and  feet,  laughed  to  scorn,  presented  with 
vinegar  and  gall;  to  be  patient  and  silent  under  all  these  indignities 
and  trials;  he  was  to  be  crucified  in  company  with  malefactors;  his 
garment  was  to  be  parted ;  and  for  his  vesture  they  were  to  cast  lots ; 
his  side  was  to  be  pierced,  and  yet  not  a  bone  was  to  be  broken,  and 
he  was  to  buried  in  the  grave  of  a  wealthy  nobleman.  All  these  and 
many  more  incidents  were  spokeii  of,  recorded,  and  anticipated  from 
five  hundred  to  a  thousand  years  before  he  was  born.  And  mark  it 
well,  the  records  which  thus  spoke  of  him  were  to  be  kept  by  the 
lews  and  held  sacred  by  the  opponents  of  Christianity.  So  that  the 
documents  could  not  be  interpolated.  So  precise  were  the  Jews  in 
the  copies  of  their  scriptures,  that  as  some  of  the  Rabbins  assert,  all 
the  words  and  even  letters  used  in  their  sacred  books  were  numbered. 

I  would  here  introduce  a  very  rational  argument,  of  the  nature  of 
mathematical  demonstration,  showing  the  utter  impossibility  of  su 
many  predicted  incidents  ever  meeting  in  any  individual  by  chance* 
guess,  or  conjecture ;  in  any  other  way,  in  brief,  than  in  consequence 
of  divine  prescience  or  arrangement,  ft  is  extracted  from  a  very 
valuable  work  published  by  Gulian  C.  Vcrnlanck,  Esq.  in  1824,  page 
11—13. 


“  Rosseau,  in  the  eloquent  and  paradoxical  confession  of  faith 
which  he  puts  in  the  mouth  of  his  Savoyard  Vicar  in  Emilius,  has 
said  that  no  fulfilment  of  prophecy  could  be  of  any  weight  with  him 
to  prove  a  divine  interposition,  unless  it  could  be  demonstrated  that 
the  agreement  between  the  prophecy  and  the  event  could  not  possibly 
have  been  fortuitous.  This  proof  is  more  than  any  fair  objector  has 
a  right  to  claim,  since  it  is  moral  probability  and  not  strict  demonstra¬ 
tion  which  we  must  act  upon  in  the  niost  momentous  concerns  of  life, 
and  as  reasonable  men  we  should  rest  on  the  same  evidences  in  mat¬ 
ters  of  faith.  In  both  the  wise  man  will  be  governed  by  common 
sense,  applied  to  the  investigation  of  rational  probability. 

“In  this  case,  however,  we  may  accept  the  challenge  of  the  scep  ¬ 
tic.  Where  the  points  of  fulfilment  of  prediction  are  numerous,  it 
may -be  literally  ‘demonstrated’  that  the  probability  of  such  accom¬ 
plishment  having  occurred  fortuitously  is  the  most  remote  possible. 

“This  argument  is  put  in  a  practical  and  striking  point  of  view  by 
Dr.  Gregory,  of  the  Military  Academy  at  Warwick,  well  knov>  i  for 
many  respectable  and  useful  works,  especially  on  mathematics  and 
scientific  mechanics. 


u  ‘Suppose,’ says  he,  ‘that  instead  of  the  spirit  of  prophecy  breath 
y  more  or  less  in  every  book  of  scripture,  predicting  events  relativ* 
to  a  great  variety  of  general  topics,  and  delivering  besid  es  almost  in 


mg 


th- 
o 


VOL.  II, 


7* 


78 


DEBATE. 


numerable  characteristics  of  the  Messiah,  all  meeting  in  the  person  of 
Jesus;  there  had  been  only  ten  men  in  ancient  times  who  pretended 
to  be  prophets,  each  of  whom  exhibited  only  five  independent  criteria 
as  to  place,  government,  concomitant  events,  doctrine  taught,  effects 
of  doctrine,  character,  sufferings,  or  death — the  meeting  of  all  which 
in  one  person  should  prove  the  reality  of  their  calling  as  prophets,  and 
of  his  mission  in  the  character  they  have  assigned  him.  Suppose, 
moreover,  that  all  events  were  left  to  chance  merely,  and  we  were  to 
compute,  from  the  principles  employed  by  mathematicians  in  the  in¬ 
vestigations  of  such  subjects,  the  probability  of  these  fifty  independent 
circumstances  happening  at  all.  Assume  that  there  is,  according  to 
the  technichal  phrase,  an  equal  chance  for  the  happening  or  the  failure 
of  any  one  of  these  specified  particulars ;  then  the  probability  against 
the  occurrence  of  all  the  particular^  in  liny  way  is  that  of  the  50th 
power  of  2  to  unity ;  that  is,  the  probability  is  greater  than  eleven  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty-jive  millions  of  millions  to  one  that  all  of  these  cir¬ 
cumstances  do  not  turn  up  even  at  distinct  periods.  This  com¬ 
putation,  however,  is  independent  of  the  consideration  of  time.  Let 
it  be  recollected  farther,  that  if  any  one  of  the  specified  circumstances 
happen,  it  may  be  the  day  after  the  delivery  of  the  prophecy,  or  at 
any  period  from  that  time  to  the  end  of  the  world;  this  will  so  indefi¬ 
nitely  augment  the  probability  against  the  cotemporaneous  occurrence 
ofmerely  these  fifty  circumstances,  that  it  surpasses  the  power  of  num¬ 
bers  to  express  correctly  the  immense  improbability  of  its  taking  place.’ 

“It  is  hardly  necessary  to  draw  the  inference,  which  Dr.  Gregory 
goes  on  to  establish,  that  all  probability,  and  even  possibility,  of  acci¬ 
dental  fulfilment,  as  well  as  of  fraud,  must  be  excluded.  The  sole 
reasonable  solution  of  the  question  is,  that  these  predictions  and  their 
fulfilments  can  only  be  ascribed  to  the  intention  of  a  being,  whose 
knowledge  can  foresee  future  events,  unconnected  with  each  other, 
depending  on  various  contingencies,  and  the  will  and  acts  of  free 
agents;  or  whose  power  is  so  omnipotent,  as  to  bend  to  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  his  own  purpose  the  passions  of  multitudes,  the  ambition 
of  princes,  the  studies  of  the  wise,  the  craft  of  the  wicked,  the  wars, 
the  revolutions,  and  the  varied  destinies  of  nations.” 

I  would  here  ask  any  rational  sceptic  how  he  will  dispose  of  this 
argument?  how  can  he  remove  this  stumbling-block  out  of  the  way 
of  his  infidelity?  bv  what  logic  can  he  dispose  of  this  document? 

I  will  now  introduce  the  sceptics  to  the  character  of  the  founder  of 
the  Christian  religion,  as  a  logician,  and  give  them  a  specimen  of  that 
ratiocination  which  he  exhibited  in  pleading  his  cause  with  those  who 
opposed  his  pretensions,  in  the  metropolis  of  the  Jewish  nation.  I 
will  first  read  the  passage  as  correctly  rendered  by  Dr.  George 
Campbell,  of  Aberdeen,  for  it  is  very  much  obscured  in  the  common 
version.  It  reads  thus,  John’s  Testimony,  chap.  v.  from  verse  31  to  44. 

“If  I  [alone]  testify  concerning  myself  my  testimony  is  not  to  be 
regarded;  there  is  another  who  testifies  concerning  me;  and  I  know 
mat  his  testimony  of  me  ought  to  be  regarded.  You  yourselves  sent 
ro  John,  and  he  bore  witness  to  the  trudi.  As  for  me,  I  need  no  human 


DEBATE. 


79 

testimony ;  I  only  urge  this  for  your  salvation.  He  was  the  lighted 
and  shining  lamp;  and  for  a  while  you  were  glad  to  enjoy  his  light. 

“But  I  have  greater  testimony  than  John’s ;  for  the  works  which  the 
Father  has  empowered  me  to  perform,  the  works  themselves  which 
I  do,  testify  for  me,  that  the  Father  has  sent  me. 

“Nay,  the  Father  who  sent  me,  has  himself  attested  me.  Did  you 
never  hear  his  voice ;  or  see  his  form?  Or  have  you  forgotten  his 
declaration,  that  you  believe  not  him  whom  he  has  commissioned? 

“You  search  the  scriptures,  because  you  think  to  obtain,  by  them, 
eternal  life.  Now  these  also  are  witnesses  for  me ;  yet  you  will  not 
come  unto  me  that  yoi>may  obtain  life.  I  desire  not  honor  from  men ; 
but  I  know  that  you  are  strangers  to  the  love  of  God.  I  am  come  in 
my  Father’s  name,  and  you  do  not  receive  me ;  if  another  come  in  his 
own  name,  you  will  receive  him.  How  can  you  believe,  while  you 
court  honor  one  from  another,  regardless  of  the  honor  which  comes 
from  God  alone?  Do  not  think  that  I  am  he  who  will  accuse  you  to 
the  Father.  Your  accuser  is  Moses,  in  whom  you  confide.  For  if 
you  believed  Moses,  you  would  believe  me,  for  he  wrote  concerning 
me.  But  if  you  believe  not  his  writings,  how  shall  you  believe  my 
words  ?” 

To  the  captious  Jews  he  thus  addresses  himself: 

1.  “If  I  alone  bear  testimony  of  myself  my  testimony  ought  not  to  be 
regarded .”  This  is  disclaiming  any  special  regard  as  due  him,  above 
others,  on  the  mere  ground  of  his  own  pretensions.  It  was  equiva¬ 
lent  to  saying:  No  person  pretending  to  honors  and  relations,  a  mis¬ 
sion  and  office,  such  as  I  pretend,  ought  to  be  accredited  and  received 
upon  his  mere  professions.  No  assertions,  abstract  from  other  docu¬ 
ments  in  such  a  case,  is  worthy  of  credit.  Is  not  this  reasonable? 

2.  But,  waving  my  own  testimony,  there  is  another  person  whose 
testimony  ought  to  be  regarded .  But  let  us  hear  the  reason  why — • 
some  reason  must  be  assigned,  on  account  of  which  more  credit  is  due 
to  this  testimony.  The  reason  is:  “ You  yourselves  sent  to  John” 
But  in  what  does  the  cogency  of  this  declaration  consist?  You  Jews 
of  this  city,  of  your  own  accord,  had  formed  such  a  high  character  of 
the  integrity,  capacity,  and  piety  of  John  the  Baptist,  as  to  depute 
priests  and  Levitesto  him  to  know  what  his  errand,  mission,  or  tess 
timony  was.  His  character  had  convinced  you  of  the  reality  of  his 
pretensions,  and  he  proved  himself  to  your  owrn  satisfaction,  as  being 
far  exalted  above  any  earth-born  motives  ©f  fraud  or  deceit.  He  was, 
yourselves  being  judges,  a  competent  and  credible  witness.  Now 
what  did  he  testify  ?  Did  he  not  tell  you  that  he  was  not  the  Messiah ; 
that  he  was  but  his  harbinger;  and  that  his  fame  must  decrease  while 
mine  must  increase;  that  he  was  from  below,  but  I  was  from  above? 
"Why  then  did  you  not  believe  such  a  credible  witness?  Or  why  re¬ 
ceive  one  part  of  his  testimony  and  reject  the  other?  I  think ,  then, 
said  he,  his  testimony  ought,  in  such  circumstances,  to  be  regarded. 
Is  not  this  also  reasonable  ? 

3.  But  he  proceeds :  “J  need  not  human  testimony.  I  only  urge  this 
for  your  salvation I  would  convict  you  upon  your  own  principles; 


so 


DEBATE. 


and  show  that  your  rejection  of  me  is  without  excuse.  John,  indeed, 
was  a  brilliant  iight;  and  for  a  time  you  considered-him  an  oracle 
'and  rejoiced  in  his  tight.  “  But  the  works  that  I  do”  are  superior  to 
any  human  testimony,  and  these  ushow  that  the  Father  has  sent  me.” 
To  these  I  appeal — they  are  public,  sensible,  notorious,  benevolent, 
supernatural.  Could  mortal  man  have  performed  them?  Have  not 
the  laws  of  nature  been  suspended  by  my  word  ?  Have  not  the  winds, 
waves,  demons,  and  diseases  of  every  name,  acknowledged  my  power? 
To -these  works,  only,  as  proof  of  my  mission,  l  appeal.  They  prove 
not  that  I  am  the  son  of  God,  the  Messiah.  They  only  prove  that 
the  Father  has  sent  me.  This  is  all  I  urge  them  for;  but  if  they  prove 
that  the  Father  has  sent  me,  then  all  my  pretensions  are  credible;  for 
the  Father  would  not  have  sent  a  liar  or  deceiver,  invested  with  such 
powers.  Now  I  ask,  Is  not  all  this  reasonable  and  logical? 

4.  But  again,  The  Father  has  himself  attested  me  by  his  own  voice; 
and  by  a  visible  appearance — “Did  you  not  hear  iiis  voice?  Did 
you  not  see  his  form  ?”  Were  not  some  of  you  on  the  Jordan  when  he 
attested  me  when  I  came  up  out  of  the  water?  Was  there  not  a  voice 
then  heard,  saying,  audibly,  uThis  is  my  beloved  son  in  whom  I  de¬ 
light  V  You  could  not  mistake  the  person  of  whom  this ‘was  spoken; 
for  over  my  head  the  heavens  opened  and  you  saw  the  Spirit  in  the 
form  of  a  dove,  coming  down  and  lighting  upon  my  head.  You  heard 
his  voice  then,  and  saw  his  manifestation.  But  you  have  forgotten 
this  declaration  concerning  me !  Is  not  this  rational  and  pointed  ? 

5.  Once  more — “ You  do  search  the  scriptures and  why  do  you 
search  them?  Because  you  thimi  them  to  contain  a  revelation  from 
God;  you  think  and  acknowledge  that  eternal  life  is  in  them.  This 
is  all  true;  and  in  doing  this,  you  act  rationally,  but  why  stop  here? 
Now  these  very  scriptures  testify  of  me.  To  them  I  make  my  appeal. 
They  all  speak  of  me;  and  now  show  me  the  oracle,  prophecy,  or 
symbol  in  them,  which  respected  him  that  was  to  come,  which  doe% 
not  suit  my  character  and  pretensions,  and  I  will  find  an  excuse  for 
you.  Now  I  ask,  Is  not  this  conclusive? 

If  this  be  not  argument  and  logic,  I  never  heard  any.  So  reasons 
the  Saviour.  This  grand  climax  of  reason  ends  in  the  prophecies  of 
the  Old  Testament.  But  it  is  not  yet  finished. 

(>.  But  adds  he,  You  will  not  come  to  me.  It  is  not  the  want  of' 
light  and  evidence.  You  are  now  unable  to  reply.  Yet  you  will  not 
come  to  me  that  you  might  obtain  that  eternal  life  promised  in  the 
scriptures.  I  know  you  well.  You  have  not  a  spark  of  the  love  of  God 
in  you.  Had  vou  loved  God  you  would  have  come  to  me.  Your 
hearts  are  full  of  the  honors  of  this  world— -these  you  seek  more  than 
the  honors  which  come  from  God  only;  yes,  this  is  the  secret.  It  is 
not  argument  nor  proof,  but  disposition  that  you  want.  You  pretend 
great  veneration  for  Moses.  But  you  do  not  really  venerate  him 
you  do  not  belieye  him,  for  he  wrote  of  me.  Now  if  you  do  not,  with 
all  vour  professed  veneration  for  Moses,  believe  him,  how  will  you,  or 
can  yon  believe  me?  If,  prejudiced  in  his  favor,  you  do  not  receive* 
lus  testimony,  how,  prejudiced  against  me,  y  ill  you  receive  minc1?^- 


DEBATE: 


81  ' 

But  I  tell  you,  however,  I  will  not  become  your  accuser.  Your  own 
Moses,  in  whom  you  trust,  will  one  day  convict  you ;  for  he  said  of 
me,  that  whosoever  would  not  hearken  to  me,  should  be  cut  off  from 
the  centre  nation  of  God. 

Such  is  a  specimen  of  the  topics  from  which,  and  of  the  manner 
how,  the  Saviour  argued  his  pretensions,  and  plead  his  cause  with  the 
people.  A  more  cogent  and  unanswerable  argument  is  not,  if  I  am 
any  judge,  to  be  found  among  all  the  fine  models  of  ancient  and  mod¬ 
em  literature.  And  let  it,  I  repeat,  be  borne  in  mind,  that  he  makes 
his  last  appeal  to  the  scriptures  and  to  Moses.  Prophecy,  then,  in 
his  judgment,  is  among  the  highest  species  of  evidence,  and  it  is  that 
which,  as  a  standing  miracle^he  has  made  to  speak  for  him  in  every 
age  and  to  all  people. 

But  I  must  notice,  while  on  this  topic,  that  Jesus  pronounced  pro 
phoeies  himself,  which,  to  that  generation,  and,  indeed,  to  subse¬ 
quent  generations,  speak  as  convincingly  as  Moses  spoke  to  the  Jews 
and  his  predictions  have  produced,  and  do  produce,  upon  the  minds 
of  a  vast  community,  similar  expectations  to  those  produced  among 
file  Jews. 

Hume  says  that  “prophecy  could  not  be  a  proof  that  the  person 
who  pretended  to  deliver  oracles,  spoke  by  inspiration ;  because  the 
prophet  is  absent  at  the  time  of  its  fulfilment;  he  is  dead,  and  it  could 
not  prove  to  bis  contemporaries  that  he  was  inspired.”  This  would 
be  true  in  one  case,  but  in  no  other;  when  the  prediction  had  respect 
to  events  at  a  distance;  but  this  is  only  sometimes  the  case:  for  most 
of  the  prophets  foretold  events  soon  to  appear,  as  well  as  events  to 
happen  after  long  intervals.  We  shall  find,  if  we  examine  the  New 
Testament,  that  Jesus  foretold  many  incidents  immediately  to  happen, 
which  required  as  perfect  an  insight  into  futurity  as  events  at  tho 
distance  of  a  thousand  years.  Ilis  telling  Peter,  that,  on  casting  a 
hook  and  line  into  the  sea,  he  should  draw  out  a  fish  with  a  stater  in 
its  mouth ;  or  his  telling  his  disciples,  that,  at  a  certain  place,  they 
should  find  an  ass  and  his  master  so  circumstanced,  and  that  such 
events  would  happen  on  their  application  for  him,  required  as  exact 
and  as  perfect  a  prescience  as  could  have,  four  thousand  years  ago, 
foretold  this  discussion  between  Mr.  Owen  and  me.  How  many  events 
of  immediate  occurrence  did  the  Saviour  foretel,  with  this  additional 
remark,  “'Phis  I  have  told  you  before  it  happen;  that  when  it  happens 
you  may  believe.”  Prophecy,  indeed,  seems  designed  to  confirm  faith 
as  the  events  occur,  as  well  as  to  produce  faith  by  contemplating 
those  which  have  been  fulfilled.  But  we  shall  find  that,  besides  the 
predictions  uttered  by  the  Saviour  concerning  his  own  demise,  and 
all  the  circumstances  attendant  upon  it,  he  foretold  one  event  of  such 
notoriety  and  importance  as  to  confirm  the  faith  of  one  generation, 
and  to  produce  faith  in  ai!  subsequent  generations.  This  1  specify  as 
one  of  great  interest  and  notoriety.  This  was  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  the  temple,  and  the  dispersion  of  the  nation  with  all  the 
tremendous  adjuncts  of  this  national  catastrophe. 

Upon  one  occasion,  when  the  sun  was  teaming  upon  the  beautiful 


DEBATE. 


S3 

gate  of  the  temple,  which  radiated  with  all  conceivable  splendor,  when 
that  edifice  stood  in  all  the  glistening  beauties  of  the  precious  metals, 
Costly  stones,  and  the  finest  specimens  of  architecture,  the  Saviour 
took  occasion  to  tell  its  fate,  and  that  of  the  people  who  frequented  it, 
in  such  language  as  precluded  the  possibility  of  mistake  in  the  inter¬ 
pretation.  No  prediction  was  more  minute  or  more  circumstantial 
than  this  one,  and  none  could  be  more  literal  or  direct.  Both  Matthew 
and  Luke  give  us  this  prediction;  the  former  in  the  24th,  and  the 
latter  in  the  21st  chapter  of  his  testimony.  The  complete  desolation 
of  the  temple  to  the  foundation,  to  the  removing  of  every  stone,  is 
foretold.  The  compassing  the  city  with  armies,  the  slaughter  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  the  captivity  of  those  who  escaped,  are  described. 
The  fortunes  of  his  disciples  at  this  time,  with  all  the  terrors  of  the 
siege,  and  all  the  tremendous  prodigies  in  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
accompanying  these  desolations,  are  named.  And  in  the  conclu¬ 
sion  the  audience  is  assured  that  all  these  things  should  happen 
before  fort)  years — “before  that  generation  should  pass  away.” 
— Now  this  prophecy  was  written,  published,  and  read  through 
.Tudea,  and  mentioned  in  the  apostolic  epistles  for  years  before  it 
happened;  and  a  general  expectation  of  this  event  pervaded  the 
whole  Christian  communities  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome,  and,  indeed, 
through  all  the  Roman  provinces.  The  allusions  to  these  predictions 
are  frequent  in  the  apostolic  writings.  It  was  necessary  they  should, 
for  this  reason:  the  Jews,  as  long  as  they  possessed  the  government 
of  Judea,  the  temple,  and  the  metropolis;  as  long  as  they  had  any 
particle  of  influence  at  home  or  abroad,  they  used  it  with  relentless 
cruelty  against  the  Christians.  The  apostles  had  to  succor  the  minds 
of  their  persecuted  brethren,  and  exhort  them  to  patience  and  per¬ 
severance  by  reminding  them  of  the  speedy  dispersion  of  them  among 
the  nations.  So  that  all  the  Christians  throughout  the  Roman  empire 
looked  for  this  catastrophe;  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  such  of  the 
Christians  as  were  in  Jerusalem  and  Judea,  about  the  time  of  the 
siege  of  Titus,  fled  according  to  the  directions  given  by  the  Saviour; 
and  thus  not  a  believing  Jew  perished  in  the  siege. 

We  lose  many  of  the  allusions  to  this  event  in  the  epistles  from  our 
irrational  modes  of  explanation,  and  neglect  of  the  history  of  those 
times.  Of  these  allusions  the  following  specimens  may  suffice:— To 
the  church  of  Rome  Paul  says,  “God  will  bruise  Satan ,  or  the  adver¬ 
sary,  under  your  feet  soon” — not  the  Devil,  as  some  ignorantly  sup¬ 
pose.  Adversary  in  English  is  Satan  in  Hebrew.  “Get  thee  behind 
me  Satan,”  is  a  terrible  translation  of  the  Saviour’s  address  to  Peter, 
The  synagogue  of  Satan  was  only  a  synagogue  of  unbelieving  Jews 
adverse  to  Christianity.  “Brethren  in  Rome,  God,”  says  Paul,  “will 
soon  put  down  the  adversary  of  your  religion,  he  Jews,  who  persecute 
you.  Yes,  their  power  to  oppose  you,  will  soon  be  past.”  This 
clearly  alludes  to  the  expectation  predicated  upon  the  prediction  be¬ 
fore  us. 

Paul  more  plainly  intimates  the  destruction  of  the  Jewish  power  in 
his  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  written  eighteen  years  before  the 


DEBATE. 


f 


83 


siege.  “Brethren  in  Thessalonica,  you  have  suffered  from  your  Gen¬ 
tile  brethren  such  persecution  as  the  congregations  in  Judea  have 
suffered  from  their  Jewish  brethren,  who  both  killed  the  Lord  Jesus 
and  their  own  prophets,  and  have  greatly  persecuted  us,  and  do  not 
please  God,  and  are  contrary  to  all  men ;  hindering  us  to  speak  to  the 
Gentiles  that  they  might  be  saved;  so  that  they  are  always  filling  up 
the  measure  of  their  iniquities.  But  the  wrath  of  god  is  •coming 
upon  them  at  length .” 

Indeed,  so  frequent  were  the  allusions  to  this  prophecy,  both  in 
the  public  discourses  and  writings  of  the  apostles,  that  their  enemies 
began  to  mock  them,  and  treat  them  as  if  they  had  been  imposing  upon 
the  credulity  of  their  cotemporaries.  Hence  such  allusions  as  these; 
“  Where  is  the  promise  of  liis  coming;  for,  from  the  times  the  fathers 
have  fallen  asleep,  all  things  continne  as  they  were  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  creation.”  Thus  was  Peter  upbraided  six  years  before 
the  siege.  The  old  apostle,  however,  is  not  discouraged,  being  assured 
that  he  would  make  good  his  promise.  “Yes,”  says  he,  “they  think 
that  we  have  too  long  talked  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  to  avenge  the 
iniquities  of  these  people.  They  think  that  we  mock  your  fears,  and 
they  say,  ‘The  Lord  long  delays  his  coming  to  execute  his  vengeance 
upon  this  stubborn  people.’  But,  my  brethren,  the  Lord  does  not 
delay  in  the  manner  some  account  delaying;  but  he  exercises  long 
suffering  towards  us,  that  all  might  be  brought  to  reformation.” 

In  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews,  written  about  six  or  seven  years  before 
the  siege,  Paul  speaks  to  the  persecuted  Jewish  brethren  in  the  same 
style:  “Yet  a  very  little  while,  and  he  that  is  coming  will  come,  and 
will  not  tarry.”  “Persevere,  then,  brethren,  in  doing  the  will  of  the 
Lord,  that  you  may  obtain  the  promised  reward.”  James,  too,  in  his 
letter  of  the  same  date,  addresses  both  the  believing  and  unbelieving 
Jews  on  the  impending  vengeance.  The  wealthy  and  infidel  Jew  lie 
commands  to  “weep  because  of  the  miseries  coming  upon  them;” 
and  the  suffering  Christians  he  animates  with  the  hope  that  “the  com¬ 
ing  of  the  Lord  is  nigh.”  Thus  do  all  the  apostles  speak  of  this 
event  with  the  same  certainty  as  if  it  had  actually  happened. 

I  need  not  detail  the  awful  accomplishment  of  this  prediction. 
Josephus  has  done  this  in  awful  colors.  Tacitus,  too,  relates  some  of 
the  circumstances.  Every  word  of  the  prediction  was  exactly  fulfill¬ 
ed,  even  to  the  ploughing  up  of  the  foundations  of  the  temple.  It  is 
remarkable  that,  on  the  tenth  day  of  August,  tfie  very  same  day  the 
temple  and  city  were  laid  waste  by  the  Babylonians,  the  temple  was 
burned  by  Titus’  army.* 

*1  have  read  somewhere,  that,  before  the  temple  was  burned,  Titus  entered 
the  temple,  got  out  some  of  the  sacred  utensils,  among  which  were  the  golden 
Candlestick  and  the  table  of  the  showbread  These  he  carried  as  trophies  home 
to  Rome;,  and  on  the  triumphal  arch  which  was  raised  for  him  in  the  city  of 
Rome,  this  candlestick  and  table  were  carved  upon  it.  This  triumphant  arch 
yet  stands;  and  even  yet  the  Jews  who  now  visit  Rome  will  not  pass  under  it. 
There  is  a  side-walk  and  a  gate  through  which  the  Jews  pass.  So  deeply  root¬ 
ed  is  the  remembrance  of  this  indignity  upon  their  religion  and  nation,  that: 
eighteen  centuries  have  not  obliterated  it! 


$4 


DEBATE, 


f 

I  shall  only  give  you  another  specimen  of  the  prophetic  spirit  of  the 
New  Testament  writers.  Paul,  in  his  letter  to  the  Thessalonians, 
intimates  that  some  persons  had  suggested  that  the  end  of  the  world 
was  at  hand.  To  counteract  such  an  idea,  which  seemed  to  have 
influenced  some  to  abandon  the  ordinary  besiness  of  this  life,  he  gives 
us  a  succinct  view  of  the  great  series  of  events  which  were  to  come 
to  pass  before  the  end  of  the  world.  He  describes  a  tremendous 
apostacy ,  in  2d  Thessalonians,  chap.  ii.  v.  1 — 10. 

“Now  we  beseech  you  brethren,  concerning  the  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  our  gathering  together  around  him;  that  you 
be  not  soon  shaken  from  your  purpose,  nor  troubled,  neither  by  spirit  nor 
by  word,  nor  by  letter  from  us,  intimating  that  the  day  of  Christ  is 
at  hand.  Let  no  man  deceive  you  by  any  method;  for  that  day  shall 
not  come,  unless  there  come  the  apostacy  first,  and  there  be  revealed 
that  man  of  sin,  that  son  of  perdition ;  who  opposes  and  exalts  him¬ 
self  above  every  one  who  is  called  a  god,  or  an  object  of  worship.  So 
that  he,  in  the  temple  of  God,  as  a  god  sitteth  openly  showing  him¬ 
self  that  he  is  a  god.  Do  you  not  remember,  that  when  I  was  with 
you,  I  told  you  these  things?  And  you  know  what  now  restrains 
him  in  order  to  his  being  revealed  in  his  own  season.  For  the  secret, 
of  iniquity  already  inwardly  works,  only  till  he  who  now  restrains  be 
taken  out  of  the  way.  And  then  shall  be  revealed  that  lawless  one; 
him  the  Lord  will  consume  by  the  breath  of  his  mouth,  and  will 
render  ineffectual,  by  the  brightness  of  his  coming;  of  whom  the 
coming  is  after  the  strong  working  of  Satan,  with  all  power  and  signs, 
and  miracles  of  falsehood.  And  with  all  the  deceit  of  unrighteous¬ 
ness,  among  them  who  perish,  because  they  embraced  not  the  love  of 
the  truth  that  they  might  be  saved.” 

On  this  obser  ve  that  the  apostle  declares  that,  in  the  great  drama  of 
human  existence,  the  end  of  the  world  could  not  come  until  after  the 
apostacy.  This  apostacy  he  describes  as  beginning  to  work  in  the 
first  age  of  Christianity,  but  that  it  could  not  succeed  in  attaining  its 
full  vio-or  until  Pagan  Rome  should  yield  to  Christian  Rome.  Until 
he  that  sat  upon  the  throne  and  supported  the  Pagan  superstition, 
should  be  supplanted  and  succeeded  by  a  Christian  emperor,  in  plain 
English.  Then,  says  he,  will  come  forth  that  lawless  one,  who  will 
usurp  the  honors  of  God  alone,  in  his  dominion  over  the  faith  and  the 
consciences  of  men.  I  will  be  interrogated  here  by  the  short-sighted 
sceptics,  how  it  came  to  pass  that  a  scheme  so  benevolent  as  the  Chris¬ 
tian  scheme,  if  designed  by  a  benevolent  and  wise  being,  could  so 
far  have  missed  its  aim?  How  strange  is  it,  say  they,  if  Christianity 
©riginated  in  divine  benevolence,  that  there  should  be  such  a  scene 
in  the  great  drama  as  this  long  night  of  apostacy  and  darkness!  And 
I  reply,  how  strange  is  it  that  this  terraqueous  globe,  created  by  a  wise 
and  benevolent  being,  should  be  three  fourths  covered  with  im¬ 
mense  oceans;  ard  of  the  remaining  one  fourth  so  large  a  portion  of 
mountains  and  fens,  deserts  asd  morasses.  One  part  of  it  parched 
with  an  arid  sky;  and  another  locked  up  in  relentless  ice!  Short 
sighted  mortal®  that  we  axe!  and  yet  we  will  scan  the  universe! — 


DEBATE, 


f 


8h 


Could  not  the  earth  have  been  a  thousand  times  more  fruitful !  nay  ; 
co  ild  it  not  have  been  a  thousand  times  more  comfortable  to  li.  e  in! 
Xvlipht  we  not  have  had  loaves  growing  upon  the  trees,  and  wine  in 
bottles  hanging  upon  the  vines,  and  thus  have  been  exempted  from  so 
much  labor,  and  toil,  and  care!!  In  this  way  we  might  object  to 
every  thing  in  the  universe. 

I  have,  for  years.,  contended  that  the  hand  writing  Gf  God  can  be 
proved.  And  can  we  not,  even  under  oath,  attest  the  hand  writing 
of  some  men?  Men  have  their  peculiarities  which  will  always  de¬ 
signate  them  from  the  whole  species.  No  two  men  write,  speak,  or  walk 
alike.  They  are  as  distinct  in  each  as  in  the  features  of  their  counten¬ 
ances,  and  the  constitution  of  their  minds.  Each  has  an  idiosyncrasy 
of  mind,  an  idiomatic  style,  as  well  as  a  peculiar  chirography. 

No  man  who  has  accurately  analyzed  the  few  general  principles 
which  govern  the  universe,  and  examined  the  poisons  and  sweets 
which  are  strewed  with  so  much  liberality  over  the  face  of  the  globe; 
who  has  explored  the  regularities  and  incongruities  which  appear 
above  and  beneath,  Can  doubt  that  the  mind  which  originated  the 
harmonies,  the  beauties,  the  sweets,  and  all  the  blessings  of  nature, 
originated  also  their  contraries — and  that  it  is  the  same  wisdom  and 
benevolence  working  in  the  natural  and  moral  empires  of  the  uni¬ 
verse.  They  both  exhibit  the  impress  of  the  same  hand; 

We  cannot  give  a  fair  view  of  the  next  item  on  the  genius  and 
spirit  of  Christianity,  unless  we  enlarge  a  little  more  upon  this.  We 
must  glance  at  the  design  of  the  Jewish  religion.  In  the  logical 
arrangement  of  all  subjects  much  depends  upon  taking  hold  of  a  few 
general  principles.  Generalizing  is  not  only  the  most  improving 
exercise  of  the  mind,  but  the  best  means  of  knowing  things  in  the 
detail.  This  is  that  power  which,  in  a  great  degree,  distinguishes 
the  vigorous  and  well  disciplined  mind,  from  that  of  inferior  calibre 
and  cultivation.  If  it  were  possible  to  present  a  general  synthetic 
view,  without  a  previous  analysis,  we  would  prefer  it:  for  the  only 
utility  of  analysis  is  to  put  us  in  possession  of  synthetic  views. 

There  is  an  error  into  which  we  are  all  apt  to  fall,  in  attempting  to 
scan  the  moral  government  of  the  world.  We  do  not  like  to  be  kept 
in  suspense.  Rather  than  remain  in  suspense  we  will  be  satisfied 
with  very  incorrect  or  partial  views  of  things.  There  is  nothing 
more  uncomfortable  than  a  state  of  suspense  upon  any  subject  which 
interests  us.  Our  views  are  alwa3"s  partial  at  best,  but  much  more 
so  when  we  have  not  put  ourselves  to  the  trouble  to  analyze,  with 
patience,  the  whole  data  presented. 

When  I  hear  persons  cavilling  at  the  present  state  of  things,  and 
obj acting  to  matters  which  they  do  not  understand,  I  figure  to  myself 
a  nerson  stationed  in  a  small  room,  say  ten  feet  square,  before  which 
is  passing  continually  a  map  ten  thousand  square  miles  in  extent;  ten 
fact  of  which  only,  at  a  time,  can  be  seen  through  an  opening  in  one 
«  de.  In  this  small  room  he  sits  and  peruses  this  map  for  seventy 
years.  For  many  weeks  at  a  time  he  sees  nothing  but  immense 
oceans  of  water;  then  apparently  boundless  forests;  then  prodigious 
yoE.  iif  8 


80 


DEBATE, 


chains  of  mountains;  then  deserts,  flats,  wastes,  and  wildernesses. 
Here  and  there  a  succession  of  beautiful  country  passes  before  his 
eyes.  After  contemplating  this  map  for  seventy  years,  he  exclaims, 
What  an  irrational,  ill  conducted,  and  incongruous  looking  thing  is 
this!  I  have  seen  forests,  deserts,  and  oceans,  interspersed  here 
and  there  with  some  small  specks  of  beautiful  country.  I  must  con¬ 
clude  that  the  Creator  of  this  planet  was  either  unwise  or  not  benevo¬ 
lent.  But,  suppose,  that  on  a  sudden  the  walls  of  his  cottage  fell 
down,  and  his  vision  was  enlarged  and  strengthened  so  as  to  compre¬ 
hend,  in  one  glance,  the  whole  sweep  of  ten  thousand  square  miles; 
what  a  wonderful  revolution  would  he  undergo!  Infinite  wisdom  and 
design  now  appear,  where  before  he  saw  nothing  but  confusion  and 
deformity.  So  it  is  with  him  who  sits  judging  on  the  moral  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  world. 

We  have  but  a  small  part  of  the  picture  before  us.  Paul  explains 
the  whole  of  it.  He  teaches  us  that  this  world  is,  in  the  moral  empire, 
what  it  is  in  the  natural — a  part  of  a  great  whoje.  When  speaking  of 
all  the  irregularities  in  human  lot,  and  all  the  diversities  in  the  divine 
government  in  the  different  ages  of  the  world,  Patriarchal,  Jewish, 
and  Christian,  he  teaches  us  that  the  whole  of  this  arrangement  is 
subordinate  to  another  state  of  things,  having  relation  to  the  whole 
rational  universe.  All  this  is  done,  said  he,  that  now  unto  the 
thrones,  principalities,  and  powers,  in  the  heavenly  regions,  might 
be  exhibited,  by  the  Christian  scheme,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God. 
There  are  various  grades  of  intelligent  beings,  who,  in  their  differ- 
eapacities,  and  according  to  their  different  situations  and  relations, 
are  contemplating  this  scene  of  things;  and  from  these  volumes  of 
human  nature  the  divine  character  is  continually  developing  itself  to 
their  view. 

Yes,  my  friends,  your  various  lots,  capacities,  and  opportunities; 
and  your  respective  behaviour  under  these  varieties,  with  the  divine 
economy  over  you,  are  furnishing  new  essays  to  be  read  in  other 
worlds.  You  are  all  but  different  letters;  some  capital,  some  small 
letters,  some  mere  abbreviations,  commas,  semicolons,  colons,  peri¬ 
ods,  notes  of  admiration,  notes  of  interrogation,  and  dashes;  all 
making  sense  when  wisely  combined — But  when  jumbled  together, 
or  separated,  you  are  unintelligible  and  uninstructive  to  yourselves 
and  all  other  intelligent  beings.  Angels  read  men,  and  by  and  by 
men  will  read  angels,  to  learn  the  Deity,  In  the  rational  delights  and 
entertainments  of  heaven  you  and  they  will  read  each  other.  Gabriel 
will  tell  you  what  were  his  emotions  when  first  he  saw  the  sun  open 
his  eyes  and  smile  upon  the  new  born  earth ;  what  he  thought  when 
he  shut  up  Noah  in  the  ark  and  opened  the  windows  of  heaven  and 
the  fountains  of  the  deep.  Yes,  Raphael  will  tell  you  with  what 
astonishment  he  saw  Eve  put  forth  her  hand  to  the  tree  of  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil.  Gabriel  will  relate  his  joy  when  he  saw  the  rain¬ 
bow  of  peace  span  the  vault  of  heaven  in  token  of  no  more  deluge. 
He  will  give  you  to  know  what  were  his  emotions  when  sent  to  salute 
the  mother  of  our  Lord;  and  all  the  multitude  will  rehearse  the  song 


DEBAT& 


$7 

they  sung  the  night  they  visited  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem.  In 
turn  you  will  tell  them  your  first  thoughts  of  God  and  his  love;  your 
own  feelings  as  sinners;  the  agonies  of  sorrow  and  grief  which  once 
you  felt;  and  how  you  met  the  king  of  terrors.  Then  will  all  the 
shades  in  the  picture  appear  to  proper  advantage,  and  the  seraphim 
and  cherubim  with  their  wings  no  more  will  hide  their  faces  from  man. 
All  happiness,  rational,  human,  or  angelic  happiness,  springs  from 
the  knowledge  of  God.  As  it  is  now  eternal  life,  so  it  will  then  be 
eternal  happiness  to  know  thee  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  the  Mes* 
siah,  thy  Apostle. 

A  veil  is  yet  on  the  face  of  Moses,  and,  indeed,  on  the  face  of 
many  of  the  conspicuous  characters  of  antiquity,  in  the  views  of 
many  of  our  sectarian  dogmatists.  Some  think  that  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  were  called,  chosen,  and  elected,  for  their  own  sakes. 
They  seem  not  yet  to  have  learned  this  important  lesson,  that  there 
never  has  as  yet  been  one  human  being  selected  by  the  Almighty  for 
his  own  sake.  If  it  were  necessary  that  the  Messiah  should  enter 
our  world,  it  was  necessary  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Moses, 
Aaron,  David,  Daniel,  and  a  thousand  others,  should  have  been 
selected  from  the  family  of  man,  and  discriminated  by  the  Great 
king  as  they  were.  On  this  one  principle  the  religions  of  the  Jews 
and  Christians  are  altogether  reconcileable.  They  mutually  explain 
each  other.  They  are  but  the  portico  and  holy  place,  leading  to  the 
holiest  of  all. 

The  calling  and  congregating  of  the  Jews  were  for  the  same  intent, 
and  as  relative  to  the  general  good  of  all  nations  as  was  the  calling  of 
Abraham,  or  the  first  promise  of  a  Redeemer  to  the  human  race. 
They  must  be  put  under  a  special  arrangement  for  developing  the 
divine  character  and  government,  and  for  giving  us  a  few  lessons  upon 
human  nature  which  never  could  have  been  taught  by  any  other 
means. 

What  does  the  Lord  say  concerning  Pharaoh?  “I  have  raised  thee 
up  for  this  purpose  that  in  your  history  and  my  government  over  you, 
my  nctme  might  be  known  through  all  the  earth.”  The  localities  and 
symbols  of  the  Jewish  religion  made  it  entirely  subordinate  to  the 
Christian;  but  the  genius  and  spirit  of  the  latter  is  universal,  or  adapt¬ 
ed  to  the  whole  human  family  irrespective  of  all  localities.  But  this 
only  by  the  way.  My  remarks  upon  the  apostacy  gave  rise  to  this 
disquisition,  or  rather  an  objection  which  we  saw  rising  in  the  faces 
ot  some,  constrained  me  to  take  this  course,  and  to  attempt  to  give 
some  general  hints  which  I  trust  may  repress  that  restive  spirit  of 
scepticism,  which,  like  the  demoniac  among  the  tombs,  is  cutting 
*tself  to  pieces  when  pretending  to  forsake  the  haunts  of  the  living 
for  its  own  safety. 

In  one  sentence,  it  appears  to  be  a  law  of  human  nature  that  man 
can  only  be  developed  and  brought  into  proper  circumstances  to  please 
friniself,  by  what  we  call  experience.  You  may  not  be  able  to  account 
lor  it,  hut  so  it  is,  that  man  must  be  taught  by  experience.  I  think 
we  will  all  agree  in  this,  that  if  Adam  and  Eve  could  have  had,  while 


ss 


DEBATE. 


in  Eden,  the  experience  which  they  obtained  after  their  exile,  and 
which  the  world  now  presents,  they  never  conld  have  been  induced  to 
taste  the  forbidden  tree.  Every  revolution  of  the  earth,  and  all  the 
incidents  recorded  in  human  history,  are  but  so  many  preparations 
for  the  introduction  of  that  last  and  most  perfect  state  of  society  on 
earth  called  the  Millennium.  First  we  have  the  germ,  then  the  blade, 
then  the  stem,  then  the  leaves,  then  the  blossoms,  and  last  of  all  the 
fruit.  Therefore,  as  Paul  said,  the  apostacy  came  first. 

The  mystery  of  iniquity  early  began  to  work.  She  made  mysteries 
of  plain  facts,  that  she  might  work  out  her  own  delusions.  She  it  was 
that  loved  mysteries,  that  paralysed  the  energies  of  the  Christian  spir¬ 
it,  and  inundated  the  world  with  all  the  superstitions,  fables,  coun¬ 
terfeit  gospels,  and  all  the  follies  of  Paganism  in  a  new  garb.  These 
found  many  admirers  among  the  doating  philosophists  of  Asia;  and 
thus,  by  degrees,  the  lights  of  heaven  were  extinguished,  or  put  under 
the  bushel  of  these  abominable,  delusive  mysteries,  until  a  long, 
dark,  and  dreary  night  of  superstition  besotted  the  world.  These 
dark  ages  have  sent  them  down  to  our  times,  and  bequeathed  a  legacy 
which  has  impoverished  rather  than  enriched  the  legatees.  That 
man  does  not  breathe  whose  mind  is  purified  from  all  the  influences 
of  the  night  of  superstition,  which  has  so  long  obscured  the  light  of 
she  Sun  of  Righteousness. 

Great  and  noble  efforts  have  been  made ;  but  they  ended  in  specu¬ 
lations;  and  sects  and  parties,  built  upon  metaphysical  hair-splittings, 
have  long  been  the  order  of  the  day.  These  speculations  are  turning 
grey  with  age;  and  a  religion  pure  and  social,  springing  from  the 
meaning  of  gospel  facts,  will  sjon  triumph  on  all  the  speculations  of 
the  day. 

All  the  Bible  critics,  and  even  the  commentators  themselves,  agree? 
shat  Babylon  must  soon  fall,  like  a  mill-stone  into  the  sea,  never  to 
emerge;  and  that  her  catastrophe  will  be'succeeded  by  the  millennial 
order  of  society.  She  shall  be  visited  with  the  calamities  of  Egypt, 
Sodom,  and  Jerusalem  combined;  for  she  has  combined  within  her 
dominions  the  enormities  of  the  three :  The  filthiness  of  Sodom;  the 
tyranny  of  Egypt,  and  the  persecuting  spirit  of(Jerusalem. 

Had  not  this  defection  been  clearly  arraigned  before  me,  and  pre¬ 
dicted  by  the  Apostle  Paul  himself — had  he  not  told  us  that  under  the 
form  of  godliness,  all  the  vices  of  the  world  would  be  arraigned — that 
•^self-lovers,  money-lovers,  proud,  defamers,  disobedient  to  parents, 
ungrateful,  unholy,  without  natural  affection,  covenant  or  bargain 
breakers,  slanderers,  incontinent,  fierce  persons,  without  any  love  to 
good  men,  betrayers,  headstrong,  puffed  up,  lovers  of  pleasure  more 
than  lovers  of  God ;  having  a  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  pow- 
er  it.”  I  say,  bad  he  not  taught  us  to  expect  such  characters  to  creep 
into  the  church,  I  would  have  been  prepared  to  join  with  Mr.  Owen 
in  opposing  the  religions  of  the  world.  But  when  I  began  to  reason,  1 
was  taught  to  distinguish  a  thing  from  the  abuse  of  it:  and  never  to 
condemn  any  thing  until  I  was  fully  acquainted  with  it.  I  see  that 
the  apostacy  which  yet  exists,  is  as  clearly  foretold  as  was  the  birth 


DEBATE.  69 

of  Christ  f  and  why  should  the  accomplishment  of  one  prediction  con¬ 
firm  my  faith,  and  the  accomplishment  of  afiother  weaken  it! 

But  this  defection  is  not  only  foretold  literally,  but  symbolized  by 
John  in  the  Apocalypse ,  under  such  combinations,  and  under  such  fig  ¬ 
ures  as  are  well  calculated  to  inspire  us  with  a  horrible  idea  of  it.  Do 
not  be  alarmed,  my  friends,  at  my  naming  the  Apocalypse.  This 
book  is  not  so  unintelligible  as  you  havp  been  taught  to  think.  But  1 
am  not  going  into  an  analysis  of  it.  I  will  only  trace  one  idea  which 
runs  thiough  it;  and  then  I  will  be  done  with  the  apostacy. 

John,  you  remember,  lived  to  be  an  old  man — he  survived  the  de¬ 
struction  of  Jerusalem  about  thirty  years.  He  saw  antichrists  begin¬ 
ning  to  show  their  faces,  and  was  alarmed  at  the  sight.  He  was  ex¬ 
iled  to  Patmos  for  the  testimony  he  gave  of  Jesus;  and  while  there, 
viewing  with  anguish,  the  apostacy  beginning,  it  pleased  the  Lord, 
who  had,  while  on  the  earth,  honored  this  disciple  with  so  many  tc 
kens  of  his  love,  to  confer  upon  him  another  signal  pledge.  He 
cheered  the  heart  of  the  old  apostle  by  promising  him  a  view  of  the 
future  fortunes  of  the  church.  After  inditing  seven  letters  to  the  sev¬ 
en  congregations  in  Asia,  he  presents  him  with  this  astonishing  vis¬ 
ion:  A  window,  as  it  were,  is  opened  in  heaven,  and  a  scroll,  in  the 
hand-writing  of  an  angel,  arrests  his  attention.  This  parchment 
written  within  and  without,  and  sealed  with  seven  seals,  is  raised  aloft 
in  the  hand  of  an  angel ;  and  a  challenge  is  given  to  all  the  inhabit¬ 
ants  of  heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  to  take  and  open  the  book.  All  was 
silent — John  wept. — -Why  did  he  weep  ?  Because  be  knew  the  future 
fortunes  of  the  church  were  written  there,  sealed  up  from  all  the  liv  ¬ 
ing,  and  no  one  appeared  able  to  open  the  seals  and  disclose  the  se¬ 
crets.  These  he  wished  to  know  above  every  thing  in  the  world — 
therefore  he  wept  bitterly. 

At  length  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of.  Judah  comes  forward  and  takes 
the  scroll,  and  prepares  to  open  the  seals — Universal  joy  is  every 
where  diffused,  and  John  dries  up  his  tears.  The  first  seal  is  broken,, 
and  the  scroll  once  unrolled :  “Com e  and  sec”  a  mighty  angel  pro¬ 
claims.  John  heard;  looked,  and  beheld  ua  white  horse  and  on  him 
sat  a  king,  wearing  one  crown,  with  a  bow  and  a  quiver  full  of  ar¬ 
rows.”  He  rides  off.  Instructive  emblem  of  the  Lord  beginning  to 
subdue  the  nations  to  the  obedience  of  faith.  I  will  not  detain  you 
with  a  notice  of  all  the  seals.  They  are  all  opened — seven  trumpets 
are  blown  when  the  seventh  seal  is  opened,  and  seven  vials  are  poured 
out  in  judgments  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth .  The  intermediate, 
.seals,  trumpets,  and  vials,  symbolize  the  events  of  one  thousand  two 
hundred  and  forty  years;  or  more  fully  all  the  events  since  the  Pa¬ 
gan  persecutions,  down  to  our  own  times. 

But  at  the  close  of  the  different  acts  of  this  great  drama ,  John  sees 
the  same  person  he  formerly  saw,  mounted  on  a  white  horse3 
followed  by  ail  the  armies  of  heaven,  mounted  on  white  horses;  he 
had  now  upon  his  head  many  crowns ,  and  he  was  clothed  with  a  ves 
iure  dyed  with  blood ,  emblem  of  bis  conquests;  and  he  had  now,  from 
the  number  of  his  conquests,  obtained  all  the  crowns  of  the  kingdoms 
VOL.  I!.  8* 


DEBATE. 


'cU 

of  the  earth,  and  had  a  name  written  which  no  one  understood  but 
himself,  and  upon  his  vesture  and  on  his  thigh  was  written  in  brilliant 
capitals,  “KING  OF  KINGS  AND  LORD  OF  LORDS.”  So  that 
the  termination  of  the  vision  of  the  seals,  trumpets,  and  vials,  places 
the  Lord  Jesus  before  us,  as  having  subdued  all  the  nations  of  the 
world  to  the  obedience  of  faith.  This  is  the  animating  view  which 
the  Lord  gave  John,  and  through  him  has  communicated  to  all  nations 
of  the  earth,  who  consult  these  divine  oracles.  We  rejoice  to  know 
that  this  period  is  nigh  at  hand,  when  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
shall  cover  the  whole  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  channel  of  the  sea . 

The  world,  I  mean,  the  Christian  communities,  are  tired  of  sectarian¬ 
ism;  light  is  rapidly  progressing;  the  true  nature  of  the  Christian  in¬ 
stitution  is  beginning  to  he  understood,  and  all  the  signs  of  the  times 
indicate  the  approach,  the  near  approach,  of  this  happy  era. 

^ouhave,  my  friends,  in  the  preceding  hints,  a  solution  of  all  the 
difficulties  which  can  be  proposed  upon  the  past  or  present  order  of 
society; — an  explanation  of  all  the  dark  specks  which  appear  upon 
the  moral  map  of  the  world.  My  object  was  not  to  unfold  the  prophe¬ 
cies,  but  to  give  you  a  few  hints  upon  the  grand  outlines,  and  to  afford 
sufficient  data  evincive  that  the  authors  or  writers  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  were  most  certainly  under  the  guidance  of  that  omniscient  one 
to  whom  the  end  of  all  things  is  as  open  and  manifest  as  the  beginning. 
To  suppose  that  all  these  predictions  found  in  both  Testaments,  first, 
••oncerning  the  fates  of  the  mighty  empires  of  the  Pagan  world;  next, 
concerning  the  character,  coming,  and  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ; 
’hen,  concerning  the  fates  of  his  religion,  and  the  fortunes  of  all  the 
superstitions  in  the  world ;  I  say,  to  suppose  that  all  these  pre¬ 
dictions  are  mere  guesses, or  conjectures;  or  that  they  were  written 
after  the  events  transpired,  or  never  written  at  all,  by  the  persons 
whose  names  they  bear,  are  suppositions,  assertions,  or  what  you  please 
to  call  them,  at  war  with  all  the  literature  of  the  world,  with  universal 
experience,  with  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  and  with  the  events 
which  are  now  transpiring  in  the  world.  Such  a  supposition  no  ra¬ 
tional  mind  can  entertain  ;  and  we  may  say  further,  that  neither  Mr. 
Owen,  nor  any  other  person,  will  venture  to  examine  or  attempt  to 
refute  the  argument  derived  from  this  source.  It  stands  now,  as  it 
stood  two  thousand  years  ago,  a  document  which  defied  criticism, 
which,  with  but  half  the  light  which  New  Testament  prophecy  has 
accumulated,  convinced  every  man  who  had  the  patience  and  the 
honesty  to  examine  it;  and  which,  by  the  gradual  and  constant  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  unfulfilled  predictions,  is  designed  one  day  to  prostrate 
all  the  infidelity  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

We  promised  you  some  remarks  upon  the  genius  and  tendency  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  also  some  strictures  upon  the  Social 
System.  These  will  require  another  day.  Indeed,  my  respected 
auditors,  I  have  much  reason  to  admire  your  patience  and  the  deep 
.interest  you  have  taken  in  this  discussion.  It  proves  that  you  are 
alive  to  the  great  importance  of  the  subject.  The  good  order  and 
decorum  which  have  feen  exhibited  by  this  assembly,  on  this  ecca> 


DEBATE, 


91 


>ion,  have  never  been  surpassed,  I  presume,  by  any  congregation* 
on  anv  occasion.  I  am  unwilling  to  trespass  upon  your  patience,  or 
farther  to  exhaust  my  own  strength,  already  far  spent;  but  when  I 
reflect  upon  the  immense  importance  of  the  subject,  I  should  think 
that  I  was  sinning  against  the  best  cause  in  the  world,  and  was  want¬ 
ing  in  benevolence  to  my  contemporaries,  were  I  not  to  attend  to  the 
subjects  proposed.  For  although  the  evidence  which  has  been  de¬ 
duced,  from  any  one  of  the  topics  introduced,  is  sufficient  to  establish 
the  truth  of  our  religion  to  the  honest  inquirer,  as  we  judge;  and  yon 
must  see,  I  think,  by  this  time,  that  it  is  more  than  my  friend,  Mr. 
Owen,  can  refute;  yet  being  conscious  that  each  argument  in  the 
series  confirms  all  the  rest,  and  that,  without  the  topics  proposed,  the 
evidence  would  be  incomplete,  I  must  therefore,  my  friends,  beg 
your  attendance  another  day.  Not,  indeed,  for  the  sake  of  carrying 
a  point,  nor  for  the  pride  of  victory ;  for  well  I  know,  that  the  evidences 
of  Christianity  have  been  triumphantly  established  long  ago.  It  was 
my  intention,  from  the  commencement,  that  all  the  documents  relied 
on  in  conducting  this  controversy  should  go  to  the  public  in  a  perma¬ 
nent  form :  such  also  has  been  the  intention  of  my  opponent.  We  are 
constrained  to  think  that  he  is  actuated  by  a  noble  benevolence, 
though  sadly  mistaken  in  his  views.  But  that  our  cotemporaries  may 
have  the  advantage  of  all  the  lights  that  the  present  controversy  can 
elicit  from  a  new  exhibition  of  a  part  of  the  magazine  in  the  Christian 
treasury,  we  wish  to  be  favored  with  your  attendance  another  dav. 
Will  the  Moderators  please  to  signify  whether  they  will  honor  us  with 
their  presence  on  Monday  next  at  the  usual  hour? 

[Chairman  rises  and  saith — The  Moderators  trill  do  so  if  circum¬ 
stances  permit .] 

[Mr.  Campbell  cannot  say  whether  he  will  be  able  to  conclude  in 
the  forenoon  on  Monday.] 

[Mr.  Campbell  has  agreed  to  deliver  a  discourse  in  this  meeting3 
house  to-morrow,  at  11  o’clock.] 

Adjourned  till  Monday  morning. 

Monday  morning ,  April  20th,  9  o'clock,  A .  M, 
Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — I  have  just  now  found  on  my  desk  a  few  questions 
irorn  some  unknown  hand,  which,  I  suppose',  have  been  presented  to 
me  from  my  own  invitations  given  during  the  discussion.  As  these 
questions  bear  upon  our  discussion,  I  beg  leave  to  give  a  brief  answer. 

The  first  is,  Are  the  hooks  composing  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
the  only  books  o  f  divine  authority  in  the  world  ? 

I  answer  positively,  Yes.  I  have  already  said,thatthe  books  com¬ 
posing  the  two  Testaments,  contain  more  than  what  is  properly  called 
a  Divine  Revelation.  They  contain  much  history  which  can,  with  no 
propriety,  be  called  a  Divine  Revelation;  for  example,  the  history  of 
the  deluge — the  confusion  of  human  language — the  dispersion  of  the 
human  family — the  biography  of  the  patriarchs,  judges,  and  kings  of 
Israel — the  chronicles  of  Judah  and  Israel.  All  the  things  recorded 


DEBATE. 


09 

in  these  sections  were  known  before  written,  and  therefore  could  not 
be  revelations.  But  it  was  necessary  that  these  important  facts, 
because  of  their  intimate  connexion  with  the  people  to  whom  Divine 
Revelations  were  made,  should  be  recorded  and  divinely  authenti¬ 
cated.  Hence  the  Pentateuch  in  addition  to  all  the  revelations  which 
it  contains,  presents  us  with  a  historic  record  of  the  lirst  ages  of  the 
world  divinely  authenticated. 

The  question  concerning  the  nature  of  inspiration,  whether  (for 
instance)  original  ideas  were  always  suggested  to  the  writer,  or  whe¬ 
ther  the  ideas  sometimes  communicated  were  only  a  mere  revives- 
cence  of  former  impressions,  is  one  that  has  been  ably  discussed. 
However  this  question  may  be  decided,  it  affects  not  the  question 
before  us.  The  Holy  Spirit,  promised  to  the  apostles,  was  to  do  one 
of  two  things — either  to  suggest  things  entirely  new,  or  to  bring  all- 
things  to  their  remembrance  which  they  had  seen  or  heard.  This 
was  done.  The  writings  of  the  apostles  and  of  the  prophets  are 
authentic  histories  written  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God ; 
or  they  are  immediate  and  direct  revelations  of  matters  inaccessible 
to  mortal  man. 

Query  2. — What  credit  is  due  to  the  hooks  in  the  Old  Testament , 
called  the  apocrypha  ? 

Let  it  be  observed  that  there  were  many  other  authentic  and  true 
narratives  and  documents  among  the  Jews,  as  there  are  among  the 
Christians,  besides  the  sacred  writings  of  the  prophets  and  apostles. 
But  it  it  was  not  necessary  to  have  under  the  divine  patronage  various 
histories  by  various  authors  upon  the  same  subjects.  It  would  have 
greatly  increased  the  natural  and  necessary  labors  of  life  had  all  these 
records  been  preserved  and  collected  into  a  set  of  volumes,  and  the 
reading  of  them  all  made  necessary  to  understand  either  the  scheme 
of  divine  government  or  of  man’s  redemption.  But  to  enable  us  to 
acquire  all  that  is  necessary  to  be  known,  certain  books  have  been 
preserved  by  the  divine  authority.  The  Apocrypha,  at  least  some 
books  of  it,  contain  a  true  history;  but  it  does  not  claim  to  be  a 
Divine  Revelation.  We  receive  the  records  of  Philo  and  Josephus, 
and  many  of  the  primitive  Christian  writers  as  credible  narratives  of 
their  own  times;  and  as  far  as  they  treat  of  times  immediately  subse¬ 
quent  to  the  apostolic  age,  they  may  be  called  the  Apocrypha  of  the 
New  Testament.  All  these  writings  may  be,  and  most  of  them  are, 
certainly  credible  and  authentic  works;  but  they  constitute  no  part 
of  either  religion,  and  make  no  such  claims  upon  us. 

Query  3. — How  are  we  to  ascertain  the  authorship  of  Job ,  some 
parts  of  the  hook  of  Deuteronomy ,  such  as  the  death  and  burial  of 
Moses ,  the  authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ?  <fyc. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  be  able  to  prove  the  authorship 
of  every  particular  piece  composing  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to 
prove  their  authenticity  A  The  book  of  Job,  for  instance,  has  no 

*Bishop  Watson,  in  his  Apology  for  the  Bible,  in  reply  to  Thomas  Paine,  on 
the  subject  of  these  anonymous  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  very  pertinently 
remarks  as  follows*  p.  50,  51,  52: — 


DEBATE. 


93 


jiame  attached  to  it,  nor  circumstances  mentioned  in  it,  which  could 
decide  the  author  of  it.  Whether  it  was  written  by  Ezra,  Nehemiah, 
or  any  Jewish  prophet,  perhaps,  could  not  now  be  decided.  My  belief 
in  the  authenticity  and  authority  of  this  book,  and  all  anonymous 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  founded  upon  the  following  basis. 
The  Jewish  scribes  received  them — the  whole  Jewish  nation  received 
them — their  own  internal  evidence  attests  their  pretensions — and, 
above  ail,  they  were  quoted  as  genuine,  and  approbated  as  parts  of 
the  sacred  records  and  revelations,  by  Jesus  Christ,  or  his  apostles, 
concerning  whose  inspiration  and  certain  knowledge  of  the  character 
of  these  works  we  cannot  entertain  a  rational  doubt. 

Concerning  the  question  about  the  burial  of  Moses,  and  other  such 
additions  made  to  some  books  in  the  Old  Testament,  they  proceed 
from  inattention  to  the  contents  of  the  volume.  Joshua  wrote  some 
additions  to  the  books  of  Moses,  called  “thelaw  of  God and  that  he, 
or  Ezra,  or  some  of  the  distinguished  guardians  of  these  sacred  re¬ 
cords,  should  have  added  the  deaths  or  other  posthumous  circumstan¬ 
ces  belonging  to  the  history  of  these  great  prophets,  is  inferrable  from 
this  fact  just  now  stated.  Joshua  says  he  wrote  some  additions  to 

“Having  finished  your  objections  to  the  genuineness  of  the  books  of  Moses, 
you  proceed  to  your  remarks  on  the  book  of  Joshua;  and  from  its  internal  evi¬ 
dence,  you  endeavor  to  prove,  that  this  book  was  not  written  by  Joshua — 
What  then?  What  is  your  conclusion'1 — “That  it  is  anonymous,  and  without 
authority.” — Stop  a  little;  your  conclusion  is  not  connected  with  your  premises; 
your  friend  Euclid  would  have  been  ashamed  of  it.  “Anonymous,  and  there¬ 
fore  without  authority!”  I  have  noticed  this  solecism  before;  but  as  you  fre¬ 
quently  bring  it  forward,  and,  indeed,  your  book  stands  much  in  need  of  it,  I 
will  submit  to  your  consideration  another  observation  on  the  subject.  The  book 
called  Fleta  is  anonymous;  but  it  is  not  on  that  account  without  authority. — 
Domesday  book  is  anonymous,  and  was  written  above  seven  hundred  years  ago; 
yet  our  courts  of  law  do  not  hold  it  to  be  without  authority,  as  to  the  facts  related 
in  it.  Yes,  you  will  say,  but  this  book  has  been  preserved  with  singular  care 
among  the  reeords  of  the  nation.  And  who  told  you  that  the  Jews  had  no 
records,  or  that  they  did  not  preserve  them  with  singular  care?  Josephus  says 
the  contrary:  and,  in  the  Bible  itself,  an  appeal  is  made  to  many  books,  which 
have  perished:  such  as  the  book  of  Jasher,  the  book  of  Nathan,  of  Abijah, 
of  Iddo,  of  Jehu,  of  natural  history  by  Solomon,  of  the  acts  of  Manasseh, 
and  others  which  might  be  mentioned.  If  any  one,  having  access  to  the  journals 
of  the  Lords  and  Commons,  to  the  books  of  the  treasury,  war  office,  privy 
council,  and  other  public  documents,  should  at  this  day  write  a  history  of  the 
reigns  of  George  the  first  and  second,  and  should  publish  it  without  his  name, 
would  any  man,  three  or  four  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years  hence,  question 
the  authority  of  that  book,  when  he  knew  that  the  whole  British  nation  had  re¬ 
ceived  it  as  an  authentic  book  from  the  time  of  its  first  publication  to  the  age  in 
which  he  lived ?  This  supposition  is  in  point.  The  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
were  composed  from  the  records  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  they  have  been  re¬ 
ceived  as  true  by  that  nation,  from  the  time  in  which  they  were  written  to  the 
present  day.  Dodsley’s  Annual  Register  is  an  anonymous  book;  we  only  know 
the  name  of  its  editor;  the  New  Annual  Register  is  an  anonymous  book;  the  Re¬ 
views  are  anonymous  books;  but  do  we,  or  will  our  posterity,  esteem  these 
books  of  no  authority?  On  the  contrary,  they  are  admitted  at  present,  and 
will  be  received  in  after  ages,  as  authoritative  records  of  the  civil,  military,  and 
literary  history  of  England  and  of  Europe,  So  little  foundation  is  there  for  our 
being  startled  by  your  assertion,  “It  is  anonymous  and  without  authority.” 


04 


DEBATE, 


“the  Booh  of  the.  Law  of  Godf  a  name  applied  to  the  books  of  Moses/ 
ft  is  in  the  style  of  Cesar’s  commentaries  expressed  in  the  third  per¬ 
son — ‘“So  Joshua  made  a  covenant  with  the  people  that  day,  arid  set, 
them  a  statute  and  an  ordinance  in  Shechem;  and  Joshua  wrote  these 
words  in  the  booh  of  the  law  of  God 

Respecting  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews,  although  not  having  directly 
the  authority  of  Paul’s  name,  it  proves  itself  to  be  his  work.  It  con¬ 
tains  certain  direct  allusions  to  Paul’s  labors,  and  he  speaks  of  himself 
in  such  a  style,  and  with  such  references  to  circumstances  in  which  1 

he  was  a  party,  as  to  render  it  certain  that  he  is  the  writer.  A  person  * 

may  introduce  himself  by  a  periphrasis ,  or  circumlocution,  without! 
directly  naming  himself.  Thus  Paul  introduces  himself  to  the  He¬ 
brews  to  avoid  encountering  a  prejudice  existing  against  him  in  the 
minds  of  the  unbelieving  Jews,  for  whose  benefit,  as  well  as  that  of 
the  believing  Jews,  he  designed  this  letter. 

Touching  the  authorship  of  these  writings,  although  I  think  we  have 
already  sufficiently  established  this  matter,  I  would  remark,  that,  of 
the  apostles’  letters,  the  autographs  themselves,  as  well  as  many  ex¬ 
trinsic  circumstances,  decided  their  pretensions.  Paul’s  name,  written 
by  his  oimi  hand ,  after  his  amanuensis  had  written  an  epistle,  was 
added  to  such  of  them  as  were  not  wholly  written  by  himself.  •  The 
congregations  or  individuals  to  whom  they  were  addressed,  some  of 
whom  were  so  addressed  as  to  have  provoked  them  to  have  rejected 
the  letters  if  they  had  dared,  were  the  best  judges  of  the  authenticity 
•of  these  writings;  and  the  fact  of  their  having  been  received  as  such,  ! 
by  these  congregations,  alone,  had  we  no  other  proof,  amounts  to  the 
whole  evidence  we  have  in  proof  of  the  authorship  of  the  most  popular 
works  of  Greece  and  Rome.  If  these  writings  had  not  been  the  pro- 
ductionsof  their  reputed  authors,  or  if  such  of  them  as  are  anonymous 
had  not  been  known  to  have  been  the  works  of  well  attested  authors 
by  their  cotemporaries,  many  would  have  been  proud  to  have  claim¬ 
ed  them  as  their  own.  I  do  not  know  what  human  being  would  not 
have  been  proud  to  have  been  the  author  of  the  book  of  Job,  or  the 
letter  o  the  Hebrews;  and  their  being  anonymous,  yet  received  into 
the  sacred  writings,  is  as  valid  proof  of  their  authenticity  as  if  they 
had,  like  the  greater  part  of  both  Testaments,  been  inscribed  with  the 
names  of  their  authors. 

Query  4.  But  we  are  also  asked,  Are  we  sure  that  we  have  the 
genuine  works  of  these  authors?  Are  there  no  interpolations? 

When  I  hear  of  interpolations  and  contradictions,  I  think  of  the 
Honorable  Soame  Jenyns,  once  a  sceptic.  He  had  concluded  to  pub¬ 
lish  a  work  against  the  Christian  religion;  but  thinking  that  he  ought 
to  be  well  acquainted  vrith  its  fables  and  absurdities  before  he  ventured 
to  appear  before  the  public,  he  determined  to  make  himself  well  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  contents  of  the  book.  But  he  soon  found  good 
reasons  to  reform  his  plan;  and,  instead  of  furnishing  a  work  against 
the  Christian  religion,  he  gave  the  world  a  short  and  unanswerable  * 
treatise  upon  the  truth  and  authenticity  of  it.  This  treatise  on  the 
H Internal  Evidences ”  is  written  in  a  masterly  style,  and  with  a  bold- 


DEBATE. 


95 

ness  which  nothing  but  the  assurance  of  faith  could  inspire.  He 
makes  the  following  bold  assertion  which  many  would  think  is  going 
too  far : — 

“For  I  will  venture  to  affirm,  that  if  any  one  could  prove,  what  is 
impossible  to  be  proved,  because  it  is  not  true,  that  there  are  errors  in 
geography,  chronology,  and  philosophy,  in  every  page  of  the  Bible; 
that  the  prophecies  therein  delivered,  are  all  but  fortunate  guesses,  or 
artful  applications,  and  the  miracles  there  recorded,  no  better  than 
legendary  tales :  if  any  one  could  show,  that  these  books  were  never 
written  by  their  pretended  authors,  but  were  posterior  impositions  on 
illiterate  and  credulous  ages,  all  these  wonderful  discoveries  would 
prove  no  more  than  this,  that  God,  for  reasons  to  us  unknown,  had 
thought  proper  to  permit  a  revelation  by  him  communicated  to  man- 
kind,  to  be  mixed  with  their  ignorance,  and  corrupted  by  their  frauds 
from  its  earliest  infancy,  in  the  same  manner  in  which  he  has  visibly 
permitted  it  to  be  mixed,  and  corrupted  from  tbat  period  to  the  present 
hour.  If  in  these  books,  a  religion,  superior  to  all  human  imagina¬ 
tion,  actually  exists,  it  is  of  no  consequence  to  the  proof  of  its  di¬ 
vine  origin,  by  what  means  it  was  there  introduced,  or  with  what 
human  errors  and  imperfections  it  is  blended.  A  diamond,  though 
found  in  a  bed  of  mud.  is  still  a  diamond,  noi?  can  the  dirt,  which 
surrounds  it,  depreciate  its  value  or  destroy  its  lustre.” 

All  the  interpolations,  and  different  readings,  though  numerous  as 
Michaelis ,  a  very  learned  German  professor,  makes  them,  counting 
all  the  minutia  of  letters  and  points,  do  not  effect  the  character  of  a 
single  fact  recorded  in  the  whole  New'  Testament.  Indeed,  men  have 
been  so  much  more  concerned  about  the  doctrines  than  the  fads  of 
scripture,  that  they  are  much  more  alarmed  about  the  omission,  or 
change  of  a  term,  affecting  some  favorite  conclusion  to  which  they 
have  come,  than  about  the  evidence  on  which  the  great  salutary  facts 
arc  established.  Hence  has  arisen  the  great  ado  about  interpolations. 
And  if  there  were  ever  any  interpolations  designedly  introduced,  it 
was  for  carrying  some  doctrine  or  theorem,  and  not  for  proving  a 
fact.  Hence  sceptics  have  nothing  to  fear  from  interpolations .  But 
a  notice  of  the  dark  ages  here  may  not  be  out  of  place  especially  as 
most  of  these  different  readings  and  interpolations  occurred  during 
this  drear}'  period. 

During  this  period  all  learning  was  locked  up  in  the  dark  cloisters 
and  confined  to  the  gloomy  monasteries  of  papal  superstition.  The 
scriptures,  before  the  art  of  printing,  were  in  the  hands  of  ignorant 
monks  and  nuns,  who  spent  their  lives  in  transcribing  them.  A  ma¬ 
jority  of  these  copyists  did  not  understand  the  language  in  which 
they  wrote  them.  VVe  have  seen  some  of  these  ancient  manuscript 
copies.  Large  margins  for  the  purpose  of  notes  and  references  were 
usually  left  on  these  manuscripts.  It  frequently  happened  that  some 
of  the  copyists,  not  able  to  discriminate  the  marginal  notes  from  the 
text,  transcribed  some  of  the  explanations  into  the  text.  This  occa¬ 
sioned  various  discrepancies  between  the  copies.  After  the  revival 
of  literature  and  the  Reformation,  careful  and  exact  comparisons  of 


06 


DEBATE, 


these  copies  were  made,  and  the  text  was  purged  of  most,  if  not  all, 
these  interpolations.  In  these  numerous  and  careful  revisals  and 
comparisons,  not  only  of  the  copies,  but  of  the  most  ancient  manu¬ 
scripts,  and  the  quotations  found  in  the  works  of  the  primitive  fathers, 
almost  everything  of  a  doubtful  character,  even  to  the  very  expletives, 
were  rejected.  We  have  most  unquestionably  the  most  exact  and 
faithful  representation  of  the  prototype  of  this  volume  than  we  have 
of  any  other  book  in  the  world.  It  would  be  impossible  to  interpolate 
the  sacred  text  now,  because  of  the  rival  sects.  The  same  difficulty 
existed  always,  almost  from  the  beginning;  excepting  that  the  inven¬ 
tion  of  printing  and  the  multiplication  of  copies  consequent  thereupon, 
have  imposed  more  insuperable  barriers  in  the  way  of  such  liberties, 
than  existed  before.  But  when  we  take  into  view  the  veneration  of 
even  the  most  ignorant  ages  for  these  writings,  and  the  tremendous 
awe  inspired  from  the  sanctions  found  at  the  close  of  the  volume,  to¬ 
gether  with  sectarian  jealousy,  no  work  has  been  so  much  guarded 
against  corruption.  And  a  greater  proof  we  cannot  have  of  the  truth 
of  these  remarks  than  the  fact  that  the  church  of  Rome,  in  which 
most  of  the  copies  now  extant  were  found,  the  corruptions  of  which 
are  so  clearly  pointed  out  and  condemned  in  the  Epistles,  have  for 
ages  transcribed  the  predictions,  expositions,  and  censures  pronoun¬ 
ced  upon  herself,  and  handed  to  the  Reformers  the  sacred  text  to  con¬ 
demn  and  expose  her  own  abuses. 

Query  5  — How  is  it  that  St.  Matthew  says ,  in  a  certain  place ,  It 
was  prophesied  by  the  Prophet  Jeremiah ,  and  no  such  a  prophecy  is 
found  in  Jeremiah ,  but  in  Zechariah? 

To  this  we  reply  that  the  divisions  which  now  obtain  in  both  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New  are  of  modern  origin.  Cardinal  Cairo, 
in  the  twelfth  century,  divided  the  scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  ' 
into  chapters ;  and  Robert  Stephens,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  divided 
them  into  verses.  These  distributions  were  made  to  facilitate  refer¬ 
ences  to  these  writings,  but  in  thousands  of  instances  they  have  ob¬ 
scured  the  sense  of  them. 

The  Jews  divided  all  the  writings  of  the  Lawr,  the  Prophets,  and  , 
the  Psalms,  into  fifty-four  sections,  for  the  purpose  of  reading  them 
once  in  a  year  in  their  synagogues.  Four  of  these  sections  were 
shorter  than  the  others;  and  whether  designed  for  two  of  their  greatest  j 
solemnities,  to  be  read  together,  two  on  each  occasion,  we  cannot  say;  ' 
but  so  it  was, that  the  whole  volume  was  read  once  every  year  in  their 
public  meetings.  But  in  quoting  these  writings  they  sometimes 
quoted  them  under  the  general  running  title  of  these  sections;  or  more 
loosely,  under  three  heads — the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms. 
At  other  times  they  were  quoted  with  the  most  minute  reference,  as, 
for  instance,  ‘It  is  so  written  in  the  second  Psalm.’  Sometimes  the 
whole  writings  are  called  the  Law.  The  Saviour  once  quotes  the  : 
Psalms  thus,  “It  is  written  .in  the  Law,  They  hated  me  without  a 
cause;”  }ret  this  is  found  in  the  book  of  Psalms.  The  running  title 
to  the  sections  of  the  prophetic  writings  is  said  by  some  to  have  been 
Jeremiah j  others  have  said  thgt  the  Jews  called  Jeremiah  the  weeping 


DEBATE. 


07 


prophet ,  and  used  his  name  as  an  appellative ,  to  denote  all  those  pre¬ 
dictions  which  had  respect  to  the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah.  But  one 
thing  is  obvious,  that  there  was  among  all  persons  in  that  age' a  loose 
or  general  reference,  as  woll  as  a  strict  and  accurate  reference  to 
sayings  in  the  prophets.  If,  then,  Matthew  did  actually  use  the  name 
of  Jeremiah  instead  of  the  name  of  Zecharlah,  it  may  have  proceeded 
from  some  of  those  causes  assigned.  But  whether  or  not,  it  affects  v  > 
more  the  credibility  of  the  testimony  of  Matthew  concerning  Jesus 
Christ,  than  the  fact  of  Paul’s  forgetting  how  many  lie  had  baptized 
in  Corinth,  proves  that  he  was  not  inspired  with  an  infallible  know¬ 
ledge  of  the  gospel. 

Such  objections  as  these  exhibit  a  very  strange  state  of  mind,  and 
show  that  the  objector  is  entirely  ignorant  of  the  real  grounds  on  which 
we  assent  to  the  divine  authority  of  these  records. 

Having,  then,  very  briefly  attended  to  these  questions,  I  proceed  to 
the  topic  proposed  on  Saturday  evening.  To  form  correct  ideas  of  the 
genius  and  tendency  of  Christianity,  we  must  pay  some  attention  to 
the  genius  and  design  of  the  former  dispensation.  This  we  have 
already  glanced  at  in  our  remarks  upon  the  Apostacy,  Until  the  time 
of  Abraham  all  the  nations  upon  the  earth  had  the  same  general  views 
of  the  Divinity  that  created  all  things  and  presided  over  the  world 
This  will  appear  from  all  the  ancient  documents  which  penetrate  into 
the  most  remote  antiquity  of  the  world. 

In  forming  a  correct  view  of  the  religious  character  of  the  ancient 
nations,  it  is  necessary  here  to  inquire  how  lar  the  inhabitants  of  Per¬ 
sia,  Assyria,  Arabia,  Canaan,  and  Egypt,  were  affected  or  influen¬ 
ced  by  the  religious  institutions  of  this  period;  for  these  were  the 
first  nations  whose  institutions  gave  a  character  to  all  the  nations  of 
the  world.  ■ 

Abraham  was  the  son  of  Shemby  Arphaxad.  The  Persians  were 
the  descendants  ofShem  by  Elam .  The  common  parentage  of  Abra¬ 
ham  and  the  Persians  laid  a  foundation  for  some  similarity  in  their  re¬ 
ligion.  Abraham’s  ancestors  dwelt  in  Chaldea,  and  at  the  time  that 
God  signalized  Abraham  the  Chaldeans  had  begun  to  apostatize  from 
the  service  of  the  true  God.  Hence  the  separation  of  Abraham  troru 
among  them.  But  Dr.  Hyde  and  the  most  learned  antiquarian? 
present  documental  proof  that  the  Persians  retained  the  true  histo¬ 
ry  of  the  Creation,  of  the  Antediluvian  Age;  and  so  attached  were  the 
Persians  to  the  religion  of  Abraham,  that  the  sacred  book  which  con- 
tained  their  religion  is  called  Sohi  Ibrahim ,  i.  e.  the  Book  of  Abra¬ 
ham.  For  a  considerble  time  after  Abraham’s  day  they  worshipped 
the  God  of  Shein,  for  they  did  not  know  all  the  special  communications 
to  Abraham. - 

The  Arabians,  down  to  the  time  of  Jethro,  retained  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God,  llow  long  after,  we  are  not  informed;  but  their  re¬ 
ligious  institutions,  as  far  as  we  have  account,  differed  little  from 
those  practised  by  Abraham,  with  the  exception  of  circumcision. 

The  Canaanites  themselves,  in  Abraham’s  time,  had  not  apostati¬ 
zed  wholly  from  the  religion  of  Shem.  Thp  king  of  Salem  was  priest 

yoL.  tu  9 


98 


DEBATE. 


of  the  Most  High  God :  and  during  Abraham's  sojourning  among  them, 
they  treated  him  with  all  respect  as  a  prophet  of  the  true  God. 

Even  among  the  Philistines  at  Gera,  Abraham  found  a  good  and 
virtuous  king,  favored  with  the  admonitions  of  the  Almighty.  This 
be  little  expected,  for  he  was  so  prejudiced  against  those  people,  that, 
on  entering  their  metropolis,  he  said,  “Surely  the  fear  of  God  is  not 
r\  this  place/’  But  he  was  happily  disappointed.  For  Abimelech, 
j  n  his  appeal  to  Heaven,  says,  “Lord  wilt  thou  slay  a  virtuous  nation  ?V 
And  the  Lord  did  not  deny  his  plea,  but  heard  and  answered  his  re¬ 
quest.  There  appears  in  the  whole  narrative  no  difference  in  the 
religious  views  or  practice  between  Abraham  and  Abimelech  the 
king  of  the  nation. 

The  Egyptians,  too,  in  the  time  of  Abraham,  were  worshippers  of 
the  true  God.  In  Upper  Egypt  they  refused,  as  Plutarch  informs  us, 
to  pay  any  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  idolatrous  worship;  asserting 
that  they  owned  wo  mortal,  dead  or  alive,  to  be  a  God;  The  incor¬ 
ruptible  and  eternal  God  they  called  Cneph ,  who,  they  affirmed,  had 
no  beginning,  and  never  should  have  an  end.  In  the  first  advances  to 
mythology  in  Egypt,  they  represented  God  by  the  figure  of  a  serpent , 
with  the  head  of  a  hawk  in  the  middle  of  a  circle.  We  find  no  mis¬ 
understandings  nor  dilference  between  Pharaoh  and  Abraham,  when 
the  latter  went  down  into  Egypt.  Indeed,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Chaldeans,  who  were  the  oldest  nation,  and  the  first  to  introduce  idol 
or  image  worship,  we  find  a  very  general  agreement  in  all  the  ancient 
nations  respecting  religious  views  and  practice.  And  the  first  defec¬ 
tion  from  the  religion  of  Noah  and  Shem  which  we  meet  with  in  all 
antiquity,  was  that  of  the  Chaldeans. 

Now,  to  save  the  world  from  universal  idolatry,  Abraham  is  called; 
and  in  four  centuries  his  posterity  were  eroded  into  a  nation  for  this 
primary  object,  to  teach  the  unity,  spirituality,  and  providence  of 
God,  as  well  as  to  introduce  a  new  vocabulary  by  a  symbolic  wor¬ 
ship,  to  prepare  the  world  for  understanding  the  Divine  character  and 
government  preparatory  to  the  mission  of  his  Son. 

Abraham  was  called  at  a  time  when  idolatry  began  to  appear  in 
Chaldea,  and  when  families  began  to  have  each  a  family  god .  When 
bis  descendants  became  numerous,  and  large  enough  to  become  a  na¬ 
tion,  and  the  nations  had  each  its  own  god,  it  pleased  the  Ruler  of  the 
Universe  to  exhibit  himself  as  the  God  of  a  nation.  Hence  originated 
the  theocracy/  Here  it  13  necessary  to  suggest  a  few  general  princi¬ 
ples  of  much  importance  in  understanding  the  varieties  which  have 
appeared  in  the  divine  government.  From  the  fall  of  man  the  Gov¬ 
ernor  of  the  World  withdrew  from  all  personal  intimacies  with  the 
race.  He  no  longer  conversed  with  man,  face  to  face,  as  he  was  wont 
to  do  in  Eden,  The  recollections  of  the  Divinity  became  more  and 
more  faint  as  Adam  advanced  in  years ;  and  the  traditionary  inform¬ 
ation  communicated  to  his  descendants  became  less  vivid  and  impres¬ 
sive  in  every  generation .  All  new  communications  from  the  Creator  . 
were  through  symbols,  by  messengers,  or  rather  through  things  al- 
readv  known.  Things  entirely  unknown  can  only  be  communicated  to 


DEBATE. 


09 

the  mind  by  things  already  known.  This  axiom  is  at  the  basis  of  aU 
revelations,  and  explains  many  otherwise  inexplicable  incidents  in 
the  divine  communications  to  man.  The  natural  symbols  and  the 
artificial  names  of  things  became,  from  a  necessity  of  nature,  the  only 
means  through  which  God  could  make  himselfknown  to  man.  This, 
too,  has  been  the  invariable  rule  and  measure  of  all  the  discoveries 
which  God  has  made  of  himself,  his  purposes,  and  will.  Hence  the 
spangled  heavens,  all  the  elements  of  nature,  the  earth,  and  the  sea, 
with  all  their  inhabitants;  the  relations,  customs,  and  usages  existing 
among  men,  have  all  been  so  many  types  or  letters  in  the  great  alpha¬ 
bet  which  constitutes  the  vocabulary  of  divine  revelation  to  man.  He 
has  even  personated  himself  by  his  own  creatures,  and  spoken  to  man 
through  human  institutions.  Hence  he  has  been  called  a  Sun,  Light, 
Father,  Husband,  Man  of  War,  General  of  Hosts,  a  Lord  of  Battles, 
King,  Prince,  Master,  &c. '  &c.  He  has  been  spoken  of  as  having 
eyes,  ears,  mouth,  hands,  feet,  &c.  &,c.  He  has  been  represented  as 
sitting, standing,  walking,  hasting,'  awaking.  He  lias  been  compared 
to  a  unicorn,  lion,  rock,  mountain,  &e.  &,c.  He  has  made  himself 
known  in  his  character,  perfections,  purposes,  and  will,  by  things  al¬ 
ready  known  to  man.  This  is  the  grand  secret,  which,  when  disclos  ¬ 
ed,  removes  many  difficulties  and  objections,  and  sets  in  a  clear  light 
the  genius  of  the  Jewish  age  of  the  religious  world. 

Now  when  God  became  the  king  of  one  nation ,  it  was  only  doing 
what,  on  a  more  extensive  scale,  and  with  more  various  and  powerful 
effects,  he  had  done  in  calling  himself  a  Father.  Both  were  designed 
to  make  himself  known  through  numan  relations  and  insiitutions. 
One  type,  symbol,  or  name,  is  altogether  incompetent  todevelope  the 
wonderful  and  incomprehensible  God.  But  his  wisdom  and  goodness 
are  most  apparent  in  making  himselfknown  in  those  relations  and  to 
those  extents  which  are  best  adapted  to  human  wants  and  imperfec¬ 
tions.  And  the  perfection  of  these  discoveries  consists  in  their  being; 
exactly  suited  to  the  different  ages  of  the  world  and  stages  of  human 
improvement.  At  the  time  when  he  chose  one  nation  and  made  him¬ 
self  known  to  all  the  earth  as  its  King  and  God,  no  other  name,  type, 
or  symbol  was  so  well  adapted  to  the  benevolent  purpose,  as  those 
selected.  For  when  Israel  was  brought  out  of  Egypt,  all  the  nations 
had  their  gods;  and  these  gods  were  esteemed  and  admired  according 
to  the  strength,  skill,  prowess,  and  prosperity  of  the  nation  over  which 
they  were  supposed  to  preside.  Hence  that  god  was  the  most  adora¬ 
ble  in  human  eyes  whose  people  were  most  conspicuous. 

Wars  and  battles  were  the  offspring  of  the  spirit  of  those  ages  con¬ 
temporaneous  with  the  first  five  hundred  years  of  the  Jewish  history, 
and  with  the  ages  immediately  preceding.  Hence  the  idea  was,  that 
the  nation  most  powerful  in  war  had  the  greatest  and  most  adorable 
god.  Now  as  the  Most  High  (a  name  borrowed  from  this  very  age) 
always  took  the  world  as  it  was  in  every  period  in  which  he  chose  to 
develope  himself  anew,  or  his  purposes,  he  chose  to  appear  as  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  or  God  of  Armies.  And  to  make  his  name  known 
through  all  the  errth,  he  took  one  nation  under  his  auspices,  and  ap- 


iOO 


DEBATE. 


pear's 3  as  their  Sovereign  and  the  Commander  in  Chibf  of  all  their  ar¬ 
mies.  Hence  the  splendid  and  easy  bought  victories  of  the  Israelites. 
One  could  chase  a  hundred,  and  ten  put  a  thousand  to  flight.  This 
explains  the  deliverance  out  of  Egypt,  and  how  the  Lord  permitted 
Pharaoh’s  heart  to  be  hardened — for  the  purpose  of  making  his  name 
known  through  all  the  earth.  Pharaoh  and  his  court  knew  not  the 
God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  impiously  asked,  “Who  is 
the  Lord,  trial  I  should  obey  him  ?”  Bat  Moses  made  him  know,  and 
tremble,  and  bow.  By  the  time  when  the  Jews  were  settled  in  Ca¬ 
naan,  the  world  was  taught  to  fear  the  God  of  Israel,  the  Lord  of 
H:  )sts;  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  all  the  true  and  consistent  know¬ 
ledge  of  God  upon  the  earth,  among  all  nations,  was  derived  directly 
<*>r  indirectl v  from  the  Jewish  people. 

Bit  we  nwst  not  think  that  only  one  purpose  was  gained,  or  one 
object  was  exclusively  in  view  in  any  of  these  great  movements  of  the 
Governor  of  the  World.  Trfis  is  contrary  to  the  general  analogy  of 
the  material  and  spiritual  systems.  By  the  annual  and  diurnal  revo¬ 
lutions  of  the  earth,  although  by  the  former  the  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  by  the  latter,  day  and  night  seem  to  be  the  chief  objects,  there' 
are  a  thousand  ends  gained  in  conjunction  with  one  principal  one. 
Bo  in  this  grand  economy,  many,  very  many  illustrious  ends  wore 
gained,  besides  the  capital  one  just  mentioned.  For,  a«  in  the  vege¬ 
table  kingdom  we  have  a  succession  of  stages  in  the  growth  of  plants; 
ta,  in  the  animal  kingdom  we  have  a  succession  of  stages  in  the  growth 
pf  animals ;  so  in  the  kingdom  of  God  there  is  a  similar  progression  of 
light,  knowledge,  life,  and  bliss.  We  have  in  the  vegetable  kingdom 
the  period  of  germinating,  the  period  of  blossoming,  and  the  period  of 
ripening  the  fruit.  So  we  have  infancy,  childoood,  youth,  and  man¬ 
hood,  in  our  species.  Each  period  calls  for  special  influences  and  a 
peculiar  treatment.  So  it  is  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  had  its  in¬ 
fancy,  its  childhood,  and  its  manhood.  In  each  stage  it  was  diverse¬ 
ly  exhibited.  The  Patriarchal,  Jewish,  and  Christian  Ages  were 
adapted  to  these. 

Again,  vve  are  not  to  consider  the  special  temporal  favors  bestowed 
upon  the  Jews,  as  indicative  that  the  divine  benevolence  was  exclu-* 
sively  confined  to  one  nation  to  the  exclusion  of  all  the  earth  besides. 
As  well  might  we  say  that  the  husbandman  who  cultivates  his  garden 
despises  or  neglects  his  farm,  or  that  he  exclusively  loved  that  part  of 
he  soil  which  he  encloses  with  a  peculiar  fence.  Other  circumstan¬ 
ces  and  considerations  require  these  specialties.  The  general  good 
of  the  human  race,  and  the  blessing  of  all  nations  in  a  son  of  Abra¬ 
ham,  were  the  ultimate  and  gracious  ends  in  view  in  all  these  pecu¬ 
liar  arrangements.  This  promise  and  guarantee  were  made  to  Abra* 
ham  before  the  time  of  these  ages  or  dispensations.  So  that  the 
calling  ofthe  Jews  and  their  erection  into  a  nation  under  the  special 
government  of  God,  were  but  means  necessary  to  that  reign  of  favor 
under  which  we  now  live. 

But  some  will  still  say,  Why  wa3  not  the  Messiah  born  immediately 
after  the  Fall,  and  why  was  not  the  Christian  era  the  only  era  of 


DEBATE, 


101 


the  world?  Why  did  not  the  Universal  Benevolence  introduce  the 
best  possible  order  of  things  first?  Such  cavillers  remind  me  of  the 
child  who  asks,  whether  from  curiosity  or  petulance:  Why  does  not 
the  ripe  ear  of  corn  come  up  from  the  seed  deposited  in  the  earth  ? 
Why  does  not  the  full  ripe  ear  first  present  itself  to  our  eye?  Would 
not  a  kind  and  benevolent  being  have  done  this  rather  than  have  kept 
us  waiting  for  many  months,  for  the  tedious  process  of  germinating 
growing,  shooting,  blossoming?  &c.  &c.  Could  not  an  almighty,  and 
benevolent  being,  have  produced  the  ripe  ear  without  waiting  for  a 
sprout,  stalk,  leaves, blossoms,  and  all  the  other  preparations  of  nature 
to  form  an  ear  of  corn  ?  We  are  even  in  the  common  concerns  of  life 
but  poor  judges  of  propriety;  and  it  is  extreme  arrogance  for  us  to 
arraign  Omniscience  at  the  tribunal  of  our  reason,  when  we  cannot 
tell  the  reason  why  the  blossom  precedes  the  fruit.  Do  we  not  see 
that  it  is  the  order  of  the  Universe,  natural  as  well  as  moral,  that  there 
should  be  a  gradual  developement.  “In  the  fullness  of  time ”  when 
all  things  were  fully  ripe  he  sent  forth  his  son. 

One  part  of  the  human  family  is  cultivated  like  a  garden,  and 
another  part  is  left  like  a  wilderness,  unfenced,  and  undressed.  The 
vineyard,  however,  after  a  while  produces,  through  an  unavoidable 
degeneracy,  no  better  grapes  than  the  wild  vines  in  the  forest — and 
the  hedge  is  torn  down.  A  new  order  of  things  is  developed,  and  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  crumbles  to  pieces.  The  Jew  and  Gentile 
are  alike  degenerated,  and  the  new  order  proceeds  upon  a  levelling 
principle.  Now  no  human  being  could  have  known  that  a  govern¬ 
ment  like  the  Theocracy,  placing  a  people  in  such  enviable  circum¬ 
stances  as  that  system  placed  the  seed  of  Abraham,  would  have  se¬ 
cured  so  little  to  itself,  and  so  little  to  the  people  under  it,  had  not 
the  experiment  been  made  and  continued  as  it  was. 

But  all  these  matters  will  be  much  better  understood  when  we 
contemplate  the  constitution  of  the  Jewish  nation.  This  constitution 
is  in  one  point  of  view,  very  pertinently  called  by  the  Apostle  Paul, 
The  Letter.  No  term  could  have  been  more  appropriate  to  exhibit 
the  views  which  Paul  taught,  than  this  term  letter.  The  Constitu¬ 
tion  under  which  this  nation  came  into  existence,  as  a  nation,  was 
written  by  the  Finger  of  God ,  upon  two  tables  of  stone.  But  here 
let  me  explain  myself.  The  instrument  written  upon  these  two  tables 
is  sometimes  called  the  moral  law  of  the  whole  universe;  sometimes 
the  ten  commandments;  sometimes  the  old  covenant,  and  the  old 
testament.  Now  the  terms  testament  and  covenant  in  the  Scotch 
idiom,  and  in  the  English,  are  supposed  equivalent  to  one  and  the 
same  Greek  word,  diatheke.  For  the  King’s  translators  have  many 
a  time  rendered  this  Greek  word  by  both  of  these  English  nouns. — 
The  term  covenant  in  Scotland  has  been  applied  not  only  to  individu¬ 
al  arguments  but  to  national  compacts.  Institution ,  or  even  constitu¬ 
tion ,  in  our  day,  much  more  correctly  represents  to  us  in  our  mode9 
of  thinking  the  true  import  of  this  term.  The  writing  upon  the  two 
tables  was  in  reality  in  its  original  promulgation,  and  in  the  use 
made  of  it,  precisely  what  we  call  a  constitution.  The  nation  recci  - 
\OL.  u.  9*  ‘ 


102 


DEBATE. 


ed  it  as  such,  and  the  two  tables  on  which  it  was  written  were  called, 
“the  two  tables  of  the  covenant  and  the  chest  or  ark  into  which  it 
was  deposited  was  called  “the  ark  of  the  covenant .”  The  whole 
covenant  must  have  been  on  the  two  tables,  else  it  must  have  been 
an  imposition  to  call  th em  ihe  two  tables  of  the  covenant;  and,  again, 
the  whole  covenant  must  have  been  in  the  ark  or  it  w  ould  have  been 
a  deception  to  call  that  ark  uthc  ark  of  the  covenant”  I  need  scarce¬ 
ly  add  that  the  reason  why  the  volume  is  called  the  old  testament ,  con¬ 
taining  the  writings  of’  Moses,  the  prophets,  and  the  devotional  pieces 
called  the  Hagiographa ,  is  not  because  all  these  writings  were  the 
covenant,  or  testament,  or  constitution  of  Israel,  but  by  a  figure  of 
speech  the  thing  containing  is  often  called  from  the  thing  contained , 
Because  these  writings  contain  this  covenant  or  constitution  they 
are  all  called  by  the  name  of  the  old  covenant,  testament  or  consti¬ 
tution.  In  like  manner  we  shall  see  that  the  New  Testament  has 
received  its  name  from  the  same  figure  and  example. 

There  were  many  other  laws  given  to  the  Jews  from  the  King 
besides  this  instrument,  but  these  were  not  of  the  same  high  character 
with  those  thus  written  on  the  two  tables.  They  were  only  “ leges 
sub  graviori  lege,”  laws  under  a  supreme  law;  for  the  constitution  of 
every  country  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  But  the  proof  lies 
here :  the  Lord  declared,  if  Israel  would  accede  to  the  items  to  be 
proposed,  they  would  in  consequence,  become  a  peculiar  nation,  a 
new  sort  of  Kingdom;  a  community  exalted  above  all  the  national 
communities  upon  earth.  They  agreed  to  these  preliminaries. 
Then  the  Lord  said,  in  their  hearing,  “I  am  the  Lord  pour  God ,  5 who 
brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage ; 
therefore  ye  shall,”  &c.  Such  was  the  agreement,  and  such  were 
the  items  afterwards  called,  the  Covenant  or  Constitution. 

This  constitution  continued  in  one  sense  for  about  1500  years. 
It  could  not  be  broken,  or  made  of  none  effect,  by  the  transgression 
of  a  few  individuals.  Bat  as  soon  as  the  great  majority  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  departed  from  it,  God  ceased  to  reign  over  them  as  he  had  done. 
He  allowed  their  enemies  to  make  prisoners  of  them;  to  invade  and 
devastate  their  land,  and  carry  them  into  bondage  again.  Now  so 
long  as  this  people  lived  up  to  the  letter  of  this  instrument,  so  long 
they  were  under  the  special  government  of  God ;  and  under  all  the 
miraculous  displays  which  we  see  distinguished  their  history  from 
their  eduction  from  Egypt  till  they  were  carried  into  Babylon  by  the 
Assyrian  monarch.  This  explains  the  reason  why  miracles  con¬ 
tinued  in  Israel  so  long — -and  why  they  ceased  at  the  period  alluded 
to.  Miracles  were  the  order  of  the  day  for  many  hundred  years  in 
all  the  important  epochs  of  their  history.  But  after  the  Captivity,  the 
special  providences  ceased... 

Now  let  us  hear  Jeremiah  who  lived  about  these  times,  speak  of 
this  covenant  and  the  intentions  of  the  Lord  concerning  them. — Jei\ 
xxxi.  31.  32.  33.  34. 

“Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new 
covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah;  n6t 


DEBATI 


108 


according  to  the  covenant  that  I  made  with  their  fathers,  in  the  day 
that  i  took  them  by  the  hand,  to  bring  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt; 
(which  my  covenant  they  brake,  although  I  was  a  husband  to  them, 
saith  the  Lord;)  but  this  shall  he  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with 
the  house  of  Israel ;  after  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  put  my 
law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  harts;  and  will  be 
their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.  And  they  shall  teach  no 
more  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying, 
Know'  the  Lord:  for  they  shall  all  know  me,  from  the  least  of  them 
unto  the  greatest  of  them,  saith  the  Lord :  for  I  will  forgive  their 
iniquity,  and  I  will  remember  their  sin  no  more.” 

Jeremiah  then  predicts  a  time  when  this  constitution  would  cease 
to  be  the  constitution  of  Israel — and  a  new  one  of  a  different  char¬ 
acter  introduced.  We  do  not,  as  some  might  think,  speak  of  the 
abrogation  or  disannulling  of  any  thing  moral.  The  laws  of  morali¬ 
ty,  like  those  of  nature,  are  immutable;  but  the  particular  forms, 
and  arrangements,  and  modification,  of  these  principles  should  he 
changed,  and  the  whole  inscribed,  not  upon  stone,  but  upon  the 
hearts  of  men.  Now  here  is  the  essential  difference  between  the  old 
and  the  new  constitution.  The  former  was  not  written  upon  the 
heart,  the  latter  is.  The  former  was  pure  letter ,  the  latter  is  pure 
spirit.  The  first,  pointed  out  to  the  eye,  to  the  intellect  of  man,  a 
rule  of  life;  the  latter,  infused  it  into  the  soul  or  gives  a  disposition 
and  bias  to  these  principles  of  action:  nay,  it  imparts  to  the  heart 
the  principle  which  the  letter  or  law  only  laid  before  the  eyes.  I 
develops  the  matter  no  farther  here.  I  only  prepare  the  way  for 
this  sweeping  distinction  that  the  Jewish  covenant  or  institution 
was  a  covenant  or  constitution  of  the  letter  or  law.  In  one  sentence, 
tlie  first  was  a  constitution  of  law:  the  second,  or  Christian,  is  a 
constitution  of  favor. 

Let  us  hear  Paul  elaborate  this  matter  2  Cor.  iii.  G — 18. 

“Who  indeed  hath  fitted  us  to  be  ministers  of  a  new  covenant; 
not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit:  now  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit 
maketh  alive.  Besides,  if  the  ministry  of  death,  imprinted  on  stones 
with  letters,  was  done  with  glory,  so  that  the  children  of  Israel  could 
not  look  steadfastly  on  the  face  of  Moses,  because  of  the  glory  of 
his  face  wrhich  was  to  be  abolished;  how  shall  not  the  ministry  of  the 
Spirit  rather  be  with  glory?  And,  if  the  ministry  of  condemnation 
was  honour,  much  more  doth  the  ministry  of  righteousness,  abound 
in  honour.  And  therefore,  that  which  was  glorified,  was  not  glori¬ 
fied  in  this  respect,  by  reason  of  the  excelling  glory.  Besides,  if 
that  which  is  abolished,  is  abolished  by  glory,  much  more  that  which 
remaineth.  remaineth  in  glory.  Wherefore,  having  such  a  persua¬ 
sion,  we  use  much  plainness  of  speech;  and  not  as  Moses,  who  put 
a  veil  upon  his  face,  that  the  children  of  Israel  might  not  steadfastly 
book  to  the  end  of  the  thing  to  he  abolished.  Now  their  minds  were 
blinded:  for  until  this  day,  the  same  veil  remaineth  in  the  reading 
of  the  Old  Covenant,  it  not  being  revealed,  that  it  is  abolished  by 
Christ.  Moreover,  until  this  day,  when  Moses  is  read,  the  veil  lieth 


104 


DEBATE. 


upon  their  heart.  But,  when  it  shall  turn  to  the  Lord,  the  veil  shall 
be  taken  from  around  it.  Now  the  Lord  is  the  Spirit :  and  where 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  freedom.  For  we  all,  with  an 
unveiled  face,  reflecting  as  mirrors  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  trans¬ 
formed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  as  from  the  Lord 
of  the  spirit.” 

Here  is  the  contrast — letter  and  spirit.  “The  letter  kills — the 
spirit  gives  life.  Ministration  of  death — ministration  of  spirit,  that 
which  is  done  away,  and  that  which  remains.” — Glorious  the  former  - 
in  its  promulgation,  more  glorious  the  latter  in  its  introduction; — 
tending  of  the  one  is  to  bondage,  of  the  other  to  liberty.  All  human 
privileges  are  constitutional.  Therefore  as  is  the  constitution,  so 
are  the  privileges  of  the  people  whose  it  is. 

But  here  we  must  observe  that  there  is  some  reason  in  Mr.  Owen’s 
remark,  that  men  are  not  to  be  made  happy  by  letter  or  law.  Writ¬ 
ten  codes  of  laws  however  good  are  not  adapted  to  augment  human 
happiness,  much  less  to  produce  it.  Laws  are  restraints — the  more 
numerous,  the  more  are  the  restraints;  to  restrain  a  person  is  to  di¬ 
minish  his  t  *joyments.  It  is  therefore  much  more  conducive  to 
human  happiness  to  remove  the  cause  which  makes  these  restraints 
necessary.  To  infuse  into  the  mind  such  principles  as  will  make 
men  happy  is  infinitely  more  rational  than  by  good  laws  to  curb  evil 
principles  already  implanted.  To  remove  the  disposition  to  steal,  is 
much  more  rational  than  to  promulge  laws  against  theft.  That  sys¬ 
tem  then  is  incomparably  the  most  conducive  to  morality,  good  order, 
and  happiness,  and  is  therefore  by  far  the  most  rational,  which 
removes  the  evil  principle,  rather  than  attempts  to  curb  it  by  legal 
restraints.  The  law  was  not  made  for  good  men.  In  any  state  of 
society  the  only  happiness  that  good  men  derive  from  law  is  protec¬ 
tion.  In  no  other  way  can  it  conduce  to  their  happiness.  It  is 
made  for  evil  doers. 

So  far,  then,  Mr.  Owen  is  right;  but  had  he  known  what  follows,  he 
never  would  have  adopted  so  ineffectual  a  scheme  as  that  which  he 
has  proposed.  The  Almighty  gave  us  an  excellent  specimen  of  what 
a  good  law  could  do:  he  made  the  experiment  for  us  in  the  history 
of  the  Jews.  He  gave  them  the  best  constitution,  the  finest  country, 
and  a  well  arranged  society — a  very  social  system.  The  twelve  tribes 
were  twelve  communities.  They  supplied  themselves  and  created  a 
large  surplus;  so  that  for  two  years,  at  least,  in  every  seven,  they 
rested,  and  their  land  rested  one.  They  were  under  the  best  govern¬ 
ment,  and  enjoyed  the  greatest  share  of  social  privileges  ever  enjoyed 
by  any  people ;  yet  they  became  worse  and  worse. 

Now  he  found  fault  with  the  whole  economy,  and  introduced  a  new 
one  upon  quite  different  principles.  Instead  of  circumcising  the  flesh, 
he  circumcised  the  heart ;  and  instead  of  giving  a  code  of  laws  to 
govern  mbn’s  outward  actions,  he  gives  them  new  hearts;  or,  in  other 
words,  by  a  constitution  of  pure  favor,  or  grace,  he  implants  noble 
principles,  so  efficient,  as  neither  confiscation  of  goods,  imprisonment, 
nor  death  itself,  could  induce  them  to  do  a  mean  action.  I  admit  that 


DEBATE: 


iiinve  meyn  have  corrupted  Christianity  by  converting  it  into  a  new 
£ode  of  la^vs,  observances,  and  ceremonies,  it  has  not  been  so  produc¬ 
tive  of  those  happy  influences  as  it  once  was  almost  universally;  yet 
still  its  direct  influences  upon  all  who  believe  and  understand  it,  are 
equal  to  what  they  ever  were;  and  its  indirect  influences  upon  society 
at  large,  have  civilized  and  moralized  it  to  an  extent  far  beyond  any 
system  ever  exhibited  on  earth. 

But  what  I  now  contend  for  is,  that  pure  Christianity  is  predicated 
upon  the  most  philosophic  view  of  human  nature.  It  aims  not  at  re¬ 
forming  or  happifying  the  world  by  a  system  of  legal  restraints,  how¬ 
ever  excellent;  but  its  immediate  object  is  to  implant  in  the  human 
heart,  through  a  discovery  of  the  divine  philanthropy,  a  principle  of 
love,  which  fulfils  every  moral  precept  ever  promulged  on  earth.  Here 
is  the  grand  secret.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  melts  the  hearts  of 
men  into  pure  philanthropy.  It  converts  a  lion  into  a  lamb.  It  has 
done  this  in  our  times  in  countless  instances.  Mr.  Owen  only  dreams 
of  reformations.  Christianity  alone  changes,  regenerates,  and  re¬ 
forms  wicked  men.  The  materialists  declare  their  system  “cannot 
make  a  tricked  man  good”  Scepticism  never  converted  a  wicked 
man  since  the  days  of  Celsus  till  now.  Mr.  Owen  cannot  produce 
one  instance.  But  Christianity  taking  hold  of  the  heart  of  man,  not 
by  law,  but  by  love;  not  by  letter,  bnt  by  favor,  has  converted  mil¬ 
lions  of  the  worst  characters  into  the  very  host.  Yes,  the  religion  of 
Jesus  sheds  abroad  in  the  human  heart  the  love  of  God;  and  that 
love,  purifying  the  heart,  overflows  in  all  good  actions — kind,  humane, 
benevolent;  not  only  to  the  good,  but  to  the  evil.  This  is  the  true 
philosophy.  Correct  the  spring — the  fountain.  “Make  the  tree  good” 
Engraft  a  new  scion  on  the  old  stock.  Infuse  new  life,  Warm  the 
heart  by  the  wonderful  love  of  God,  exhibited  and  sealed  by  the  blood 
of  his  Son.  Let  this  love,  this  pure  benevolence,  this  genuine  phi¬ 
lanthropy,  but  reach  the  soul  of  man,  and  then  all  is  pure  within  and 
moral  without  t — 

‘'Talk  they  of  morals!  O  thou  bleeding  Love, 

“The  chief  morality  is  love  of  thee!” 

What  law  could  never  do,  though  as  holy,  just,  and  good  as  the  con¬ 
stitution  of  Israel,  through  the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  God,  sending  his 
own  Son,  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  has  done;  helms  condemned 
sin,  wounded  it,  and  killed  it  by  a  most  transcendantly  glorious  dis¬ 
play  of  love. 

Where  are  Mr.  Owen’s  weapons  to  reform  the  world  ?  He  dare  not— 
in  fact,  he  does  not,  pretend  to  reform  the  world.  He  owns  he  has 
nothing  to  propose  adequate  to  the  task ;  and  therefore  only  promises 
to  save  the  next  generation  by  a  whimsical  arrangement  of  circum¬ 
stances.  He  proposes  to  grow  better  men  and  women;  not  to  improve 
the  present  race.  And  w'hat  is  the  pith  of  his  philosophy?  Why,  it  is 
this:  Transplant  a  crab  tree  and  it  becomes  an  apple  tree.  But  the 
Great  Reformer’s  philosophy  was,  Engraft  a  new  sc\on.  Such  is  thp 


106  DEBATE. 

exact  difference  between  the  scheme  of  Mr.  Owen  and  the  Founder  of 
Christianity. 

But  let  us  have  a  word  from  Paul  on  the  contrast  between  the  Jew- 

% 

ish  and  Christian  religion.  I  will,  for  the  sake  of  despatch,  para¬ 
phrase  a  part  of  the  fourth  chapter  to  the  Galatians,  thus : — “Now  I 
say,  the  heir,  as  long  as  he  is  a  minor,  differs  in  no  respect  from  a 
slave,  though  he  be  lord  of  all;  for  he  is  kept  under  tutors  and 
stewards  until  he  is  of  age,  or  until  the  time  appointed  in  the  will  of 
his  father.  Just  so  it  was  with  us  Jews,  while  in  our  minority,  which 
was  during  the  dominion  of  the  old  constitution;  we  were  kept  in 
bondage,  restrained,  and  curbed  by  the  elements,  or  leading  princi¬ 
ples  of  that  institution  of  law.  But  when  the  fulness  of  time  appoint¬ 
ed  by  our  father  in  his  will  had  come,  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  born 
of  a  woman,  and  born  under  the  old  constitution,  that  he  might  be  a 
fellow-subject  (I  cannot  say  fellow-citizen)  with  us  under  that  constitu¬ 
tion,  that  he  might  be  constitutionally  qualified  to  buy  us  off  out  of 
the  slavery  of  the  letter;  that  we  might  be  elevated  from  the  rank  of 
trembling  slaves,  to  the  adoption  of  sons.  And  now,  having  been 
raised  to  the  rank  of  sons,  God  has,  under  a  new  constitution ,  given 
us  the  spirit  of  his  Son  in  our  hearts;  so  that  we  confidently  and 
affectionately  say,  as  little  children  speak,  Abba,  Father.  Now,  my 
brethren  of  the  Jews,  once  subjects  of  the  old  constitution,  you  are 
no  more  bondmen  but  sons  in  feeling,  hi  spirit  ;  and,  in  truth,  too,  by 
relation ;  and  if  sons,  you  know  you  are  heirs  of  God  through  his  Son, 
the  Messiah.  Well,  then,  brethren,  you  will  never,  I  hope,  desire  to 
be  under  the  old  constitution  again;  but,  I  trust,  you  will  stand  firm 
in  the  liberty  which  you  enjoy  of  serving  God  under  the  new  constitu¬ 
tion,  not  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter ,  but  in  a  new  spirit” 

Often  does  Paul  rally  upon  this  point:  You  Christians  are  “ not  under 
law ,  but  under  favor;”  sin  shall  not,  then,  have  power  to  lord  it  over 
you,  seeing  you  are  not  under  the  condemning  genius  of  law7,  but 
under  the  pardoning,  reconciling,  purifying,  and  ennobling  genius  of 
fav  r. 

This  is  the  genius  of  Christianity.  By  Moses  came  the  age  of  law. 
By  Jesus  the  Messiah  came  the  reign  of  favor.  So  sang  the  angels 
when  they  announced  his  birth,  “Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  heavens ; 
Peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  among  men.”  Letters  only  reach  the 
eyes,  but  favor  can  touch  the  heart.  Laws  expressed  in  words  assail 
the  ears  and  aim  at  restraining  actions;  but  love  pierces  to  the  heart, 
and  disarms  the  rising  thought  of  mischievous  intent.  It  is  called  the 
Reign  of  Heaven,  because  down  into  the  heart  it  draw7s  the  heavenly 
feelings,  desires,  and  aims.  From  heaven  it  came,  and  to  heaven  it 
leads.  I  will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  says  the  Lord.  I 
will  revolutionize  the  world;  and  how,  my  friends,  but  by  introducing 
new  principles  of  human  actions? 

Paul  informs  us  that  the  new  constitution  is  every  way  better  than 
the  old  one.  The  Mediator  is  superior  to  Moses — its  provisions  better 
-  —its  seal  and  pledges  better.  It  runs  in  a  few  sentences.  It  promises— 


Debate. 


left 


1 .  To  write  the  law  upon  the  heart.  That  is,  to  implant  the  prin¬ 
ciple,  which  induces  to  all  the  good  and  pious  works  which  the  law 
demanded,  and  which  will  exclude  the  necessity  of  law  taking  cog¬ 
nizance  only  of  the  outward  deeds. 

2.  It  promises  to  all  subjects  the  remission  of  all  sins ;  and,  conse¬ 
quently,  banishes  all  guilt  and  fear  from  the  conscience. 

3.  It  assures  all  the  citizens  of  having  a  just  knowledge  of  God ; 
and, 

4.  It  promises  that  God  himself  shall  be  theirs,  and  they  his. 

Now  let  me  ask,  what  is  wanting  in  this  New  Constitution,  (and  this 

is  the  whole  of  it,)  to  make  men  just  what  reason  says  they  ought  to 
be — to  make  them  good  companions  and  happy  in  themselves? 

How  much  happiness  is  there  in  doing  good?  All  this  happiness  is 
theirs,  for  it  imparts  the  disposition.  How  much  happiness  is  there 
in  having  all  fear  of  death,  all  guilt  and  shame  removed  from  the  soul 
of  man? — This  happiness  is  theirs.  How  much  happiness  in  seeing 
all  our  fellow-citizens  knowing  the  character  of  God,  his  will,  and  de¬ 
signs  with  regard  to  the  whole  human  race,  and  all  rejoicing  in  God  ? 
This  happiness  is  theirs.  And  how  much  real  felicity  is  there  in  hav¬ 
ing  all  the  treasures  of  God,  all  the  riches  of  the  heavenly  inherit¬ 
ance  in  prospect;  as  well  as  all  assurance  given  us  that  on  earth  we 
shall  never  be  deserted  nor  forsaken  by  the  Lord  ?  Now  all  these  are 
constitutional  privileges  belonging  to  every  citizen  of  this  kingdom — to 
every  one  under  the  New  Constitution.  There  is  not  one  citizen  in 
the  kingdom,  of  which  this  is  the  constitution,  who  has  not  in  his  heart 
the  law  of  love  written;  not  one  who  does  not  know  God;  not  one 
who  has  not  all  his  sins  forgiven ;  not  one  who  has  not  a  good  hope  of 
the  heavenly  and  eternal  inheritance.  Such  is  the  unexaggerated 
character,  genius,  and  design  of  the  New  Constitution,  or  Christian 
Religion. 

We  are  not,  my  friends,  to  suppose  that  the  Patriarchal,  Jewish* 
and  Christian  religions,  as  we  call  them,  are  three  distinct  religions. 
They  are  but  one  religion.  The  seed  was  sown  in  the  Patriarchal 
age,*  the  plant  sprang;  up  and  put  forth  its  leaves  and  blossoms  under 
the  cultivation  of  the  Jewish;  it  ripened  and  was  matured  under  the* 
Christian.  Favor  was  promised  under  the  Patriarchal,  was  symholi 
zed  and  shadowed  forth  under  the  Jewish,  and  accomplished  and  re¬ 
alized  under  the  New  Constitution.  The  first  formed  good  individ’ 
uals;  the  second,  while  held  sacred,  made  a  happy  nation,  and 
comparatively  a  moral  people;  but  the  third  fills  men  with  heavenly 
influenced ;  with  peace,  and  joy,  and  righteousness ;  and  can  make, 
and  will  terminate  in,  a  pure  and  happy  world. 

Mahometnnism  is  only  a  corruption  and  perversion  of  Judaism  and 
Christianity — Idolatry  is  but  a  perversion  and  corruption  of  the  patri¬ 
archal  and  Jewish  dispensations.  The  apostacy  or  anti-Christ  is  but 
a  corruption  of  Christianity,  a  heterogeneous  commixture  of  Judaism, 
Paganism,  and  Christianity.  There  has  been  but  one  religion  ever 
in  the  world.  In  other  words,  the  fountain  whence  all  superstitions 
have  originated  was  one  and  the  same.  Hence  we  find  the  prominent 


108 


DEBATE. 


ideas  of  divine  revelation  in  every  superstition  on  earth.  As  we 
trace  languages  to  a  common  fountain  and  origin,  so  we  trace  reli¬ 
gions.  Idolatry  and  polytheism  were  the  worst  of  all  the  corruptions 
in  degrading  man.  But  as  the  sweetest  wine  will  make  the  sourest 
vinegar,  Christianity  when  corrupted  has  exhibited  the  most  cruelty 
and  tyranny.  Hence  the  inquisition  has  been  the  most  cruel  and 
wicked  tribunal  upon  this  earth.  The  fine,  vigorous,  plethoric  con¬ 
stitution  when  subdued  by  a  malignant  fever  ,  exhibits  the  greatest 
mass  of  corruption.  But  who  argues  hence  that  a  tine,  vigorous,  and 
healthy  constitution  is  a  curse,  shocks  all  common  sense. 

But  the  root  of  all  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  was  the  incorpo¬ 
rating  with  it  the  opinions  and  speculations  of  Egyptian  and  Indian 
philosophy.  All  the  systems  flourishing  upon  the  earth  when  Jesus 
was  born  were,  with  the  exception  of  the  Jewish,  (and  that,  we  all 
know,  was  much  corrupted,)  mere  systems  of  abstract  opinions  and 
speculations.  Grecian  and  Roman,  as  well  as  the  Eastern  philosophy 
had  filled  ail  the  reasoning  part  of  society  with  the  most  air-built  and 
visionary  schemes  about  matter  and  mind,  creation  and  providence. 
Conversions  from  these  ranks,  from  all  the  sects  of  philosophers, 
polluted,  finally  polluted,  the  Christian  sanctuary.  So  that  Christian¬ 
ity  became,  with  them,  a  science,  a  fit  subject  of  speculation  as 
much  as  any  of  the  doctrines  of  Plato  or  Socrates.  From  these 
unhallowed  commixtures  sprang  the  creed  systems  of  ancient  and 
modern  times,  so  that  finally  almost  every  vestige  of  the  ancient 
simplicity  and  the  true  genius  of  Christianity  disappeared;  and  vari¬ 
ous  schemes  of  sectarian  and  philosophic  Christianity  succeded  and 
supplanted  it. 

This  creed  system  has  been  the  fruitful  source  of  all  the  corruptions 
in  morals,  as  well  as  the  parent  of  all  the  religious  discords  now  in 
Christendom.  But  for  it  Deism,  Atheism,  and  Scepticism  would 
have  found  no  resting  place  amongst  us.  Many  of  the  sceptics,  and 
even  Mr.  Owen  himself,  have  been  attacking  anti-christ  and  thought 
they  were  opposing  Christ.  They  have  not  the  disposition  to  discrim¬ 
inate  between  what  Christianity  is,  and  the  abuses  of  it.  It  requires 
but  little  logical  acumen  to  detect  the  sophistry,  and  but  moderate 
powers  of  declamation  to  expose  the  fooleries  of  most  of  the  systems 
and  exhibitions  of  Christianity.  And  he  must  be  dull  of  apprehen¬ 
sion  who  has  not  felt,  in  this  discussion,  that  Mr.  Owen  has  been 
fighting  against  the  perversions  of  Christianity,  rather  than  against 
the  religion  of  facts,  of  morals,  and  of  happiness  which  our  Redeem¬ 
er  has  established  in  the  world.  But  matter  and  mind,  body  and 
spirit,  in  their  greatest  supposed  opposition  to  each  other,  are  not 
greater  contrasts  than  a  religion  of  opinions  and  a  religion  of  facts. 

And  here  I  beg  leave  to  illustrate  this  distinction  very  briefly. — It 
seems  to  have  been  abundantly  proved,  before  the  Christian  era,  that 
opinions  are  too  feeble  to  stimulate  to  virtue  and  goodness,  and  too 
impotent  to  restrain  from  vice  and  immorality.  Correat  opinions, 
we  see  in  our  own  times,  will  not  purify  the  heart,  nor  reform  the 
life*  Nothing  that  must  be  argued  out  by  a  long  process  of  ratincinq.- 


DEBATE. 


10‘J 

tion  can  be  of  much  po“wer  in  regulating  human  conduct,  its  strength 
is  exhausted  by  the  time  the  point  is  proved.  And  it  must  be  evident 
to  all  that  a  system  which  requires  much  reason  to  comprehend, 
would  be  most  unsuitable  to  the  great  mass  of  mankind.  A  thousand 
persons  can  believe  a  fact,  for  every  one  that  can  comprehend  a 
logical  process  of  reasoning.  Opinions,  too,  are,  after  all,  but  pro¬ 
babilities.  They  can  never  rise  higher  than  a  strong  probability 
but  faith  produces,  in  many  instances,  absolute  certainty,  and  is,  in 
the  very  constitution  of  human  nature,  evidently  intended  to  be  a 
common  and  a  most  powerful  principle  of  action.  But  opinions  are 
not,  in  the  constitution  of  human  nature,  ever  intended  to  be  a  com¬ 
mon,  nor  a  powerful  principle  of  action.  They  are  Only  to  govern  us, 
or  to  teach  us  to  move  with  caution,  or  sometimes  not  to  move  at  all, 
in  the  absence  of  faith  and  knowledge.  Faith  and  knowledge  are 
the  governing  principles  of  action,  and  opinion  is  only  to  be  consult¬ 
ed  in  the  absence  of  these  two. 

The  Messiah,  well  knowing  what  was  in  man,  adapted  his  religion 
to  the  nature  and  wants  of  men,  and  hence  made  its  reforming,  puri¬ 
fying,  and  saving  efficacy  to  consist  in  the  belief  of  naked  facts. — 
Facts  which,  when  believed,  have  an  intrinsic,  inherent,  and  inalien¬ 
able  power  to  govern  a  man’s  thoughts,  wishes,  motives,  and  conduct. 
The  Christian’s  creed,  then,  runs  in  the  following  style: — I  believe 
that  Jesus  was  the  son  of  Mary  and  the  son  of  God ;  that  he  cured  all 
sorts  of  human  maladies  by  his  power;  was  persecuted  and  rejected 
by  his  own  nation;  crucified,  buried,  and  rose  again,  and  ascended 
into  heaven.  Whatever  was  done  or  said  by  him,  reported  and 
attested  by  his  companions,  who  were  his  witnesses  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  and  the  end  of  time,  constitutes  a  legitimate  article  of  the 
Christian’s  creed.  If  there  have  been  one  hundred  well  attested  facts, 
there' are  a  hundred  articles  in  the  Christian’s  creed.  This  is  the  only 
way  that  a  reasonable  and  an  intelligent  man  can  enumerate  the 
articles  of  his  belief.  But  because  all  the  facts,  minor  and  major, 
in  the  evangelical  histories,  are  comprised  or  rather  terminate  in  the 
death,  burial,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Jesus  Christ — nay, 
indeed,  in  one  that  he  rose  again  by  the  power  of  the  Father ;  the 
Apostle  identified  the  belief  of  these  with  salvation;  or,  in  other 
%vords,  he  said,  “If  you  confess  with  your  lips  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
believe  in  your  heart  that  God  has  raised  him  from  the  dead,  you  shall 
be  saved.”  This  belief,  as  far  as  faith  is  concerned,  brings  a  man 
into  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 

But  how  different  this  from  creeds  of  human  construction!  They 
begin  and  proceed  with  the  mere  assertion  of  abstract  views — such 
as  the  omnipresence  and  omnisciency  of  God;  the  purposes  and 
decrees  of  the  Almighty;  'abstract  views  of  the  fall  of  man;  his 
physical  and  moral  powers;  various  schemes  of  redemption;  the 
nature  of  faith,  atonement,  and  righteousness,  &c.  &c.  Moses  did 
not  thus  frame, a  creed  for  the  Jews.  lie  lays  down  no  definition  of 
God,  but  launches  off  thus,  “In.  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earJi.”  The  apostles  begin  their  creed  in  the  same  style,  “In 

vox.  ii.  10 


no 


DEBATE. 


those  days  came  John  the  Immerser  proclaiming  and  saying,’5  <fcc„ 
Such  is  the  difference  between  the  creed  of  Christians  and  philoso¬ 
phers.  The  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Episcopalian,  and  Metliodistic 
creeds  are  so  many  systems  of  religious  philosophy,  built,  as  they 
suppose,  upon  the  Bible;  just  as  Sir  Isaac’s  system  of  nature  is  built 
upon  the  material  universe.  But  the  old  fashioned  creed  of  the  first 
Christians  ran  in  such  sentences  as  these,  “The  Lord  is  risen,  indeed, 
and  has  appeared  to  Peter.” — “God  has  commanded  reformation  and 
forgiveness  of  sins  to  be  proclaimed  to  all  nations  under  heaven,”  &c. 

But  up  comes  a  grave,  religious,  philosophic  sectary,  and  says,  in 
a  very  serious  mood,  Why,  Sir,  thousands  believe  your  gospel  facts, 
and  they  have  no  more  influence  upon  them  than  the  belief  of  the 
Musselman  in  the  mission  of  Mahomet.  How  will  you  account  for 
this?  I  tell  you,  Sir,  you  are  the  cause  yourself.  You  have  taught 
them  to  think  that  such  a  belief  is  good  for  nothing,  and  in  believing 
you  the  facts  are  neutralized,  just  as  acids  and  alkalies  form  new 
substances,  and  neutralize  each  other.  It  is  so  in  the  minds  of  men. 
A  lie  may  be  believed  along  with  truth — and  the  particular  lie  and 
particular  truth  taught  in  one  sermon,  equally  believed,  render  one 
or  both  inoperative.  Hence  it  is  that  the  most  valuable  truths  are 
inoperative.  A  person  who  has  been  taught  all  his  life  that  nothing 
but  silver  and  gold  can  purchase  food  and  raiment,  might  be  present¬ 
ed  with  a  bank  bill  worth  ten  thousand  dollars ,  and  yet,  under  the 
belief  that  it  w’as  not  jnoney ,  might  perish  with  hunger  or  cold  in  the 
absence  of  gold  and  silver,  thinking  that  he  had  no  money  to  go  to 
market;  but  let  some  person  teach  him  that  this  bank  bill,  by  a  new 
agreement  of  society,  was,  by  appointment  or  law,  good  for  ten  thou¬ 
sand  pieces  of  silver.;  the  moment  he  is  persuaded  of  this,  he  feels 
himself  rich,  and  rejoices  with  exceeding  joy.  So  let  a  person  be 
undeceived  on  this  cardinal  point,  and  be  taught,  that  to  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead ,  to  be  assured  of  this  fact,  is  all  that 
jsnecessary  to  constitute  saving  faith,  or  such  a  belief  as  will,  if 
obeyed,  introduce  a  man  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  a  corre 
epondentjoy  and  gladness  must  ensue. 

Ah!  my  friends,  the  dogmas  which  represent  the  scriptures  as  a 
sealed  book,  and  that  teach  that  new  revelations  must  be  given  to  open 
the  seals,  or  all  that  is  written  is  useless;  the  dogmas  which  teach 
that  saving  faith  is  a  principle  wrought  in  the  heart  independent  of 
the  testimony  of  God,  that  faith  is  the  consequence  of  regeneration ; 
that  a  man  must  be  first  saved  then  believe,  and  all  their  kindred 
dogmas  have  put  weapons  into  the  hands  of  the  adversary  of  our 
faith,  as  well  as  have  made  the  word  of  God  of  none  effect  in  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  all  who  believe  them.  Many  sceptics  mistake  the 
dross  of  mere  human  doctrines  and  dogmas  for  the  pure  gold  of  Chris¬ 
tianity. 

Men  have,  under  the  dominion  of  opinions,  been  made  to  love  and 
hate  one  another  for  the  agreement  or  collision  of  their  opinions. — - 
But  under  the  dominion  of  faith  they  ore  taught  to  allow  a  difference 

_  .  O 

of  opinions.  There  is  but  “one  faith  f  but  no  where  is  it  written 


debate. 


m 


that  there  is  but  one  opinion .  All  Christians  are  in  reality  of  one 
faith;  for  all  believe  the  gospel  facts,  and  he  that  does  not  behove  the 
gospel  facts  cannot  be  a  Christian.  But  the  Apostle  Paul  positively 
commanded  all  Christians  to  maintain  the  “unity  of  the  faith  and  to 
^ receive  one  another  without  regard  to  differences  of  opinion.” — 
There  is  only  one  faith,  but  many  opinions,  and  many  different  de¬ 
grees  of  knowledge;  and  Christianity  makes  allowances  for  these. 

A  sub  and  a  supra  prefixed  to  the  word  lapsarian ,  or  the  letter  i  in 
the  word  omousios ,  or  emoiousios ,  have  made  different  communi¬ 
ties  under  the  banners  of  him  who,  in  his  own  person  and  by  his 
apostles,  condescended  to  all  the  weaknesses  and  dulness  of  intellect 
found  in  man  or  woman  who  loved  Ins  person.  Sectaries  have  for¬ 
gotten  that  God  is  Zone,  as  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ  to  the  world; 
that  all  Christianity  is  resolvable  into  this  grand  truth,  that  L'God  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  send  his  only  begotten  Son  into  the  world ,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  might  be  saved .”  Who,  believing  this, 
can  think  that  he  would  condemn  a  person  that  loved  him  because  he 
could  not  apprehend  the  metaphysical  import  of  a  prefixed  sub  or  su¬ 
pra,  or  an  intermediate  i ? 

Little  children  can  apprehend  and  believe  the  gospel  facts,  as  well, 
or  as  firmly  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton  did.  But.  they  cannot  understand  any 
of  the  abstract  dogmas  of  the  various  philosophic  sects.  Why  then 
exclude  them  from  the  fold  of  Christ?  The  Apostle  John  .addressed 
the  congregations  of  his  time  as  composed  of  old  men,  young  men, 
and  children.  That  they  were  literally  such,  appears  from  his  ad¬ 
dress  to  each.  The  old  men  had  known  Jesus  Christ  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  proclamation  concerning  him.  The  young  men  had  over¬ 
come  the  world,  notwithstanding  the  strength  of  youthful  passions. 
And  the  little  children  had  begun  well,  they  had  been  baptized,  they 
had  just  received  the  remission  of  their  sins.  All  these  had,  however, 
one  faith,  believed  the  same  facts;  but  of  very  different  attainments 
both  in  knowledge  and  in  behaviour.  How  foolish  those  s}*s terns  that 
require  all  men  to  be  of  one  standard  height  in  religious  opinion; 
which  will  have  the  iron  bedstead  of  Procrustes  for  fixing  the  stature  to 


which  every  man  must  grow,  on  peril  of  losing  his  head  or  his  soui  i 
The  genius  of  Christianity  is  love.  Its  tendency  is  peace  on  earth 
and  good  will  among  men — and  it  will  eventuate  in  glory  to  God 
and  man  in  the  highest  heaven.  It  contemplates  the  reformation  of 
the  world  upon  a  new  principle.  It  aims  at  conquering  men  by 
love.  And  he  is  a  superficial  philosopher,  who  cannot  see  that  this 
is  the  only  rational  way  to  promote  purity  and  happiness — ibr  these 
are  inseparable  companions — Happy  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 
see  God?  And  no  system  which  leaves  man  notin  the  possession  of  a 
quiet  conscience  can  bestow  him  happiness.  Love  has  a  transfigur¬ 
ing,  or  transforming  efficacy  upon  the  human  mind.  To  impress  the 
image  of  God,  upon  the  human  heart,  it  is  necessary  that  the  love 
of  God  should  be  exhibited  to  the  human  mind.  Men  cannot  be 
made  to  love  by  commands  and  threats — that  would  be  most  un philo¬ 
sophic,  If  we  would  have  men  to  love,  we  must  present  an  amiable 


DEBATE, 


m 

object,  This  is  God’s  method.  To  fill  men  with  hove  to  him,  he 
shews  them  that  he  loves  them.  They  say,  ume  love  him  because  he 
first  loved  as .”  That  system  which  promotes,  or  is  calculated  to 
promote,  the  greatest  decree  of  love  among  men  is  the  most  philo¬ 
sophic  plan  for  purifying  and  reforming  the  world.  This  Mr.  Owen’s 
system  has  lost  sight  of.  There  is  nothing  in  it  to  produce  love.— 
It  wants  an  object,  amiable  and  magnificent,  to  arouse  reflection, 
admiration,  and  love  in  man.  Eating  and  drinking  and  lodging  in 
the  same  apartments,  are  all  the  stimulus  he  has  to  present  to  the 
human  mind  to  promote  love.  And  yet  who  does  not  know  that  the 
fastings,  and  watchings,  and  hardships,  and  dangers,  of  a  single 
Campaign,  or  of  a  shipwreck,  will  produce  more  kind  feelings  and 
solicitude  for  the  welfare  of 'our  companions  than  the  feasting  together 
for  3'ears  at  the  same  festive  board  is  capable  of  producing?  If  men 
were  to  wreck  their  ingenuity  to  eternity,  to  invent  a  scheme  for 
prornulging  love  and  good  will  among  men,  they  could  find  nothing 
half  comparable  to  the  Christian  scheme.  It  finds  men  hated  and 
hating  one  another,  full  of  bitterness  and  wrath,  yet  all  in  the  same 
calamity.  It  teaches  them  that  they  are  all  shipwrecked,  bankrupts, 
miserable,  and  wretched.  It  makes  them  feel  this'*;  and  then  presents 
them  with  the  love  of  God,  sealed  by  the  death  of  his  Son. 

But  as  yet  we  have  said  nothing  about  doctrine.  True,  indeed, 
’.ye  have  not  spoken  of  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel.  This  word  is  not 
i'll  the  plural  form  when  applied  to  the  truths  of  Christianity,  we 
sometimes  read  of  the  doctrines  of  demons;  but  it  is  only  the  doctrine 
of  Christ.  When  this  term  does  not  mean  teaching  which  it  often 
does,  it  simply  denotes  the  meaning  of  the  facts.  Hence  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  any  fact,  such  as  the  death  or  burial  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  death  or  burial  of  Christ.  As  is  the  moral  to  the  tale, 
so  is  the  doctrine  to  the  fact.  Hence  all  who  believe  the  facts  and 
understand  the  meaning  of  them,  have  the  sound  or  wholesome  doct¬ 
rine  of  Christ.  Some  may,  we  admit,  believe  the  facts  and  not 
understand  the  meaning  of  them.  In  such  a  case,  the  facts  believed 
will  either  not  operate  at  all,  or  have  a  morbid  influence.  The 
apostolic  epistles,  so  far  as  doctrinal ,  are  expressive  of  the  meaning  of 
the  gospel  facts.  They  taught  the  new  converts  the  legitimate 
hearing  and  results  of  the  facts  believed.  The  other  parts  of  these 
letters  were  exhortatory  or  deductions  from  the  facts,  calculated  to 
direct  and  comfort  Christians.  But  all  the  doctrine  of  Christ  grew 
out  of  the  facts,  just  as  all  Christian  faith  is  predicated  upon  the 
testimony  concerning  them. 

Two  sentences  found  in  John’s  writings  explain  the  whole  design 
of  both  the  historical  and  epistolary  parts  of  the  apostles  writings : 
The  design  of  the  historic*.!  books  is  thus  expressed  by  John; — - 
•‘Many  other  signs,  truly,  did  Jesus,  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples, 
which  are  not  written  in  this  book;  but  these  that  are  written,  are 
written  that  you  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah  the  son  of 
God ;  and*  that  believing  you  niight  have  lifie  through  his  name” — - 
The  design  of  the  epistolary  part  he  has  as  clearly  expressed: 


DEBATE. 


113 


“These  things  do  we  write  to  you,  brethren,  that. your  joy  may  be 
complete ,”  or  that  you  may  know  the  things  which  have  been  gifted 
to  you  from  God. 

Having  so  far  glanced  at  the  genius  and  design  of  the  Christian 
scriptures,  and  the  Christian  religion,  and  remotely  at  its  tendencies, 
we  shall  give  place  to  Soame  Jenyns  again  on  the  tendency  of  this 
religion.  The  extract  which  I  am  about  to  read,  not  only  shews  the 
natural  tendency  of  this  religion  but  constitutes  a  formidable  argu¬ 
ment  in  proof  of  its  authenticity.  For  as  1  hinted  to  you  before, 
this  erudite  and  acute  statesman  triumphantly  proves  the  Divine 
authority  of  this  religion,  from  the  religion  itself \  or  what  is  not 
onfrequentiy  termed,  the  interned  evidence — concerning  the  object 
of  this  religion,  he  says:  page  13 — 16. 

“First  then,  the  object  of  this  religion  is  entirely  new,  and  is  this: 
to  prepare  us  by  a  state  of  probation  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven. — 
This  is  every  where  professed  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  to  be  the 
chief  end  of  the  Christian’s  life;  the  crown  for  which  he  is  to  con¬ 
tend,  the  goal  to  which  he  is  to  run,  the  harvest  which  is  to  pay  him 
for  all  his  labours.  Yet  previous  to  their  preaching  no  such  prize 
was  ever  hung  out  to  mankind,  nor  any  means  prescribed  for  the 
attainment  of  it. 

It  is  indeed  true,  that  some  of  the  philosophers  of  antiquity  enter¬ 
tained  notions  of  a  future  state,  but  mixed  with  much  doubt  and 
uncertainty.  Their  legislators  also  endeavored  to  infuse  into  the 
minds  of  the  people  a  belief  of  rewards  and  punishments  after  death; 
but  bv  this  they  only  intended  to  give  a  sanction  to  their  laws,  and  to 
enforce  the  practice  of  virtue  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  in  the  pres¬ 
ent  life.  This  alone  seems  to  have  been  their  end,  and  a  meritorious 
end  it  was;  but  Christianity  not  only  operates  more  effectually  to 
this  end,  but  has  a  nobler  design  in  view;  which  is,  by  a  proper 
education  here,  to  render  us  fit  members  of  a  celestial  society  here¬ 
after.  In  all  former  religions,  the  good  of  the  present  life  was  the 
first  object;  in  the  Christian,  it  is  but  the  second.  In  those,  men 
were  incited  to  promote  that  good  by  the  hopes  of  a  future  reward; 
in  this,  the  practice  of  virtue  is  enjoyed  in  order  to  qualify  them  for 
that  reward.  There  is  a  great  difference,  I  apprehend,  in  these  two 
plans;  that  is,  in  adhering  to  virtue  from  its  present  utility  in  expect¬ 
ation  of  a  future  happiness,  and  living  in  such  a  manner  as  to  qualify 
us  for  the  acceptance,  and  the  enjoyment  of  that  happiness ;  and  the 
conduct  and  disposition  of  those,  who  act  on  these  different  principles, 
must  be  no  less  different.  On  the  first,  the  constant  practice  of 
justice,  temperance,  and  sobriety,  will  be  sufficient;  but  on  the  latter, 
we  must  add  to  these  an  habitual  piety,  faith,  resignation,  and  con¬ 
tempt  of  the  world.  The  first  may  make  us  very  good  citizens,  but 
will  produce  but  a  tolerable  Christian.  Hence  it  is  that  Christianity 
insists  more  strongly,  than  any  preceding  institution,  religious  or 
moral,  on  purity  of  heart  and  a  benevolent  disposition;  because  these 
are  absolutely  necessary  to  its  great  end.  But  in  those,  whose 
recommendations  of  virtue  regard  the  present  life  only,  and  whose 
VOL.  II.  10* 


124 


DEBATE. 


promised  rewards  in  another,  were  low  and  sensual,  no  preparatory 
qualifications  were  requisite  to  enable  men  to  practice  the  one,  or  to 
enjoy  the  other;  and  therefore  we  see  this  object  is  peculiar  to  this 
religion,  and  with  it,  was  entirely  new. 

But  although  this  object,  and  the  principles  on  which  it  is  founded 
were  new,  and  perhaps  undiscoverable  by  reason,  yet  when  disco- 
vered,  they  are  so  consonant  to  it,  that  we  cannot  but  readily  assent 
to  them.  For  the  truth  of  this  principle,  that  the  present  life  is  a 
.State  of  probation,  and  education  to  prepare  us  fof  another,  is  con¬ 
firmed  by  every  thing  which  we  see  around  us.  It  is  the  only  key 
which  can  open  to  us  the  designs  of  Providence  in  the  economy  of 
human  affairs ;  the  only  clue,  which  can  guide  us  through  that  path¬ 
less  wilderness,  and  the  only  plan  on  which  this  world  could  possibly 
have  been  formed,  or  on  which  the  history  of  it  can  be  comprehended 
or  explained.  It  could  never  have  been  formed  on  a  plan  of  happi¬ 
ness,  because  it  is  every  where  overspread  with  innumerable  miseries ; 
nor  of  misery,  because  it  is  interspersed  with  many  enjoyments. 
It  could  not  have  been  constituted  for  a  scene  of  wisdom  and  virtue, 
because  the  history  of  mankind  is  little  more  than  a  detail  of  their 
follies,  and  wickedness;  nor  of  vice,  because  that  is  no  plan  at  all, 
being  destructive  of  all  existence,  and  consequently  of  its  own.  But 
on  this  system  all  that  we  here  meet  with,  may  be  easily  accounted 
for;  for  this  mixture  of  happiness  and  misery,  of  virtue  and  vice, 
necessarily  results  from  a  state  of  probation  and  education ;  as  pro¬ 
bation  implies  trials,  sufferings,  and  a  capacity  of  offending;  and 
education,  a  propriety  of  chastisement  for  those  offences.”* 

More  has  been  read  here  than  is  necessary  to  our  object,  the 
prominent  idea  on  which  we  emphasise  is,  that  the  tendency  of  this 
religion  is  to  produce  purity  of  heart  as  essential  to  present  and  future 
happiness;  not  to  obtain  it  as  a  reward,  but  to  prepare  ourselves  for 
the  enjoyment  of  it.  A  person  to  sustain  any  character  must  have 
a  previous  training.  A  plain  unlettered  man  would  feel  himself  but 
ill  at  ease  among  the  polished  grandees  of  this  world :  his  taste,  edu¬ 
cation  and  habits  would  disqualify  him  for  all  enjoyments  in  their 
society.  Now  this  is  the  prominent  design  of  the  Christian  religion, 
not  only  to  reveal  a  future  state,  but  to  prepare  us  for  the  enjoyment 
of  it.  A  design  so  apparent  in  the  volume  as  to  make  it  a  miracle , 
to  me  at  least,  how  any  person  could  conceive  the  authors  of  it  to  be 
bad  men,  deceivers,  err  impostors. 

That  the  object  or  design  of  the  Christian  religion  is  not  political, 
needs  scarcely  to  be  proved ;  when  speaking  of  the  personal  character 
of  this  religion,  Mr.  Jenyns  very  forcibly  remarks,  page  90 — 22. 

“And  here  1  cannot  omit  observing,  that  the  personal  character 
of  the  author  of  this  religion  is  no  less  new,  and  extraordinary,  than 
the  religion  itself,  who  '^spake  as  never  man  spake,”  and  lived  as 
never  man  lived.  In  proof  of  this,  I  do  not  mean  to  alledge,  that  he 

*See  the  same  train  of  thought  ingeniously  pursued  in  one  of  the  Spectators 
of  Addison,  in  which  he  considers  heaven,  not  so  much  the  reward  as  the  con¬ 
sequence  of  virtuous  actions, — Reporter. 


DEBATE. 


ire 

fasted  fofty  days,  that  he  performed  a  variety  of  miraclts,  and  after 
being  buried  three  days,  that  he  arose  from  die  dead;  because  these 
accounts  will  have  but  little  effect  on  the  minds  of  unbelievers,  who, 
if  they  believe  not  the  religion,  will  give  no  credit  to  the  relation  of 
these  facts;  but  I  will  prove  it  from  facts,  which  cannot  be  disputed. 
For  instance,  he  is  the  only  founder  of  a  religion  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  which  is  totally  unconnected  with  all  human  policy  and 
government,  and  therefore  totally  unconducive  to  any  worldly  pur 
pose  whatever.  All  others,  Mahomet,  Numa,  and  even  Moses  him¬ 
self,  blended  their  religious  institutions  with  their  civil,  and  by  them 
obtained  dominion  over  their  respective  people;  but  Christ  neither 
aimed  at,  nor  would  accept  of  any  such  power,  he  rejected  every 
object,  which  all  other  men  pursue,  and  made  choice  of  all  those 
which  others  fly  from,  and  are  afraid  of.  He  refused  power,  riches, 
honors,  and  pleasure;  and  courted  poverty,  ignominy,  tortures,  and 
death.  Many  have  been  the  enthusiasts,  and  impostor’s,  who  have 
endeavored  to  impose  on  the  world  pretended  revelations,  and  some 
of  them  from  pride,  obstinacy,  or  principle,  have  gone  so  far,  as  to 
lay  down  their  lives,  rather  than  retract. — But  I  defy  history  to  show 
one,  who  ever  made  his  own  sufferings  and  death  a  necessary  part 
of  his  original  plan,  and  essential  to  hi^mission ;  this  Christ  actually 
did:  he  foresaw,  foretold,  declared  their  necessity,  and  voluntarily 
endured  them.  If  wc  seriously  contemplate  the  divine  lessons,  the 
perfect  precepts,  the  beautiful  discourses,  and  the  consistent  conduct 
of  this  wonderful  person,  we  cannot  possibly  imagine,  that  he  could 
have  been  either  an  idiot  or  a  madman ;  and  yet,  if  he  was  not  what 
he  pretended  to  be,  he  can  be  considered  in  no  other  light.  And 
even  under  this  character  he  would  deserve  some  attention,  because 
of  so  sublime  and  rational  an  insanity  there  is  no  other  instance  in 
the  history  of  mankind.” 

In  speaking  of  the  moral  character  and  tendency  of  the  Christian 
religion',  the  same  very  acute  writer  observes :  “That  every  moral 
precept  founded  on  reason  is  carried  to  a  higher  degree  of  purity  and 
perfection  than  in  any  other  system  of  the  ancient  philosophers  of 
preceding  ages — every  moral  precept,  founded  on  false  principles  is 
entirely  omitted,  and  many  new  precepts  added,  peculiarly  corres-* 
ponding  with  the  new  object  of  this  religion.”  From  these  peculiar¬ 
ities  he  deduces  a  very  powerful  argument  in  proof  of  its  Divine 
origin.  The  first  item  has  been  frequently  noticed  by  other  writers! 
But  few  have  spoken  more  explicitly  on  the  false  virtues  omitted  i& 
the  Christian  religion,  though  universally  applauded  in  all  other  re¬ 
ligions.  These  false  virtues  are  valour ,  patriotism ,  and  friendship, 
Ilis  remarks  upoft  these  three  being  very  brief,  I  beg  leave  to  read 
them.  Page  31 — 3G. 

“Valor,  for  instance,  or  active  courage,  is  for  the  most  part  con* 
srtitutional,  and  therefore  can  have  no  more  claim  to  moral  merit, 
than  wit,  beauty,  health,  strength,  or  any  other  endowment  of  the 
mind  or  body;  and  so  far  is  it  from  producing  any  salutary  effects  by 
introducing  peace*  order*,  of  happiness  into  society,  that  it  is  the 


116 


DEBATE. 


usual  perpetrator  of  all  the  violences,  which  from  retaliated  injuries, 
distract  the  world  with  bloodshed  and  devastation.  It  is  the  engine 
by  which  the  strong  are  enabled  to  plunder  the  weak,  the  proud  to 
trample  upon  the  humble,  and  the  guilty  to  oppress  the  innocent, 
it  is  the  chief  instrument  which  ambition  employs  in  her  unjust  pur¬ 
suits  of  wealth  and  power,  and  is  therefore  so  much  extolled  by  her 
votaries.  It  was  indeed  congenial  with  the  religion  of  pagans,  whos& 
gods  were  for  the  most  part  made  out  of  deceased  heroes,  exalted  to 
heaven  as  a  reward  for  the  mischiefs  which  they  had  perpetrated 
upon  earth,  and  therefore,  with  them,  this  was  the  first  of  virtues, 
and  had  even  engrossed  that  denomination  to  itself;  but  whatever 
merit  it  may  have  assumed  among  pagans,  with  Christians  it  can 
pretend  to  none,  and  few  or  none  are  the  occasions  in  which  they  are 
permitted  to  exert  it.  They  are  so  far  from  being  allowed  to  inflict 
evil,  that  they  are  forbid  even  to  resist  it;  they  are  so  far  from  being 
encouraged  to  revenge  injuries,  that  one  of  their  first  duties  is  to 
forgive  them;  so  far  from  being  incited  to  destroy  their  enemies,  that 
they  are  commanded  to  love  them,  and  to  serve  them  to  the  utmost 
of  their  power.  If  Christian  nations  therefore  were  nations  of  Chris¬ 
tians,  all  war  would  be  impossible  and  unknown  among  them,  and 
valour  could  be  neither  of  use  nor  estimation,  and  therefore  could 
never  have  a  place  in  the  catalogue  of  Christian  virtues,  being 
irreconcileable  with  all  its  precepts.  I  object  not  to  the  praise  and 

honors  bestowed  on  the  valiant,  they  are  the  least  tribute  which  can 

* 

be  paid  them  by  those  who  enjoy  safety  and  affluence  by  the  inter¬ 
vention  of  their  dangers  and  sufferings;  I  assert  only  that  active 
courage  can  never  be  a  Christian  virtue,  because  a  Christian  can 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Passive  courage  is  indeed  frequently, 
and  properly  inculcated  hv  this  meek  and  suffering  religion,  under 
the  titles  of  patience  and  resignation :  a  real  and  substantial  virtue 
this,  and  a  direct  contrast  to  the  former;  for  passive  courage  arises 
from  the  noblest  dispositions  of  the  human  mind,  for  a  contempt  of 
misfortunes,  pain,  and  death,  and  a  confidence  in  the  protection  of  the 
Almighty;  active,  from  the  meanest;  from  passion,  vanity,  and  self- 
dependence.  Passive  courage  is  derived  from  a  zeal  for  truth,  and 
a  perseverance  in  duty ;  active  is  the  offspring  of  pride  and  revenge, 
ana  the  parent  of  cruelty  and  injustice.  In  short,  passive  courage  is 
the  resolution  of  a  philosopher;  active,  the  ferocity  of  a  savage; 
Nor  is  this  more  incompatible  with  the  precepts,  than  with  the  object 
of  this  religion,  which  is  the  attainment  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven; 
for  valor  is  not  that  sort  of  violence  by  which  that  kingdom  is  to 
be  taken;  nor  are  the  turbulent  spirits  of  heroes  and  conquerors  ad¬ 
missible  into  those  regions  of  peace,  subordination,  and  tranquility. 

“Patriotism  also,  that  celebrated  virtue,  so  much  practised  in 
ancient,  and  so  much  professed  in  modern  times;  that  virtue,  which 
so  long  preserved  the  liberties  of  Greece,  and  exalted  Rome  to  the 
empire  of  the  world;  this  celebrated  virtue,  I  say,  must  also  be  ex¬ 
cluded;  because  it  not  only  falls  short  of,  but  directly  counteracts,' 
the  extensive  benevolence  of  this  religion.  A  Christian  is  of  no 


DEBATE 


117 


country;. ho  is  a  citizen  of  the  world;  and  his  neighbors  and  country¬ 
men  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  remotest  regions,  whenever  their 
distresses  demand  his  friendly  assistance.  Christianity  commands 
us  to  love  all  mankind,  patriotism  to  oppress  all  other  countries  to 
advance  the  imaginary  prosperity  of  our  own.  Christianity  enjoins 
us  to  imitate  the  universal  benevolence  of  our  Creator,  who  pours 
forth  his  blessings  on  every  nation  upon  earth;  patriotism,  to  copy 
the  mean  partiality  of  an  English  parish  officer,  who  thinks  injustice 
and  cruelty  meritorious,  whenever  they  promote  the  interests  of  his 
own  inconsiderable  village.  This  has  ever  been  a  favourite  virtue 
with  mankind,  because  it  conceals  self-interest  under  the  mask  of 
public  spirit,  not  only  from  others,  but  even  from  themselves,  and 
gives  a  license  to  inflict  wrongs  and  injuries,  not  only  with  impunity, 
but  with  applause;  but  it  is  so  diametrically  opposite  to  the  great 
characteristic  of  this  institution,  that  it  never  could  have  been  ad¬ 
mitted  into  the  list  of  Christian  virtues. 

“Friendship  likewise,  although  more  congenial  to  the  principles 
of  Christianity,  arising  from  more  tender  and  amiable  dispositions, 
could  never  gain  admittance  among  her  benevolent  precepts  for  the 
Same  reason;  because  it  is  too  narrow  and  confined, and  appropriates 
t#it  benevolence  to  a  single  object,  which  is  here  commanded  to  be 
extended  to  all.  Where  friendship  arises  from  similarity  of  senti¬ 
ments,  and  disinterested  affections,  they  are  advantageous,  agreeable, 
and  innocent,  but  have  little  pretensions  to  merit;  for  it  is  justly 
observed,  “If  ye  love  them,  which  love  you,  what  thank  have  ye  ? 
for  sinners  also  love  those,  that  love  them.”  But  if  they  are  formed 
from  alliances  in  parties,  factions,  and  interests,  or  from  a  participa¬ 
tion  of  vices,  the  usual  parents  of  what  are  called  friendships  among 
mankind,  they  are  then  both  mischievous  and  criminal,  and  conse¬ 
quently  forbidden,  but  in  their  utmost  purity  deserve  no  recommen¬ 
dation  from  this  religion.” 

As  Mr.  Jenyns,  though  a  very  honorable  member  of  the  British 
parliament,  dared  to  avow  that  patriotism  was  not  one  of  the  Christian 
virtues,  we  may  add  that  even  the  policy  which  we  so  much  appro¬ 
bate  in  this  community  under  the  name  of  “The  American  system^ 
though  mo^t  unquestionably  good  policy,  is  a  very  bright  example  of 
the  correctness  of  his  remark  upon  patriotism.  The  patriotism  of 
Great  Britain  would  not  permit  her  to  buy  the  products  of  our  soil, 
and  our  patriotism  will  not  permit  us  to  buy  the  products  of  her 
mechanical  labors;  she  will  compel  her  own  subjects  to  suffer  rather 
than  purchase  our  corn  and  flour,  and  we  will  endeavor  to  deprive 
the  manufacturing  classes  in  Great  Britain  of  the  means  of  subsist¬ 
ence  to  hold  up  our  own.  All  this  is  good  policy  and  good  patriotism, 
hut  no  part  of  the  Christian  religion.  To  call  this  a  virtue  may  be 
correct  in  politics — or  economics: — but  in  the  Christian  religion  it 
would  pass  for  a  false  virtue,  and  very  justly,  according  to  the 
genius  of  this  religion  which  embraces  all  Christians  in  its  affection, 
and  all  mankind  in  its  benevolence. 

Same  have  rather  censured  than  applauded  some  of  the  precepts 


118 


DEBATE. 


found  in  the  “sermon  on  the  mount. ”  Pretty  thing,  indeed,  say  tliey, 
to  be  commanded  “to  turn  the  other  cheek  to  him  that  has  already 
smitten  us  once;”  and  to  go  “two  miles  with  him  that  compels  us  to 
go  one.”  Yes,  indeed,  a  pretty  thing  for  the  proud  and  retaliating! 
But  the  question  is,  Which  is  the  speedier  way  to  end  the  controversy? 
Now  take  the  precept  literally,  and  doubt  not  the  controversy  will  be 
sooner  terminated,  and  less  danger  will  be  incurred  by  turning  the 
ether  cheek  than  by  striking  back; — and  we  will  sooner  get  rid  of  an 
unprofitable  companion  by  going  two  miles  with  him,  than  to  stop 
and  quarrel  on  the  road.  Now,  taking  them  literally ,  which  is  not  in 
accordance  with  the  genius  of  such  maxims,  nor  the  Saviour’s  inten¬ 
tion,  1  presume;  but,  I  say,  take  them  literally,  and  they  are,  in 
their  tendency,  better  than  any  other  course  which  can  be  pursued  to 
terminate  the  quarrel. 

But  Christianity  inculcates  many  virtues  unknown  and  untaught 
before,  each  of  which  demonstrates  its  divinity  and  excellent  ten¬ 
dency.  I  will  prefer  taking  notice  of  them  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Jenyns 
to  my  own  desultory  remarks. 

On  the  beatitude  which  says,  “Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,”  lie  remarks — 

“This  was  so  new,  and  so  opposite  to  the  ideas  of  all  Pagan  moral¬ 
ists,  that  they  thought  this  temper  of  mind  a  criminal  and  contempti¬ 
ble  meanness,  which  must  induce  men  to  sacrifice  the  glory  of  their 
country,  and  their  own  honor,  to  a  shameful  pusillanimity ;  and  such 
it  appears  to  almost  all  who  are  called  Christians  even  at  this  day? 
who  not  only  reject  it  in  practice,  but  disavow  it  in  principle,  not¬ 
withstanding  this  explicit  declaration  of  their  Master.  We  see  them 
revenging  the  smallest  affronts  by  premeditated  murder,  as  indivi¬ 
duals,  on  principles  of  honor;  and,  in  their  national  capacities, 
destroying  each  other  with  fire  and  sword,  lor  the  low  considerations 
of  commercial  interests,  the  balance  of  rival  powers,  or  the  ambition 
of  princes.  We  see  them  with  their  last  breath  animating  each  other 
io  a  savage  revenge,  and  in  the  agonies  of  death,  plunging  with  feeble 
arms  their  daggers  into  the  hearts  of  their  opponents ;  and,  what  is  still 
worse,  we  hear  all  these  barbarisms  celebrated  by  historians,  flattered 
by  poets,  applauded  in  theatres,  approved  in  senates,  and  even  sanc¬ 
tified  in  pulpits.  Bat  universal  practice  cannot  alter  the  nature  ot 
things,  nor  universal  error  change  the  nature  of  truth.  Pride  was 
not  made  for  man,  but  humility,  meekness,  and  resignation ;  that  is, 
poorness  of  spirit  was  made  for  man,  and  properly  belongs  to  his 
dependent  and  precarious  situation ;  and  is  the  only  disposition  of 
mind  which  can  enable  him  to  enjoy  ease  and  quiet  here,  and  hap¬ 
piness  hereafter.  Yet  was  this  important  precept  entirely  unknown 
until  it  was  promulgated  hv  him  who  said,  “Suffer  the  little  children 
to  come,  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not  \  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven;  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  whosoever  shall  not  receive  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not  enter  therein.” 

Another  precept,  equally  new  and  no  less  excellent,  is  forgiveness 
wf  injuries.  “You  have  heard,”  says  Christ  to  his  disciples,  “Thou 


c 

Is 


? 


1 

f 


DEBATE. 


110 


shalt  love  thy  neighbor  and  hate  thy  enemy;  but  1  say  unto  you, 
love  your  enemies;  bless  them  that  curse  you;  do  good  to  them  that 
hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you,  and  perse¬ 
cute  you.'”  This  was  a  lesson  so  new,  and  so  utterly  unknown,  until 
taught  by  his  doctrine,  and  enforced  by  his  example,  that  the  wisest 
moralists  of  the  wisest  nations  and  ages,  represented  the  desire  of 
revenge  as  a  mark  of  a  noble  mind,  and  the  accomplishment  of  it  as 
one  of  the  chief  felicities  attendant  on  a  fortunate  man.  But  how 
much  more  magnanimous,  how  much  more  beneficial  to  mankind,  is 
forgiveness!  It  is  more  magnanimous,  because  every  generous  and 
exalted  disposition  of  the  human  mind  is  requisite  to  the  practice  of 
it:  for  these  alone  can  enable  us  to  bear  the  wrongs  and  insults  of 
wickedness  and  folly  with  patience,  and  to  look  down  on  the  perpe¬ 
trators  of  them  with  pity  rather  than  with  indignation ;  these  alone 
can  teach  us,  that  such  are  but  a  part  of  those  sufferings  allotted  to 
us  in  this  state  of  probation,  and  to  know,  that  to  overcome  evil  with 
good,  is  the  most  glorious  of  all  victories;  it  is  the  most  beneficial, 
because  this  amiable  conduct  alone  cam  put  an  end  to  an  eternal  suc¬ 
cession  of  injuries  and  retaliations;  for  every  retaliation  becomes  it 
new  injury,  and  requires  another  act  of  revenge  for  satisfaction. 
But  would  we  observe  this  salutary  precept,  to  love  our  enemies,  and 
to  do  good  ta  those  who  despitefully  use  us;  this  obstinate  benevolence 
would  at  last  conquer  the  most  inveterate  hearts,  and  we  should  have 
no  enemies  to  forgive.  How  much  more  exalted  a  character,  there¬ 
fore,  is  a  Christian  martyr,  suffering  with  resignation,  and  praying  for 
the  guilty,  than  a  Pagan  hero,  breathing  revenge,  and  destroying  the 
innocent!  Yet  noble  and  useful  as  this  virtue  is,  before  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  this  religion  it  was  not  only  unpractised,  but  decried  in 
principle  as  mean  and  ignominious,  though  so  obvious  a  remedy  for 
most  of  the  miseries  of  this  life,  and  so  necessary  a  qualification  for 
the  happiness  of  another.” — p.  39—42. 

After  specifying  other  virtues  never  before  promulged,  such  as  what 
he  calls  faith,  repentance,  humility,  and  universal  benevolence,  ho 
concludes  with  these  remarks,  p.  51- — 55: — 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Great  Author  of  the  Christian  Institu¬ 
tion,  first  and  singly  ventured  to  oppose  all  the  chief  principles  of 
Pagan  virtue,  and  to  introduce  a  religion  directly  opposite  to  those 
erroneous,  though  long  established  opinions,  both  in  its  duties  and 
in  its  object.  The  most  celebrated  virtues  of  the  ancients  were,  high 
spirit,  intrepid  courage,  and  implacable  resentment. 

“ Impiger ,  iracundus.  inexoralibis ,  acer,  was  the  portrait  of  the 
most  illustrious  hero,  drawn  by  one  of  the  first  poets  of  antiquity. 
To  all  these  admired  qualities,  those  of  a  true  Christian  are  an  exact 
contrast;  for  this  religion  constantly  enjoins  poorness  of  spirit,  meek¬ 
ness,  patience,  and  forgiveness  of  injuries.  “But  I  say  unto  you, 
that  ye  resist  not  evil;  but  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  the  right 
cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also.”  The  favorite  characters  among 
the  Pagans,  were  the  turbulent,  ambitious,  and  intrepid,  who,  through 
toils  and  dangers,  acquired  wealth,  and  spent  it  in  luxury,  magnii> 


120 


DEBATE. 


eence,  and  corruption;  but  both  these  are  equally  adverse  to  the 
Christian  system,  which  forbids  all  extraordinary  efforts  to  obtain 
wealth,  care  to  secure,  or  thought  concerning  the  enjoyment  of  it. 
“Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  on  earth,”  &c.  “Take  no 
thought,  saying,  What  shall  we  eat,  or  what  shall  we  drink,  or  where¬ 
withal  shall  we  clothed?  for  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles 
seek  ”  The  chief  object  of  the  Pagans  was  immortal  fame*:  for  this 
their  poets  sang,  their  heroes  fought,  and  ther  patriots  died;  and  this 
was  hung  out  by  their  philosophers  and  legislators,  as  the  great  incite¬ 
ment  to  all  noble  and  virtuous  deeds.  But  what  says  the  Christian 
Legislator  to  his  disciples  on  this  subject?  Blessed  are  ye,  when 
men  shall  revile  you,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you 
falsely  for  my  sake;  rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad,  for  great  is 
your  reward  in  heaven.”  So  widely  different  is  the  genius  of  the 
Pagan  and  Christian  morality,  that  I  will  venture  to  affirm  that  the 
most  celebrated  virtues  of  the  former  are  more  opposite  to  the  spirit, 
and  more  inconsistent  with  the  end  of  the  latter,  than  even  their 
most  infamous  vices;  and  that  a  Brutus  wrenching  vengeance  out  of 
his  hands  to  whom  alone  it  belongs,  by  murdering  the  oppressor  of  his 
country,  or  a  Cato  murdering  himself  from  an  impatience  of  control, 
leaves  the  world  more  unqualified  for,  and  more  inadmissible  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  than  even  a  Messalina,  or  an  Hsliogabalus, 
with  all  their  profligacy  about  them. 

“Nothing,  1  believe,  has  so  much  contributed  to  corrupt  the  true 
spirit  of  the-christian  institution,  as  that  partiality  which  we  contract 
from  our  earliest  education  for  the  manners  of  Pagan  antiquity :  from 
whence  we  learn  to  adopt  every  moral  idea,  which  is  repugnant  to  it; 
to  applaud  false  virtues,  which  that  disavows;  to  be  guided  by  laws 
of  honor,  which  that  abhors;  to  imitate  characters,  which  that  de¬ 
tests;  and  to  behold  heroes,  patriots,  conquerors,  and  suicides  with 
admiration,  whose  conduct  that  utterly  condemns.  From  a  coalition 
of  these  opposite  principles  was  generated  that  monstrous  system  of 
cruelty  and  benevolence,  of  barbarism  and  civility,  of  rapine  and 
justice,  of  fighting  and  devotion,  of  revenge  and  generosity,  which 
harassed  the  world  for  several  centuries  with  crusades,  holy  wars, 
knight-errantry,  and  single  combats,  and  even  still  retains  influence 
Enough,  under  the  name  of  honor,  to  defeat  the  most  beneficent  ends 
of  this  holy  institution.  I  mean  not  by  this  to  pass  any  censure 
on  the  principles  of  valor,  patriotism,  or  honor:  they  may  be  useful, 
and  perhaps  necessary,  in  the  commerce  and  business  of  the  present 
turbulent  and  imperfect  state;  and  those  who  are  actuated  by  them 
may  be  virtuous,  honest,  and  even  religious  men:  all  that  I  assert  is, 
that  they  cannot  be  Christians.  A  profligate  may  be  a  Christian, 
though  a  bad  one,  because  he  may  be  overpowered  by  passions  and 
temptations,  and  his  actions  may  contradict  his  principles;  but  a  man 
whose  ruling  principle  is  honor,  however  virtuous  he  may  be,  cannot 
be  a  Christian,  because  he  erects  a  standard  of  duty,  and  deliberately  . 
adheres  to  it*  diametrically  opposite  to  the  whole  tenor  of  that  re.? 
tigion.”*  ' 


DEBATE 


m 


To  conclude,  the  direct  tendency  of  the  Christian  religion,  is  to 
purify  the  heart,  and  to  make  men  every  thing  which  the  perfect 
happiness  of  society  requires.  After  Paul  had  gone  into  a  long  de¬ 
tail  of  Christian  virtues,  he  concludes  in  this  sweeping  style,  which 
Suffers  notone  virtue  to  escape :  “Finally,  brethren,  whatever  things 
are  true,  whatever  things  are  venerable,  whatever  things  are  just, 
whatever  things  are  pure,  whatever  things  are  amiable,  whatever 
things  are  of  good  fame;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  any  praise  be 
due,  think  on,  and  practise  these  things/’ 

One  miracle  there  is,  which  Mr.  Owen  must  believe  at  all  events, 
on  the  whole  premises  before  us.  He  must  believe  that  a  set  of  vi'c 
impostors,  deceivers  of  the  basest  stamp,  the  greatest  cheats  and  liars 
that  ever  lived,  did  give  birth  to  the  purest  system  of  morality  the 
world  ever  saw,  did  recommend  the  practice  of  every  virtue  which 
human  reason  in  the  most  cultivated  state  of  society  can  admire  and 
approve.  He  must  believe  that  all  the  true  religion  and  genuine 
virtue  now  existing,  depends  upon  the  forgeries  of  a  pack  of  Char¬ 
latans,  who  went  about  from  place  to  place  declaring  that  they  had 
heard  what  they  never  did  hear,  and  that  they  had  seen  what  they 
never  saw.  This  miracle  Mr.  Owen  must  believe — which  is  a  miracle 
of  a  more  incredible  character  than  any  one  in  the  volume,  especially 
when  we  take  into  view  the  circumstances  attendant  on  the  progress 
and  sufferings  of  these  wicked  impostors. 

“If  weak  thy  faith,  why  choose  the  harder  side F” 

But  still  J  have  not  made  sufficiently  emphatic  the  tendency  of 
Christianity  upon  every  one  who  embraces  it.  This  I  will  again  la  v- 
before  you.  It  becomes  the  more  necessary  to  call  this  up  again  be¬ 
cause  our  opponent  execrates  Christianity  more  because  of  its  “idle 
fears  and  terrors”  than  on  any  other  account.  To  me,  from  child¬ 
hood,  it  has  seemed  strange  why  mankind  should  more  fear  the  threats, 
than  hope  for  the  promises  of  Jesus  Christ,  If  not  to  a  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  just  desert  of  all  that  is  threatened,  perhaps  anterior  to 
any  notice  of  the  threats,  I  know  not  to  what  other  cause  this  is  to 
be  attributed.  For  certain  it  is,  that  threats  and  promises  are  equally 
credible  or  incredible.  They  both  rest  upon  the  same  testimony. 
Now  Christianity,  if  rationally  regarded,  can  never  fill  but  one  class 
of  mankind  with  fears.  If  it  he  regarded  as  a  fraud  or  imposition, 
its  hopes  and  fears  are  equally  disannulled.  If  it  be  regarded  as 
true,  what  is  its  truth  save  pardon  and  peace  to  every  one  who  sub¬ 
mits  to  the  government  of  Jesus  Christ?  No  person  can,  then,  be 
filled  with  any  fears  or  terrors  from  the  New  Testament,  but  he  that  be  ¬ 
lieves  and  will  not  obey .  The  infidel  cannot  —the  Christian  cannot.  To 
"  the  infidel  it  is  all  a  romance — to  the  Christian  it  is  all  peace,  hope,  and 
joy,  real  as  life  itself.  Who,  then,  does  Christianity  make  unhappy  ? 
The  very  persons,  and  none  but  the  persons,  it  ought  to  make  unhapppv ; 
viz.  those  who  believe,  and  will  not  obey  Jesus  Christ.  And  if  it  did 
not  make  such  unhappy,  it  would  be  unworthy  of  its  Author  and  its 
object.  And  the  man  who  labors  to  divest  the  guilty  of  his  fears  is  a 
misanthrope,  and  not  a  philanthropist. 

VOL,  H.~  11 


DEBATE. 


1  *>-> 

I/V/W 

But  there  is  a  Species  of  corrupt  Christianity,  which  has  made  sui¬ 
cides  through  the  false  alarms  which  it  creates  about  things  un¬ 
known  and  unknowable.  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it  more  than 
with  the  Alcoran.  It  is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  show  that  Christi¬ 
anity  promises  pardon  to  every  human  being  who  voluntarily  submits 
to  the  government  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  this  pardon  is  tendered  to  them 
the  very  instant  they  bow  to  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  or  enter  his 
kingdom.  Hence  the  first  Christians  always  rejoiced,  because  the 
moment  they  were  baptized  into  Jesus  Christ,  they  had  put  him  on 
as  their  Saviour;  or  in  other  words,  had  put  themselves  under  the 
constitution  of  favor,  and  sin  could  no  longer  lord  it  over  them,  for  they 
were  not  under  law.  Now  all  who,  like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  believed  ill 
Jesus  Christ  and  were  baptized  for  the  remission  of  their  sins,  as  he 
was,  or  as  the  three  thousand  on  Pentecost,  could,  like  the  Eunuch, 
after  baptism ,  go  on  their  way  rejoicing.  So  that  the  first  Christians 
addressed  one  another  as  having  their  sins  forgiven;  and  consequent¬ 
ly  all  gui't  and  shame  and  fear  were  removed  from  their  consciences. 
They  did  not  cense — they  could  not  cease — always  to  rejoice,  with 
joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory.  ’Tis  monks  and  friars  and  monas¬ 
teries,  that  have  invented  the  gloomy  religion  of  the  times.  The  first 
Christians  were  commanded  to  rejoice  always.  So  that  the  legitimate 
tendency  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  to  fill  all  who  submit  to 
his  government,  with  peace,  and  joy,  and  good  hope;  and  to  cause 
them  finally  to  exclaim.  “O  Death,  where  now  thy  sting!  O  Hades, 
where  now  thy  victory !”  • 

That  such  are  the  inseparable  results  of  a  cordial  reception  *t)f  the 
gospel,  or  of  a  sincere  submission  to  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  all 
the  New  Testament  might  he  appealed  to  in  proof — I  will  only  allude 
to  a  few  cases.  Three  thousand  pierced  to  the  heart  by  Peter’s  dis¬ 
course  in  Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  so  soon  as  he  announ¬ 
ced  reformation  and  remission  of  sins,  were  baptized  for  the  remission 
of  their  sins — and  straight-wav  they  were  filled  with  joy  and  peace; 
for  they  eat  their  food  with  gladness,  praising  God.  When  many  of 
the  Samaritans  honrd  Philip  proclaiming  the  Reign  of  Favor, i  they 
believed  and  were  baptized,  both  men  and  women,  and  then,  we  learn 
from  Luke,  “ there  was  much  joy  in  that  city?'1  So  it  was  in  all  the  ci¬ 
ties  where  Christianity  was  embraced.  The  apostles  taught  the  Chris  ¬ 
tians  that  God  “had  forgiven  them  all  trespasses.”  Of  their  joy,  Peter 
says,  “Whom  having  not  seen  yon  love,  but  on  whom  not  now  look 
ing,  but  believing,  you  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory?1 
The  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  removal  of  guilt,  and  the  consequent  ter¬ 
mination  of  all  fear  that  has  torment,  were,  in  all  cases ,  simultaneous 
plcssings  enjoyed  by  all  Christians  on  their  putting  themselves  under  the. 
guidance  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  same  cause  will  produce  the  same 
effect ,  and  wherever  the  ancient  gospel  is  proclaimed,  believed,  and 
obeyed,  the  same  effects  will  uniformly  follow. 

Now  when  we  add  to  these  blessings  the  well-founded  hope  of  a  • 
glorious  immortality,  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just,  we  have  elevated 
span  to  a  rank  worthy  of  himself,  and  made  his  existence  worthy  of 


DEBATE. 


123 


the  great  first  cause.  So  that  the  direct  tendency  of  Christianity 
is  to  glorify  God  in  the  highest  degree;  to  produce  peace  of  mind,  jov, 
and  hope  in  the  believers;  and  to  diffuse  good  will  among  men.  The 
golden  paradoxes  of  Paul  speak  more  in  praise  of  Christianity  than 
all  the  encomiums  ever  pronounced  upon  it.  To  hear  men  perse¬ 
cuted,  reproached,  and  destitute  of  almost  every  earthly  comfort,  say, 
“We  are  sorrowful ,  yet  always  rejoicing;  we  are  poor,  yet  making  many 
rich ;  we  have  nothing  yet  possessing  all  things transcends  all  the 
enconiums  from  all  the  orators  of  Greece,  Rome,  and  England,  pro 
nounced  upon  virtue,  the  gods,  and  religion. 

Fancy  to  yourselves,  my  friends,  a  society  in  which  such  characters 
shall  have  the  rule,  and  then  you  want  no  poet  to  describe  the  millen¬ 
nium  to  you.  Peace,  harmony,  love,  and  universal  good  will,  must  be 
the  order  of  the  day.  There  wants  nothing — believe  me,  my  friends, 
there  wants  nothing — but  a  restoration  of  ancient  Christianity,  and  a 
cordial  reception  of  it,  to  till  the  world  with  all  the  happiness,  phy¬ 
sical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  which  beings  like  us  in  this  state  of 
trial,  could  endure — shall  I  say? — yes,  endure,  and  enjov. 

But  even  yet,  were  we  to  close  our  remarks  upon  the  tendencies 
of  Christianity,  upon  the  subject  of  it,  and  upon  society  at  large,  we 
should  fail  in  doing  justice  to  this  item.  We  must  not  only  speak  in 
general  terms  of  its  influences  upon  the  human  family;  we  must  look 
at  it  in  detail.  We  must  ask,  What  has  it  done  for  woman  ?  Yes — for 
woman — created  to  be  the  help  meet  of  man  ?  In  all  Pagan  lands, 
and  even  among  the  Jews,  she  has  been  made  little  else  than  a  slave 
to  the  passion  and  to  the  tyranny  of  man.  The  Jews  rather  exile  her 
from  the  synagogue,  as  altogether  animal  in  her  nature;  and  the  rude 
savage  makes  her  more  a  beast  of  burthen,  than  a  companion  for 
man;  doomed  to  incessant  toils,  to  all  the  real  drudgeries  of  life. — 
Paganism,  in  its  most  improved  forms,  leaves  her  without  a  taste  for 
rational  enjoyment,  and  without  a  taste  of  it.  The  Jews  and  Pagans 
forages  back  have  scarce  recognized  that  she  lias  any  claims  upon 
man  more  than  for  food  and  raiment,  and  these,  indeed,  are  often 
dispensed  to  her  without  a  smile.  But  some  half  dozen  of  female 
names  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  annals  of  Grecian  and  Roman 
story,  as  having  attracted  much  attention  from  their  cotemporaries, 
or  as  deserving  much  admiration  from  posterity.  Natural  affection, 
in  defiance  of  Pagan  dan-mess,  superstition,  and  cruelty,  did,  in 
some  few  instances,  snatch  some  individual  females  from  the  empire 
of  night,  and  gave  them  a  place  among  the  reputable  characters  of 
antiquity.  But  the  sex,  as  such ,  were  almost  universally  neglected. 
But  from  the  time  that  Gabrael  visited  the  cottage  o [Mary,  the  mother 
of  our  Lord,  down  to  the  present,  wherever  Christianity  has  found  its 
way,  the  lemale  sex  has  been  emancipated  from  ignorance,  bondage, 
and  obscurity.  It  has  been  the  aim  and  the  glory  of  Christianity,  my 
female  friends,  to  elevate  your  sex  from  the  degradation  of  Paganism, 
and  to  make  you  the  rational,  the  useful,  and  the  amiable  companion 
of  man'.  To  it  you  are  indebted  for  that  influence  which  you  now 
possess,  and  ought  to  possess,  in  forming  the  character  of  man.  While 


m 


DEBATE; 


Christianity  Iixis  made  3roti  not  the  inferior  but  the  companion  and 
the  equal  of  man;  it  has  taught  you  that  you  are  to  pay  the  impost 
which,  for  this  honor,  it  has  laid  you  under.  That  is,  that  you  are 
to  bring  up  your  offspring  in  the  discipline  and  education  which  the 
Lord  enjoins;  that  you  are  to  use  all  your  influence  in  casting  the 
minds  of  those,  under  your  control,  into  the  mould  of  the  apostles’ 
doctrine.  This  is  the  way  you  can  perpetuate;  the  blessings  which  you 
enjoy,  and  leave  behind  you  sons  and  daughters  who  will  feel  them¬ 
selves  equals  and  mutually  love,  honor,  and  esteem  one  another.  Let 
me  remind  you  that  there  are  more  individuals  of  your  sex,  honored  in 
the  New  Testament,  more  of  them  named,  more  of  them  applauded, 
and  more  true  courtesy  shown  them,  than  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  other 
works  of  the  Augustan  age ;  and  let  all  the  world  know  that  in  the  New 
Testament  it  is  a.  maxim  that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  male 
nor  female,  but  that  both  sexes  are  one  in  all  moral,  religious,  and 
social  privileges  and  enjoyments  of  which  either  sex  is  susceptible. 

Christianity  would  not  have  commended  itself  to  every  man’s  con¬ 
science  had  it  not  paid  a  due  respect  to  all  the  natural  and  unavoida¬ 
ble  relations  existing  in  society.  Hence  there  is  not  a  natural  relation 
to  which  it  does  not  allude.  Husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  chil¬ 
dren,  masters  and  servants,  are  all  addressed  in  a  way  corresponding 
with  the  nature  of  these  relations,  well  designed  to  sanctify  and  ren¬ 
der  them  all  useful,  comfortable,  and  happy. 

Here  I  am  informed,  by  a  note,  banded  me,  that  I  have  omitted  to 
say  any  thing  upon  the  subject  of  regeneration.  Some  persons  think 
as  most  preachers  speak,  if  you  Will  observe,  scarce  a  preacher 
takes  a  text,  or  makes  a  sermon,  but  he  must  give  you  his  whole  sys¬ 
tem  of  theology.  No  matter  where  the  text  be  found,  the  system  must 
>;•  .pin  r,ut.  {fence  some  of  this  audience  think,  that,  in  defending 
hristianity,  I  must  defend  or  exhibit  all  the  tenets  of  a  sect,  or  all  the 
essential  points  of  some  system ;  and  so  I  am  told  that  I  have  omitted 
the  article  on  regeneration.  Strange, indeed!  when  I  have  been  dis¬ 
coursing  at  length  upon  the  purifying  influences  of  the  Christian  reli¬ 
gion,  and  its  tendencies  upon  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men,  1  should  be 
told  that  I  have  neglected  the  article  of  regeneration  /  Perhaps  my 
informant  expected  to  hear  from  me  a  disquisition  upon  the  quaint 
theories  of  modern  systems.  In  not  gratifying  him  with  such  a  dis¬ 
cussion,  for  the  time  being,  I  hope  he  will  have  the  goodness  to  ex¬ 
cuse  me. 

Having  paid  some  attention  to  the  genius,  design,,  and  tendency  of 
Christianity,  I  will  now  approach  the  social  system  again.  Mr.  Owen 
relies  upon  his  twelve  facts,  and  especially  upon  the  sixth  fact,  or  law, 
to  demolish  all  the  religions  in  the  world.  Yes,  indeed,  if  his  sixth 
law  he  a  truism,  he  conceives  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  are  as 
prostrate  as  Dagon  before  the  ark.  If  it  he  so  that  we  can  neither 
make  ourselves  nor  our  wills;  that  circumstances  control  us  by  a  ne¬ 
cessity,  as  unchangeable  as  fate  itself,  then  he  has  proved,  by  merely  . 
asserting  these  laws,  that  all  the  religions  of  the  world  are  founded  upon 
the  ignorance  of  mankind.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  noticed  that 


DEBATE. 


125 


there  is  a  very  learned  and  respectable" body  of  Christians  who  attribute 
as  much  to  necessity ,  only  under  different  names,  as  he  does  himself. 
Every  action  of  every  human  being,  is,  with  them,  foreknown,  and 
predetermined  from  all  eternity ;  or  in  brief,  “ that  God  has  foreordain¬ 
ed  whatsoever  comes  to  pass.”  Yet  these  are  all  firm  and  rat  ional  and 
argumentative  believers  in  the  Divine  authority  of  these  records. 
How,  then,  in  the  name  of  reason,  can  Mr.  Owen  think,  that,  in  prov¬ 
ing  his  doctrine  of  fate  or  necessity,  he  has  proved  all  the  reli¬ 
gions  in  the  world  to  be  predicated  upon  the  ignorance  of  mankind, 
when  he  will  find  myriads  of  Christians,  philosophic  or  systematic 
necessarians,  admitting  his  premises  in  all  the  prominent  items,  and 
yet  dissenting  from  his  conclusions. 

It  will  not  then  follow7,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  in  the  mind  of  a 
thorough  Calvinist,  that  if  our  volitions  have  no  power  over  our  belief, 
that  if  all  things  are  unchangeably  fixed,  there  is  no  truth  in  religion. 
Mr.  Owen  has  taken  for  granted  that  which  will  not  be  granted  by 
myriads  of  learned,  acute,  and  talented  men,  that  his  propositions 
proved  and  Christianity  is  slain.  I  hope  lie  will  yet  turn  his  thoughts 
thitherward.  He  may  say  that  they  are  inconsistent,  and  self-condemn¬ 
ed;  but  still  it  proves  that  his  system  may  be  true  and  Christianity 
true — myriads  being  judges. 

But  this  only  on  the  way  to  another  peep  into  his  theory.  1  do  think 
as  Mr.  Owen  has  paid  so  little  attention  to  the  objections  offered  to 
his  system,  that  I  am  logically  excused  from  paying  any  farther  at¬ 
tention  to  it.  But  as  he  still  reiterates  his  fundamentals  with  undis¬ 
mayed  confidence  that  the  repetition  of  them  is,  like  a  charm,  to  effect 
a  cure  of  our  mental  maladies;  and  as  he  has  repeatedly  affirmed  that 
if  one  of  his  principles  can  be  proved  erroneous,  he  will  give  up  the 
whole.  I  will  call  upon  another  witnesss  in  the  case. 

If  consciousness  be  any  sort  of  evidence  of  the  powers  with  which 
we  are  endowed,  I  make  the  following  appeal  to  it  on  the  subject  of 
his  sixth  law: 

Objects  are  thrown  in  our  way,  or  we  go  in  quest  of  them. — - 
These  excite  our  reasoning  powers,  or  call  them  into  action.  We 
reason  upon  them  and  form  judgments.  These  judgments  or  con¬ 
clusions  either  call  for  some  activity  upon  our  part,  or  they  do  not. 
If  they  do  not,  we  do  not  act.  But  if  they  do,  we  act.  Now  what 
is  the  cause  of  these  actions?  Not  the  mere  presentation  of  the  object, 
but  our  reasonings  upon  it.  From  the  first  examination  of  the  object 
to  the  last,  there  is  a  continual  determination  of  the  mind  to  the  object  ; 
or  when  we  have  finished  the  first  examination  of  the  object  we  will  to 
examine  it  a  second  time;  and  so  on  to  the  third,  or  fourth  examina¬ 
tion.  Mr.  Owen,  for  example,  had  heard  that  the  Mexican  gov¬ 
ernment  had  much  territory  to  dispose  of — his  previous  desire  for 
territory  to  test  his  theory  upon,  prompts  him  to  think  upon  some 
plan  for  obtaining  a  part  of  it.  He  reasons  upon  the  object,  and 
examines  it  in  many  independent  points  of  view.  On  every  separate 
view  of  the  subject,  he  decides  to  examine  it  again.  There  are  as 
many  determinations  as  examinations.  Finally,  his  ultimate  coir- 
YOL.  II,  11* 


126 


DEBATE. 


elusion  is  formed.  Now  every  one  of  these  examinations  is  begun* 
prosecuted,  and  carried  out  from  the  consciousness  which  he  possesses 
of  his  power  to  accomplish  the  object  so  soon  as  it  shall  be  decided 
which  is  the  better  course.  He  would  never  examine  the  subject  a 
moment  if  he  was  not  conscious  that  he  has  the  power  of  examining 
it,  and  the  power  of  acting  agreeably  to  his  last  decision.  Now  this 
consciousness  of  the  power  of  examination,  deciding,  and  acting,  1 
summon  as  proof  that  such  a  controlling  power  the  mind  possesses 
over  its  own  acts.  It  is  the  nearest  witness  which  can  be  summoned 
in  this  case,  and  its  testimony  is  the  most  creditable.  It  knows  most, 
and  is  the  best  judge,  of  all  our  intellectual  and  moral  powers — and 
it  avers,  as  every  man  can  hear  in  the  court  of  his  own  understand¬ 
ing,  that  nothing  could  be  examined,  contemplated,  or  reasoned  upon, 
were  we  destitute  of  a  controlling  power,  or  a  power  of  acting  con¬ 
formably  to  our  own  decisions.  Consciousness  is  often  the  ultimate 
arbiter  in  all  questions  concerning  our  intellectual  and  moral  powers, 
i low  often  do  we  see  persons  either  abandon,  or  refuse  to  undertake 
a  profession,  or  cause,  because  conscious  their  powers  are  not  equal 
to  it.  We  make  consciousness  a  witness  in  all  cases  within  its 
jurisdiction. 

Again,  in  walking  down  street  Mr.  Owen  hears  that  lhs  cotton 
factory  at  New  Harmony  is  consumed  by  fire!  he  does  not  at  first 
know  whether  the  report  is  credible.  Tie  goes  to  the  river  to  inter¬ 
rogate  the  passengers,  or  captain  of  a  steam  boat  just  arrived  from 
the  vicinity.  He  interrogates  them,  and.  from  their  unanimous 
testimony  he  believes  the  fact,  and  doubts  no  more.  Now  would 
Mr.  Owen  have  gone  one  step  in  this  examination  if  he  had  not 
been  conscious  that  he  had  the  power  of  believing  upon  testimony, 
and  that  there  wTas  a  certain  amount  of  evidence  which  would  pro¬ 
duce  certainty?  His  ultimate  belief  is  evidently  a  consequence 
wf  the  existence  of  this  controling  power — and  his  determination  to 
examine  the  matter  proves,  that  his  volition  had  seine  influence  upon 
his  belief.  For,  had  he  not  examined,  he  would  not  have  believed; 
and  had  he  not  determined  or  whiled  to  examine,  he  might  not  have 
obtained  the  evidence;  so  that  his  belief  is  in  this  case  dependent 
upon  his  will. 

Were  I  to  ask  him  now  to  believe  that  his  factory  was  not  burned, 
he  could  not  do  it — not  because  his  will  determined  any  thing  about 
it,  but  because  he  wants  evidence.  Pretty  much  the  same  power 
which  the  will  exercises  over  our  eyes  in  examining  objects  of  sense, 
does  it  exercise  over  our  mental  eye;  we  open  or  shut  the  eye  in 
obedience  to  our  wills.  But  we  cannot  will  to  see  without  light 
An  eve  and  light,  and  a  will  to  see,  are  all  necessary  to  vision, 
lie  that  affirms,  that  a  man  believes  bv  necessity ,  may  as  well 
say,  that  man  sees  by  necessity.  Theie  is  no  person  more  blind  than 
the  man  who  will  not  see. 

But  we  have  still  greater  objections  to  the  social  system,  plead  by 
Mr.  Owen.  It  is  only  in  its  best  possible  state,  predicated  upon 
she  half  Of  man,  and  only  promises  to  make  him  a  happy  animal*, 


DEBATE, 


127 


For  the  sake  of  illustration  we  will  admit  that  Mr.  Owen  has  con¬ 
summated  all  his  plans,  and  all  his  wishes,  in  erecting  his  parallelo¬ 
gram  communities,  and  that  he  has  got  a  whole  territory,  nay,  the 
whole  earth  covered  with  them;  every  thing  just  to  his  mind. — 
Man  at  his  zenith  is  a  stall  fed  ox.  Mr.  Owen  has  mistaken  the 
capacity  of  man  as  much  as  the  vintner  did  the  capacity  of  a  vessel, 
who  strove  to  fill  it  with  two  gallons  when  it  held  four.  Nothing  blit 
experiment  could  convince  him — He  thought  his  measure  of  two 
gallons  was  equal  to  the  capacity  of  the  vessel,  until  he  poured 
in  its  contents — He  then  saw  that  it  was  but  half  full.  So  with  Mr. 
Owen’s  system.  ?den  would  sigh,  and  groan,  and  long  for  greater 
bliss,  than  Mr.  Owen  has  to  bestow.  His  wheat,  his  oil,  and  his 
wine;  his  amusements,  pastimes,  and  all  his  fanciful  inventions 
would  not  fill  the  immeasurable  blank  yet  remaining  in  the  true 
enjoyment  of  rational  beings,  doomed  by  him  only  to  riot  like  a 
worm  upon  the  damask  cheek  of  a  deceased  stripping  * 

Man  has  taste,  desires,  aspirations  after  bliss  higher  than  the  earth 
can  minister  to  him.  Now  if  Mr.  Owen  contemplates  man  as  other 
sceptics  have  done,  not  as  a  privileged  being;  if  he  would  give  him 
that  latitude  of  licentious  intercourse  which  prevails  among  the 
brutes  in  the  gratification  of  evsry  propensity,  until  his  capacity 
for  sensual  enjoyment  is  filled  to  overflowing; — if  his  artificial 
wants  have  been  multiplied  to  the  utmost  conceivable  extent; — * 
and  if  he  have  surrounded  him  with  the  most  refined  circunistan 
ees  imaginable,  what  does  it  all  amount  to?  Has  he  made  him 
happy?  Far  from  it.  His  capacity  for  happiness  is  as  far  from  being 
filled  as  ever  it  was.  It  is  only  like  subtracting  a  few  miles  from 
infinite  space,  the  remainder  is  no  less.  So  man’s  desires  are  as 
eager  and  as  unsatisfied  still.  lake  Alexander  the  Great,  when  he 
had  conquered  the  whole  world  he  wept,  forsooth,  because  his  arm 
was  hampered  and  had  not  room  enough  to  do  it3  work.  “What  a 
misfortune!  Have  l,  indeed,  no  other  world  to  conquer.” 

Whence  then,  this  insatiable  desire  for  happiness;  or  whence, 
as  the  poet  says,  “this  longing  after  immortality?”  Mr.  Owen  can 
boast,  he  says,  that  he  is  free  from  the  fear  of  death — and  he  may 
boast  that  he  is  free  from  any  hope  in  death.  And  so,  like  the  well 
led  calf,  he  has  neither  hope  nor  fear  from  death.  Is  this  the  glorious 
and  rational  end  of  this  new  philosophy?  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die!  But  the  time  for  adjournment  has  arrived. 
Adjourned  till  2  o’clock. 

- — *  “Relentless  fate  forbids  that  we, 

Through  gay  voluptuous  worlds  should  ever  roam* 

And  were  the  fates  more  kind, 

Our  narrow  luxuries  would  soon  grow  stale. 

Were  these  exhaustless,  nature  would  grow  sick. 

And  tired  of  novelty,  would  squeamishly  complain; 

That  all  was  vanity,  and  life  a  dream.” 

Armstrong's  Art  of  Health . — liepurfer. 


DEBATE, 


158  ! 

Monday  Afternoon ,  20th  April ,  1 829. 

Mr.  Chairman— We  concluded  our  remarks  in  the  forenoon  on  the 
subject  of  the  perfect  inadequacy  and  mal-adaptation  of  my  friend’s 
scheme  to  the  constitution  of  human  nature— to  the  extent  of 
our  capacity  of  fruition.  We  admit  that,  were  the  human  family 
to  be  regarded  as  mere  animals,  whose  enjoyments  were  all  of  a 
sensual  kind,  that  Mr.  Owen’s  scheme  would  not  be  liable  to  so 
much  objection.  We  might  conclude  with  Paul,  “If  there  be  no  resur¬ 
rection,  let  us  eat  and  drink  for  to-morrow  we  die.”  The  short  tenure 
of  earthly  enjoyments  would  compel  us  to  make  the  best  use  of  them 
and  to  indulge  in  them  to  the  greatest  extent.  We  might  then  adopt 
the  Epicurean  precept,  “ Carpe  diem”  and  say  with  the  Epicurian 
poet,  “  Vita  summa  brevis  vetat  span  longarn  incohare .”  But  inasmuch 
as  reason  and  experience  prove  the  inadequacy  of  all  earthly  pleas¬ 
ures  to  satisfy  the  human  mind,  we  are  obliged  to  declare  that  my 
friend’s  scheme  fails  infinitely  short  of  providing  for  our  capacity  of 
enjoyment.  Who  so  dead  to  the  charms  of  the  material  universe  as 
not  to  feel  himself  more  refreshed  and  comforted  by  the  sublime  con¬ 
templation  of  the  great  Creator  through  his  works,  than  ever  he  felt 
from  mere  sensual  enjoyment?  A  small  portion  of  material  good 
things  is  sufficient  to  satisfy  all  the  wants  of  nature;  but  the  appetite 
for  intellectual  enjoyment  is  insatiable. 

The  construction  of  the  material  universe  is  admirably  calculated 
fo  lead  us  to  the  contemplation  of  the  great  First  Cause  who  created 
the  heavens  and  their  hosts,  and  who  sustains  the  immense  universe 
with  more  ease  than  we  move  a  finger  or  an  eye-lid.  To  contemplate 
these  things  is,  “To  look  through  nature  up  to  nature’s  God.”  Shall 
this  sublime  pleasure  be  annihilated!  Must  we  be  forever  doomed  to 
look  downwards,  and  never  raise  our  eyes  to  heaven !  The  splendors 
of  the  starry  firmament,  the  glories  hung  up  to  human  view  in  the 
majestic  vault  of  heaven,  are  the  natural  types  of  the  Divine  Majesty; 
while  the  earth  presents,  in  all  its  magazines  of  goodness  and  mercy, 
the  plain  drawn,  characters  which  interpret  all  these  sublime  symbols. 
Must  we  never  read  this  volume,  nor  inquire  into  the  moral  character 
of  its  great  Author!  And  do  we  not,  my  friends,  find  our  only  con¬ 
solation  under  the  toils,  anxieties,  and  vexations  of  this  troubled  sea 
of  life,  in  the  anticipation  of  our  one  day  reaching  those  mansions 
of  peace  “where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary  are 
at  rest?”  Will  any  man’s  experience  authorize  him  to  say  that  when, 
like  an  ox,  he  has  eaten  and  drunk  his  fill,  then  he  is  happy  ?  Cer¬ 
tainly  this  would  be  to  degrade  man  below  the  dignity  of  which  he  is 
now  conscious.  Who  has  been  so  successful  and  prosperous  in  the 
voyage  of  life  as  to  gain  the  object  of  his  pursuit?  Does  not  almost 
every  man  die  in  the  keen  pursuit. of  his  favorite  object?  And  does 
not  this  teach  us  that  all  our  acquisitions  are  but  progressions  towards 
objects  of  distant  fruition  and  hope?  Experience  teaches  us  that 
our  capacity  of  happiness  is  not  to  be  filled  by  sublunary  pleasures; 
that  earth  and  sea,  with  all  their  treasures,  are  far  too  small  to  fill 
the  soul  of  roan. 


DEBATE* 


m 

This  social  system  robs  the  disconsolate  of  their  only  support— 
drives  them  to  the  adoption  of  Mirabaud’s  seductive  cure;  and  when 
“weary  of  conjecture”  concerning  futurity,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
debate  with  a  knife,  a  halter,  or  a  pistol.  Were  it  not  for  the  cheering 
consolation  which  the  hope  of  immortality  inspires,  what  numerous 
suicides  should  we  have  to  deplore?  This  hope  is  not  only  neces¬ 
sary  to  fill  the  measure  of  our  capacity  of  enjoyment,  but  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  that  we  should  carefully  cherish  this  bright  hope  that  we  may  bo 
enabled  to  sustain  the  vicissitudes,  the  disasters,  the  moral  and 
physical  diseases,  which  attach  to  our  bankrupt  circumstances.— 
Experience  lias  proved  to  us  all,  that  we  have  derived  more  pleasure 
from  the  pursuit  of  a  favorite  object,  than  we  have  enjoyed  in  the 
attainmert  of  it;  that  we  derive  more  pleasure  from  anticipating 
future  gains,  than  in  realizing  them.  Cut  ©ff  anticipation  from  man, 
and  you  sever  him  from  the  most  fruitful  source  of  his  happiness. 
The  pursuit  more  than  the  acquisition,  all  experience  says,  contri¬ 
butes  to  please,  amuse,  and  gratify  man.  To  place  man,  then,  in 
a  situation  where  he  has  nothing  to  wish  for,  nothing  to  desire,  nor  to 
pursue,  is  to  cut  him  off  from  this  most  fruitful  source  ol  intellectual 
pleasure,  which  all  men  have  found  to  be  paramount  to  all  sensual 
gratifications.  But  not  only  in  this  instance  is  the  theory  contradicts 
eel  by  the  universal  experience  of  mankind — but  it  also  involves 
another  mistake  in  regard  to  the  constitution  of  human  nature. 

Mr.  Owen  contends  that  a  society  can  exist  without  an  idea 
of  obligation  or  responsibility.  This  is  contrary  to  all  the  past 
records  of  time,  and  all  present  experience.  A  banditti  of  highway 
robbers  could  not  exist  without  the  ligament  of  laws,  and  the  tie  of 
moral  obligation.  Without  them  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to 
concert  a  scheme  of  co-operative  plunder:  ^ 

“For  not  since  Adam  wore  his  verdant  apron. 

Has  man  with  man  in  social  union  dwelt; 

But  laws  were  made  to  draw  that  union  closer.” — Scott. 

No  society  ever  has  existed,  or  ever  can  exist,  without  seme  sense 
of  responsibility  and  obligation.  We  talk  of  a  lawless  banditti ,  bet 
this  is  to  be  understood  sub  modo.  They  are  not  without  laws, 
and  rigorous  ones  too,  among  themselvers;  they  well  know  that  they 
could  not  exist  without  them. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  here,  that  among  the  rabble  of  superstitions 
professed  by  the  Pagan  world,  notone  of  them  ever  pretended  to  be 
derived  from  the  First  Cause.  They  derived  their  religious  systems 
from  subordinate  persons,  from  inferior  deities,  who  stood  in  some 
special  relation  to  the  people  that  adored  them.  The  ancients  ascer¬ 
tained  that  it  was  impossible  to  retain  men  in  order  without  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  ieligious  restraints.  The  popular  religions  of  the  Pagan 
world  wore  all  predicated  upon  this  principle;  and  magistrates  im¬ 
posed  religions  upon  the  people  which  they  did  not  believe  themselves, 
because  experience  had  taught  them  that  man  was  not  to  be  governed 
without  religious  restraints.  The  ancient  philosophers  saw  through 


DEBATE, 


130 


the  cheat,  and  were  sufficiently  inclined  to  expose  it.  Some  of  them 
denied  the  existence  of  future  rewards  and  punishments.  They  con¬ 
tended  that  the  body  must  return  to  the  earth,  and  the  spirit  to  the 
Universal  Spirit,  of  which  it  was  but  an  emanation,  and  that  therefore 
future  punishment  was  impossible.  But  the  magistracy  told  the  phi¬ 
losophers,  that,  although  all  this  might  be  very  true,  yet  the  people 
were  not  to  be  kept  in  order  without  the  restraints  of  religion;  and  the 
philosophers  were  strictly  enjoined  not  to  propagate  their  free-thinking 
notions  among  the  vulgar.  From  this  originated  the  Elueinian  and 
other  mysteries  of  antiquity,  the  object  of  which  was  to  preserve 
among  the  initiated  just  views  of  the  First  Cause  and  of  the  gods 
worshipped  by  the  vulgar,  which  dare  not  be  divulged  among  them. 
If  we  examine  the  ancient  superstitions  of  the  Pagan  world,  we  shall 
find  them  all  predicated  upon  this  politic  hypothesis. 

No  social  compact  has  as  yet  existed  without  the  doctrine  of  respon¬ 
sibility,  obligation,  or  accountability.  Mr.  Owen’s  scheme  is  the 
most  Utopian  project  in  the  annals  of  society.  He  lays  the  axe  at  the 
root  of  all  obligation  and  accountability,  and  yet  would  have  society 
to  hang  together  without  a  single  attraction  save  animal  magnetism,  if 
such  a  thing  exists.  The  doctrine  of  no  praise,  no  blame ,  is  to  be 
taught  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave;  and  yet  all  are  to  live  in  accord¬ 
ance  with  the  most  virtuous  principles.  They  are  to  have  no  princi¬ 
ple  of  responsibility  suggested ;  and  yet,  under  the  charm  of  social 
feeling  alone,  they  are  to  be  more  firmly  bound  than  any  wedded  pair! 
Among  the  visions  of  the  wildest  enthusiasm,  this  one  appears  to  be  a 
rarity. 

Children  are  to  be  reared  without  a  lesson  upon  obligation  or  duty, 
and  yet  they  are  to  be  most  orderly,  neither  selfish,  querulous,  peevish, 
ambitious,  nor  any  way  vicious.  All  these  evil  propensities  are  to  be 
eradicated  from  their  nature  in  consequence  of  being  born  in  cham¬ 
bers,  ventilated,  heated,  or  refrigerated,  in  the  social  way.  They 
are  to  be  models  of  beauty  and  rationality  too,  by  a  mere  change  of 
circumstances.  No  irrational  faces,  no  deformed  countenances,  no 
disfigured  frames  can  grow  in  any  of  Mr.  Owen’s  parallelogram  ar¬ 
rangements.  The  romantic  genius  of  Mr.  Owen  gives  these  babes 
all  angelic  charms,  excepting  wings;  and  while  there  is  to  be  a  total 
destitution  of  all  evil  disposition,  they  are  to  be  perfect  giants  in  litera¬ 
ture,  virtue,  and  benevolent  enterprize — able,  in  two  hours  per  diem, 
to  provide  for  all  their  own  happiness  and  to  perpetuate  overflowing 
streams  of  bliss  to  posterity ! 

I  am  yet  at  a  loss  to  know  what  Mr.  Owen  means  by  society.  A 
society  without  a  social  compact,  to  me  is  unintelligible.  Society  is 
not  a  number  of  persons  covering  a  certain  piece  of  ground  like  the 
trees  in  our  forests.  They  must  congregate  upon  some  stipulations 
express  or  implied.  These  stipulations  are  to  be  performed,  and 
consequently  responsibility  and  accountability  forces  itself  upon  Mr. 
Owen  in  defiance  of  the  powers  of  his  imagination.  In  all  other 
societies,  except  Mr.  Owen’s  imaginary  one,  the  people  and  the  ma¬ 
gistracy,  whether  elective  or  hereditary,  are  mutually  accountable  to 


131 


DEBATE. 


each  other.  The  people  owe  allegiance ,  which  they  promise  in  elect¬ 
ing  their  rulers;  and  the  magistracy  owe  protection  which  they  pro¬ 
mised  in  being  elected.  In  entering  into  society  man  surrenders  a 
part  of  his  natural  liberty  for  other  benefits,  which  he  could  not  enjoy 
as  a  hermit.  This  surrender  he  must  never  recall,  nor  those  benefits 
must  they  withhold :  they  are,  therefore,  under  continual  obligations 
to  each  other.  Whenever  any  person  feels  himself  absolved  from 
these  obligations,  he  is  either  dangerous  to,  or  unfit  for  society.  And 
certainly  Mr.  Owen’s  system  of  training  children  would  naturally 
load  them  to  feel  themselves  absolved  from  all  such  obligations.  His 
system  directly  unfits  them  for  society.  1  would  ask  you,  my  friends, 
or  I  would  ask  him,  In  what  light  he  could  contemplate  that  society 
which  taught  everv  child  that  entered  its  schools,  that  the  child  which 

CJ  »•'  '  # 

would  kill  its  own  father,  was  not  to  be  blamed  Or  disliked  any  more 
than  the  child  which  loved,  caressed,  and  reverenced  its  father? 

But,  to  be  a  little  more  plain  and  pointed,  I  must  again  remind  you 
that  Mr.  Owen’s  system,  as  far  as  it  has  any  peculiar  benevolence 
proposed  in  it,  or  stamped  upon  it,  is  a  plagiarism  from  Christian 
society;  in  other  words,  all  the  benevolence  about  it  was  derived  from 
models*furnished  by  Christian  enterprise  and  Christian  sympathy,  and 
the  crude  notions  of  materialism  and  philosophic  necessity  have  been 
superadded  from  the  atheistical  schools  of  France  and  Epicurus.  The 
influence  of  parents  over  their  offspring,  and  the  influence  of  cir¬ 
cumstances,  were  popular  doctrines  in  the  reigii  of  King  Solomon ; 
nay,  in  the  days  of  Moses.  Moses  laid  as  much  emphasis  upon  the 
necessity  of  bringing  up  children  under  the  best  moral  influences  as 
any  man  in  ancient  or  modem  times.  And  so  great  an  adept  was 
Solomon  in  this  science,  that  he  affirmed,  “Train  up  a  child  in  the 
way  it  should  live,  and  when  old,  it  will  not  depart  from  it.”  Mr, 
Owen,  indeed,  has  confessed  that  he  was  indebted  to  Christian  society 
for  his  first  ideas  of  the  co-oporative  system  in  producing  the  greatest 
amount  of  human  enjoyment,  as  far  as  our  temporal  wants  are  con 
cerned.  Mr.  Owen  may  have  had  the  merit  of  amplifying  somewhat 
upon  the  data  furnished  by  the  excellent  preacher,  Mr.  Dale.  The 
advantages  accruing  from  the  experiments  of  Mr.  Dale  were  sufficient 
to  convince  any  person  of  Mr.  Owen’s  discernment,  that  much  might 
be  done  by  benevolent  co-operation  in  a  population  like  that  in  Scot¬ 
land,  to  diminish  the  evils  under  which  a  large  cfoss  groan  from 
Poverty  and  its  handmaid  Ignorance.  This  was  the  start  of  the 
benevolent  part  of  the  scheme. 

About  forty  years  ago,  when  my  friend  was  just  about  entering 
manhood’s  prime,  the  French  Revolution  broke  out,  and  all  the  covert 
deism,  atheism,  and  scepticism,  which  the  vices  of  popery  had  gener¬ 
ated  like  worms  in  a  putrid  carcase,  exhibited  themselves.  Kingcraft 
and  priestcraft  became  odioits  all  at  once,  and  infidelity  rising  in  the 
greatness  of  its  feebleness,  or  strength,  shook  itself  clean  cf  both 
crafts;  and  ignorantly  and  impiously  attempted  to  deify  matter,  and 
dethrone  the  legitimate  Sovereign  of  the  Universe.  The  ravages  ot 
infuriated  main  seeking  through  blood  and  slaughter  his  long-lost 


DEBATE, 


132 


liberty,  began  to  appear  in  all  their  horrors.  Priests  were  now  every 
where  execrated,  caricatured,  and  every  printer’s  shop  was  filled  with 
infidel  and  atheistical  tracts.  In  this  awful  crisis,  when  atheism  be¬ 
come  philosophy,  and  scepticism  was  called  reason,  every  raw  and 
undisciplined  mind  who  came  into  contact  with  these  spirits  or  their 
works,  caught  the  contagion:  and  the  desire  of  being  reputed  a  phi¬ 
losopher,  or  a  man  of  reason,  impelled  them  to  laugh  at  religion,  as  if 
it  deserved  no  better  treatment  than  the  Puritans  once  thought  was 
due  to  witches  and  necromancers.  The  contagion  spread  into  Eng¬ 
land,  and  the  woful  circumstances  which  then  surrounded  my  friend 
furnished  him  with  the  first  impulses  or  data  for  the  infidel  part  of  his 
scheme.  Since  then  he  has  been  laboring  to  amalgamate  the  good 
ideas  received  by  the  better  part  of  his  circumstances  with  the  bad 
ideas  derived  from  the  worse  part  of  them ;  and  it  is  owing  to  the 
superiority  of  his  natural  organization  that  he  has  been  so  moral,  or 
that  his  atheism  has  not  led  him  into  the  usual  and  legitimate  results 
which  have,  in  ninety-nine  instances  in  every  hundred,  been  its  attend¬ 
ants. 

But  besides  the  models  furnished  him  in  Scotland,  the  Moravian  and 
other  societies,  either  preaching  or  practising  some  sort  of  a  religious 
community  of  interests  and  feelings,  either  strengthened  the  convic¬ 
tions  or  enlarged  the  views  of  my  benevolent  friend.  But  the  mis¬ 
fortune  was,  and  is,  (and  I  fear  will  be) ’that  he  persists  in  attempting 
to  unite  the  lights  of  Christianity  with  .the  darkness  of  scepticism. 
But  the  greatest  error  which  I  have  to  attribute  to  Mr.  Owen,  is,  his 
not  discriminating  what  Dr.  Franklin  failed  to  teach  Thomas  Paine. 
This  political  philosopher,  who  was,  like  many  other  reasoners,  sane 
in  ‘politics ,  but  insane  in  religion ,  submitted  his  “Age  of  Reason,” 
to  the  revision  or  inspection  of  the  greatest  American  philosopher. 
He  read  it,  and  agreeably  to  Mr.  Paine’s  request,  he  wrote  him  his 
advice  about  its  publication.  After  telling  the  sceptic  what  risks  he 
would  incur,  and  how  little  good  his  work  would  do,  lie  gravely  reminds 
him  how  mueh  he  was  indebted  for  those  principles  of  morality  and 
benevolence  which  he  possessed,  to  the  influence  and  genius  of  the 
religion  he  was  about  to  attack.  He  tells  him  that  he  calculates  too 
largely  upon  the  natural  virtues  of  man.  This  advice  of  the  American 
sage  applies  with  still  additional  force  to  Mr.  Owen.  He  possesses  a 
most  benevolent  temperament  ;  in  early  life,  too,  he  went  regularly  to 
church;  and  from  these  sources,  as  from  the  “good  books”  which 
he  told  you  he  had  read,  he  imbibed  all  these  moralities  and  benevo¬ 
lent  views  which  his  scepticism  has  not  in  forty  years  been  able  to 
obliterate.  But  his  fault  (for  I  believe  that  men  may  be  guilty  of 
faults)  has  been  not  to  discriminate,  not  to  assign  to  its  proper  cause 
the  influences  which  he  feels,  and  which  he  sees  in  himself  and  in 
the  world. 

His  ideas  concerning  matrimony,  and  many  of  his  views  detailed 
in  this  discussion,  were  all  detailed  with  much  ^ihility  by  Godwin  in 
his  Political  Justice,  though  he  feared  some  of  those  conclusions  from 
his  own  premises,  which  Mr.  Owen  lias  had  the  moral  courage  to 


DEBATE. 


m 

avow.  1  do  not  say  that  Mr.  Owen  directly  and  literally  borrowed 
all  his  ideas  from  these  fountains;  but  as  these  were  not  only  the 
fashionable  books,  but  the  common  topics  of  the  epoch  of  his  social 
system-;  and  as  he  has  told  us  that  he  has  read  jive  hours  per  day  for 
nearly  thirty  years  of  his  life ,  it  would  be  doing  him  injustice  to  sup’ 
pose  that  these  works  had  not  occupied  a  due  share  of  his  attention. 

I  am  not  so  sceptical  in  scepticism  as  Mr.  Owen  is  in  Christian¬ 
ity,  or,  as  to  think  that  mankind  may  not  be  improved  in  then- 
condition.  CiFas  est  ab  hoste  discercF  It  is  lawful  to  learn  from  an 
enemy.  I  do  not  doubt  but  that  Mr.  Owen  has  asserted  many 
truths,  and  some  useful  truths.  But  not  one  good  idea  has  he  sub- 
mitted,  which  has  not  been  derived,  or  which  is  not  derivable  from 
Christianity.  There  was  a  society  in  the  New  Testament  which  had 
all  things  in  common ;  but  their  happiness  was  not  derived  from  a 
community  of  goods,  but  from  that  principle  which  issued,  in  their 
circumstances,  in  a  community  of  goods.  I  most  sanguineiy  antici¬ 
pate  a  restoration  of  the  ancient  order  of  things,  and  a  state  of 
society  far  superior  to  any  thing  yet  exhibited  on  earth.  I  believe 
that  there  will  be  what  is  commonly  believed  by  all  Christians,  a 
Millennium;  a  period,  a  long  period  of  general  or  universal  peace, 
happiness,  and  political  and  religious  prosperity.  And  that  some  of 
the  views  of  Mr.  Owen  may  then  be  realized  as  the  legitimate  fruits 
of  Christianity,  I  would  not  deny. 

But  I  must  speak  plainly  and  say,  taking  the  whole  of  Mr.  Owen’s 
theory  in  the  mass  it  is  the  most  visionary  theory  which  has  ever 
been  pronounced.  It  is  too,  all  theory ,  for  Mr.  Owen  has  not  made 
a  single  proof  of  it.  He  can  not  point  to  any  society,  on  earth,  as 
a  practical  proof  of  its  practicability,  or  of  its  excellency.  Tell 
me  nothing  about  New  Lanark,  for  there  it  has  never  been  tested ; 
and  tell  me  nothing  about  New  Harmony,  for  there,  Mr.  Owen  will 
not  appeal  himself.  He  has  given  us  a  beautiful  theory  of  his  social 
system.  But,  Paul  Brown’s  “Twelve  months  residence  in  New  Har¬ 
mony”  will  shew  the  thing  in  practice :  \^ti8  all  a  lie ,  says  Mr.  Owen.] 
And  although  much  has  been  said  about  New  Lanark,  I  must,  if 
testimony  be  a  proper  source  of  information,  believe  that  no  social 
system,  no  co-operative  system  was  ever  tried  there.  That  many 
persons  may  there  have  been  improved  in  their  circumstances  is  not 
denied.  But  how  has  that  come  to  pass? — not  on  the  principles 
which  Mr.  Owen  now  teaches.  I  will  tell  you  how  some  of  them 
have  been  reformed  and  improved  in  their  circumstances  in  that 
establishment.  If,  for  example,  a  drunkard  was  received  into  the 
New  Lanark  manufactories,  he  was  not  permitted  to  draw  any  money 
from  this  company  for  his  work  so  long  as  he  continued  in  the 
employment  of  the  company.  All  his  necessary  demands  for  food, 
raiment,  lodging,  &c.  were  promptly  paid  in  the  articles  wanted ;  and 
the  surplus,  if  any  there  was,  was  not  paid  him  in  money  during 
his  continuance  in  the  establishment;  but  when  he  removed  the 
last  f-  rthiug  was  paid  him.  Thus  he  became  sober  from  necessity ; 
and  temperate,  because  he  could  not  get  any  thing  to  intoxicate  him, 
VOL.  II.  12 


IM 


DEBATE. 


The  prodigal,  and  those  destitute  of  economy  were  improved  in  their 
finances  by  this  same  system — and  there  was  a  good  school  for  edu¬ 
cating  the  youth,  for  which  I  believe,  Mr.  Owen  deserves  some 
praise.  But  this  is  about  the  nett  proceeds  of  the  social  system  in 
New  Lanark.  The  people  of  New  Lanark,  too,  were  in  the  aggre¬ 
gate,  a  religious  people.  There  is  one  Presbyterian  church,  in  New 
Lanark,  well  frequented ;  also  for  the  benefit  of  the  independents, 
who  dissented  from  the  establishment,  a  meeting  house  was  built, 
to  which  Mr.  Owen  himself  was  the  principal  contribute!*.  For,  to 
his  credit,  it  must  be  told,  that  while  he  has  been  declaiming  against 
priests,  and  their  impositions,  he  has  been  liberal  in  building  meeting 
houses.  The  people  of  New  Lanark  are  a  religious  people.  I  have 
learned  from  those  who  visited  that  place,  that  not  only  on  the  First 
day  of  the  week,  but  on  Thursdays*,  and  other  stated  meetings  during 
the  week,  they  meet  for  social  worship  in  some  of  the  large  rooms 
of  the  establishment. 

Mr.  Owen’s  theory,  then,  is  without  proof  unknown  and  incredi¬ 
ble.  Forty  years  reading,  studying,  travelling,  and  all  the  funds 
expended,  have  produced  nothing  as  yet  visible,  except  the  “ Twelve 
fundamental  Divine  laws  of  human  nature .”  “Like  quicksilver,  the 
rhetoric  he  displays,  shines  as  it  runs,  but  grasped  at  slips  away.” 
New  Harmony  was  once  the  land  of  promise.  Bankrupt  and  brok  - 
on  fortunes  were  to  be  repaired  there.  Thither  came  the  lame,  the 
halt,  the  blind  in  fortune  and  in  fame.  The  philosophers  stone,  or 
the  elixir  of  immortal  youth  were  not  more  eagerly  sought  than  the 
city  of  Mental  Independence.  But  soon  the  charm  dissolved,  and  all 
the  awful  realities  of  nature,  reason,  and  religion,  disbanded  the 
social  builders,  and  like  those  in  the  plains  of  Shinar,  when  one 
called  for  a  brick,  his  attendant  handed  him  a  stone,  or  a  blow, 
and  utter  dispersion  and  confusion  on  their  banners  waited.  As 
many  of  these  folks  as  had  been  brought  to  their  senses,  and  had 
ever  read  Horace,  as  they  returned,  admitted  the  truth  of  the  old 
maxim,  and  now  and  then  lisped  it  out: 

“Coelum  non  animum  mutant, 

Qui  trans  mare  currant.” — Horace. 

Their  clime,  and  not  their  mind,  they  change, 

Who  sail  across  the  sea. 

The  trinity  of  evils  was  the  text  for  months  at  New  Harmony.  But 
soon  they  found  a  treble  trinity  of  other  evils  than  artificial  ones. 
Next  to  religion,  marriage  was  accursed.  Marriage,  the  oldest  in¬ 
stitution  in  the  world,  founded  in  nature,  reason,  and  religion,  must 
be  banished  the  dominions  of  the  social  svstem.  It  enabled  parents 
to  recognize  their  children,  and  children  their  parents;  and  natural 
affection  would  run  in  these  channels,  and  mine  and  thine  in  spite 
of  the  twelve  categories  would  be  heard,  and  all  this  was  perfect 
discord  in  the  music  of  New  Harmony.  Marriage,  then,  must  for 
these  reasons  be  banished,  that  a  thorough  social  system  may 
succceed. 


DEBATE. 


135 


ThiB  attempt  to  dissolve,  violate  or  impugn  the  marriage  contract, 
I  think,  ruined  the  project  on  the  Wabash.  It  is  hard  to  fight  against 
*the  trinity  of  nature,  reason,  and  religion.”  God  said,  it  is  not 
good  for  man  to  he  alone!  He  then  created  a  help  meet  for  him.— 
Even  in  Paradise,  man  alone  was  but  half  blessed: 

“The  world  was  sad,  the  garden  was  a  wild. 

And  man  the  hermit  sigh’d,  till  woman  smil’d.*? — Reporter. 

Poligamy  was  denounced  in  the  creation  of  but  one  woman  for  man  ; 
and  the  equal  distribution  of  the  sexes  since  has  shewn,  that  every 
man  ought  to  have  his  own  wife,  and  every  woman  her  own  husband 7 
All  that  adorns,  animates,  and  exalts,  as  respects  the  finer  feelings 
of  human  nature,  spring  from  this  institution  in  its  primitive  ap¬ 
pointment.  On  the  altar  of  matrimony  are  woven  all  the  cords  of 
affection,  all  the  ligaments  and  bands  that  cement  society.  All 
natural  relations  are  but  the  names  of  the  silken  cords  which  bind 
society  in  all  the  social  relations  which  give  a  zest  to  all  enjoyments, 
and  extract  the  sting  from  the  thousand  griefs  and  sorrows  of  human 
life.  He  that  would  abolish  this  institution,  or  violate  its  sacred 
obligations,  is  any  thing  but  a  philanthropist.  Destroy  this  insti¬ 
tution,  and  not  only  the  happiness  of  man,  as  a  social  being,  but  tire 
safety  of  the  race,  would  be  endangered.  Parental  affection  is  the 
strongest  passion  of  the  human  sou1,  which 'not  even  the  deformity 
of  person  or  mind,  or  filial  ingratitude,  disobedience,  or  impiety, 
can  wholly  obliterate.  Our  greatest  gratifications,  on  earth,  arise  from 
this  institution,  and  the  relations  to  which  it  gives  birth.  And  it  is 
*  just  as  necessary  for  the  safety,  as  for  the  happiness  of  the  race.* 

But  to  meet  the  exigencies  ofthe  new  stale  of  existence,  when  marriage 
is  to  be  no  more,  a  band  of  nurses  are  to  be  trained  who  are  to  have  in 
charge  the  infants  of  the  communities.  This  is  to  save  time  and  labor, 
and  to  economize  the  productive  energies  of  the  communities.  Mothers 
are  thus  to  be  happily  exempted  from  many  of  the  toils  incident  to  par¬ 
turition;  and  in  this  arrangement  Mr.  Owen  supposes  he  is  promoting 
the  happiness  of  mothers.  This  is  a  lame  and  blind  philosophy.  A 
mother  feels  incomparably  more  pleasure  in  having  the  care  of  her 
own  offspring,  than  in  being  exempt  from  it.  The  smiles  of  her  in¬ 
fant,  the  opening  dawn  of  reason,  the  indications  of  future  greatness 
or  goodness,  as  they  exhibit  themselves  to  her  sanguine  expectations, 
open  to  her  sources  of  enjoyment  incomparably  overpaying  the  solici¬ 
tudes  and  gentle  toils  of  nursing.  In  exempting  her  from  the  natural 
concern  and  care  due  to  her  offspring,  Mr.  Owen  debars  her  from  the 
largest  portion  of  maternal  enjoyments,  for  which  he  can  substitute 
nothing  like  an  equivalent.  But,  perhaps,  when  marriage  is  abolish¬ 
ed,  all  maternal  solicitudes  and  enjoyments  will  expire  with  it. — 
Indeed,  all  the  finer  and  more  tender  sensibilities  of  our  nature  appear 
to  share  the  same  fate  in  the  desolating  prospects  of  the  new  order  of 

*This  is  contended  for,  by  Montesquieu,  in  bis  spirit  of  laws;  but  he  goes 
farther;  he  contends  that  without  the  institution  of  marriage,  children  would 
never  reach  maturity;  and  hence  is  derived  the  legal  maxim.  , 

“Pater  est  quern  muptiae  demvnstrant.” — Reporter.  J 


DEBATE, 


things,  for  the  luxury  of  eating  and  drinking.  The  most  powerful*  ox 
all  natural  affections  is  to  be  waylaid  in  the  cradle;  and,  if  possible, 
slaughtered  as  soon  as  born — the  affection  of  parents  for  children 
flowing  from  the  sacred  institution  of  marriage.  In  every  point  of 
view  in  which  we  regard  it,  this  system  is  at  war  with  human  nature, 
as  well  as  with  religion,  matrimony,  and  private  property.  It  aims  a 
mortal  blow  at  all  our  ideas  of  social  order  and  social  happiness. 
But  Mr.  Owen  has  not  yet  found,  and  I  am  confident  he  will  never 
find,  human  nature  and  human  passions  so  plastic  as  to  be  cast  into 
any  artificial  mould  he  may  imagine;  sooner  will  he  cause  the  rivers 
to  flow  backwards  to  their  sources;  sooner  can  he  reverse  the  decrees 
of  gravitation,  than  abolish  religion,  marriage,  or  even  private  pro¬ 
perty.  I  doubt  not  either  that  were  men  as  religious  as  Christianity 
is  designed  to  make  them,  they  could  co-operate  in  societies  greatly  to 
diminish  the  evils  of  life,  to  facilitate  the  education  of  their  children, 
and  to  augment  their  social  enjoyments.  But  to  attempt  this  without 
the  aids,  the  principles,  motives,  and  inspirations  of  Christianity, 
would  be  only  to  attempt  to  make  a  globe,  a  new  earth,  without  the 
principle  of  gravitation  or  attraction.  Mr.  Owen’s  system  always 
appears  to  me  to  resemble  the  efforts  of  some  pagan  god  to  build  a 
world  upon  the  single  principle  of  repulsion. 

But  Mr.  Owen  is  about  to  have  the  animal  man  improved  as  the 
horses  and  sheep  of  this  country  have  been  improved,  upon  scientific 
principles.  He  has  told  us  of  a  science,  in  which  he'  is  an  adept, 
and  with  which  all  shall  be  well  acquainted  in  “the  new  state  of 
existence,”  for  improving  man  in  his  animal  and  mental  endowments, 
even  from,  if- -not  anterior  to  his  birth.  This  is  all  in  accordance  with 
the  fine  imagination  of  my  friend.  He  is  not,  however,  the  inventor 
of  tliis  part  of  his  scheme :  Dr.  Graham  was  before  him,  and  disrobed 
him  of  the  honor  of  originating  even  this  part  of  the  new  sciences  of 
the  social  system.  We  shall  give  you  some  short  account  of  this 
matter. 

James  Graham,  M.  D.  born  at  Edinburgh,  1745,  a  philanthropic 
physician, "travelled  over  great  part  of  England  and  America,  admin¬ 
istering  relief  in  the  most  desperate  cases,  for  the  benefit  of  mankind. 
After  returning  from  America,  where  he  had  realized  a  considerable 
fortune,  he  settled  in  London,  about  1775.  There,  under  the  titles  of 
a  Temple  of  Hymen  and  a  Temple  of  Healih,  he  erected  one  of  the 
most  superb  institutions  that  ever  was  planned,  for  the  gratification 
of  the  votaries  of  pleasure;  and,  under  the  pretence  of  instructing  all 
persons  of  both  sexes  who  put  themselves  under  his  tuition,  and  were 
willing  to  sacrifice  to  Venus  in  these  sacred  domes,  he  engaged  to 

*So  sensible  was  the  old  common  law  of  England  of  this  point,  that  it  made 
the  workings  of  parental  affection  a  palliation  for  the  commission  of  murder. 
For  when  a  man’s  son  was  severely  beaten  by  anpther  boy,  and  came  home  and 
told  his  father,  if  his  father  went  in  pursuit  of  the  other  boy,  and  followed  him 
one  mile  before  he  overtook  him,  and  beat  him  in  return,  so  that  he  died;  this 
was  held  by  all  the  judges  to  be  only  manslaughter,  in  consideration  of  the 
strength  of  natural  feelings. — Reporter . 


DEBATE, 


137 


teach  “the  art  of  preventing  barrenness,  and  of  propagating  a  much 
more  strong,  beautiful,  active,  healthy,  wise,  and  virtuous  race  of 
human  beings,  than  the  present  puny,  insignificant,  foolish,  peevish, 
vicious,  and  nonsensical  race  of  Christians;  who  quarrel,  fight,  bite, 
devour,  and  cut  one  another’s  throats  about  they  know  not  what,” 
Such  is  a  part  of  one  of  his  many  advertisements  which  then  appear¬ 
ed  in  the  London  papers. 

About  the  end  of  1787,  he  returned  to  Edinburgh  in  a  new  and 
extraordinary  character;  viz. — that  of  a  teacher  sent  from  God,  to 
announce  the  Millennium,  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  and  the  final 
consummation  of  all  things.  He  styled  himself  the  servant,  of  the 
Lord,  O.  W.  L.  i.  e.  as  he  explained  it.  Oh  Wonderful  Love,  lie 
commenced  a  new  era,  dating  his  bills  “1st,  2d,  and  3d  days  of  the 
first  month  of  the  New  Jerusalem.”  But  before  the  commencement 
of  the  second  month  he  was  constrained  to  confess  “he  felt  the  devil, 
the  world,  and  the  flesh  too  strong  for  him,  and  therefore  he  supposed 
the  Lord  must  look  out  for  another  forerunner  of  his  second  coming  ” 

During  great  part  of  this  time  his  wife  (for  he  had  married  in  New 
England)  seems  to  have  been  neglected,  and  even  forgotten:  for,  upon 
becoming  acquainted  with  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Macauley,  the  histo¬ 
rian,  he  offered  her  his  hand,  which  she  would  have  accepted  had 
she  not  accidentally  discovered  that  he  had  a  wife  still  living.  Upon 
this  discovery,  the  Doctor,  no  wise  discomfited,  protested  the  ardor  of 
his  passion  for  her  had  made  him  forget  that  circumstance.  This 
singular  and  benevolent  being  died  in  1794. 

The  points  of  similarity  between  my  friend  and  the  Doctor  are  so 
plain,  that  I  need  not  be  at  the  pains  to  point  them  out :  your  own 
recollection  of  the  first  and  second  years  of  the  era  of  Mental  Inde¬ 
pendence  proclaimed  at  the  Metropolis  of  Free-Thinkers,  and  at  the 
head  of  the  army  of  the  “March  of  Mind,”  will,  with  what  you  have 
-heard  and  seen  on  the  present  occasion,  be  sufficient  data  to  trace  the 
lineaments  of  Dr.  Graham  in  my  good-natured  and  benevolent  friend. 

I  forgot  to  mention  that  Dr.  Graham  was  finally  placed  in  a  lunatic 
asylum.  Bat  on  this  side  of  this  extravagance,  several  miles  on  this 
side  of  these  enthusiastic  flights,  there  have  been  schemes  hatched  up 
under  the  canopy  of  a  peculiar  organization,  as  air-built  it  is  true', 
and  as  benevolent  as  that  of  Dr.  Graham,  and  Mr.  Owen,  which  have 
fasted  a  little  longer,  but  have  finally  proved  as  empty  quite. 

But,  my  friends,  I  should  not  have  occupied  a  minute  of  your  time 
upon  these  visions,  and  dreams,  and  theories,  called  philosophic  or 
vulgar,  had  it  not  been  for  the  wanton  attack  made  by  Mr.  Owen  on 
the  last,  best  hope  of  mortal  man.  I  should  have  permitted  any  other 
experiment  to  have  found  its  quietus,  as  thousands  such  have  already 
done,  without  observation  or  regard.  But  when  I  see  the  last  hope  of 
a  dying  world  recklessly  assaulted,  I  feel  too  much  interest  in  the 
"eternal  welfare  of  my  fellow-creaturos,  to  remain  a  mere  passive 
spectator.  I  feel  myself  called  upon  to  put  on  the  armor  of  reason, 
true  philosophy,  and  religion,  and  to  stand  to  my  post,  lest  in  the  midst 
of  such  morbid  excitements,  in  this  age  of  extravagant  theory  and 
VOL.  II.  12* 


138 


DEBATE. 


licentious  philosophy,  many  over-ardent  minds  might  be  allured  by 
the  speciousness  and  false  glare  of  this  tinselled  philosophy,  which, 

I  trust,  we  have  shown  to  be  any  thing  else  but  consentaneous  with 
the  constitution,  experience,  and  history  of  the  world. 

Dehold  the  cruelty  of  this  scheme!  (not  that  Mr.  Owen  is  cruel,)  the 
hard-heartedness  of  the  system!  Think  of  all  the  labors  and  toils,  t 
the  griefs  and  sorrows  through  which  you  have  passed.  How  have 
you  wearied  yourselves  in  pursuit  of  phantoms.  Every  thing  you 
have  gained  has  only  mocked  and  disappointed  you.  Like  bubbles 
they  have  bursted  when  you  laid  your  hands  upon  the  glistening 
objects  of  your  avarice  or  ambition.  All  has  been  fleeting  and 
evanescent.  You  know,  for  woful  experience  has  taught  you,  that 
you  have  been  pursuing  shadows.  What  pleased  you  at  seven,  you 
disdained  at  fourteen ;  what  charmed  you  at  fourteen,  was  disgusting 
at  twenty;  and  what  you  almost  adored  at  twenty,  has  been  long 
since  contemned  and  despised ;  and  what  now  fascinates  you  at  forty, 
will,  should  you  reach  seventy,  appear  as  unworthy  of  your  admira~ 
lion  as  the  toys  of  childhood  now  present  themselves  to  you.  But 
when  the  curtain  drops,  and  the  last  grand  act  of  the  drama  of  human 
life  closes,  you  will  be  mocked  still ;  and,  on  Mr.  Owen’s  principle, 
you  have  been  mocked  at  last.  There  is  nothing  real.  You  desired 
immortality;  you  sought  it,  each  in  his  own  way;  but  with  him 
none  have  found  it.  It  is  deceit  and  mockery  all  through.  Riches, 
popularity,  wisdom,  health,  and  life  itself,  have  all  been  deceivers — 
all  was  promise — all  is  disappointment.  The  promised  bliss,  the 
real ,  substantial,  and  permanent  good  which  religion  has  presented 
to  you,  is  torn  from  your  eyes,  and  everlasting  death,  eternal  sleep, 
end  utter  annihilation,  is  the  only  reality  he  has  offered  you.  Cruel 
system !  Bootless  boast ! 

Religion — the  Bible!  What  treasures  untold  reside  in  that  heavenly 
word !  Religion  has  given  meaning ,  design,  to  all  that  is  past,  and  is, 
as  the  moral  to  the  fable,  the  good,  the  only  good  of  the  whole — the 
earnest  now  of  an  abundant  harvest  of  future  and  eternal  good. — 
New  let  me  ask  the  living  before  me,  for  we  cannot  yet  appeal  to  the 
dead,  whence  has  been  derived  your  most  rapturous  delights  on  earth? 
Have  not  the  tears,  the  dew  of  religion  in  the  soul,  afforded  you  in¬ 
comparably  more  joy  than  all  the  fleshly  gaieties,  than  all  the  splendid 
vanities,  than  the  loud  laugh  and  the  festive  song  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  flesh.  Even  the  alternations  of  hope  and  fear,  of 
joy  and  sorrow,  of  which  the  Christian  may  be  conscious,  in  his 
arden  trace  after  a  glorious  immortality,  afford  more  true  bliss  than 
ever  did  the  sparkling  gems,  the  radiant  crown,  or  the  triumphal  arch, 
bestowed  by  the  gratitude  or  admiration  of  a  nation,  on  some  favorite 
child  of  fortune  and  of  fame. 

Whatever  comes  from  religion,  comes  from  God.  The  greatest 
joys  derivable  to  mortal  man  comes  from  this  source.  I  cannot  speak 
for  all  who  wear  the  Christian  name;  but  for  myself  I  must  say,  that  • 
worlds  piled  on  worlds  to  fill  the  universal  scope  of  my  imagination, 
would  be  a  miserable  per  contra,  against  the  annihilation  of  the  idea 


DEBATE 


139 

of  God  the  Supreme.  And  the  paradox  of  paradoxes,  the  miracle  of 
miracles,  and  the  mystery  of  mysteries  with  me  now,  was,  and  evermore 
shall  be,  is,  how  any  good  man  could  wish  there  was  no  God!  With 
the  idea  of  God  the  Almighty,  departs  from  this  earth,  not  only  the 
idea  of  virtue,  of  moral  excellence,  but  of  all  rational  enjoyment*  What 
is  height  without  top;  depth  without  bottom;  length,  and  breadth 
without  limitation?  what  is  the  sublimity  of  the  universe,  without  the 
idea  of  him  who  created,  balances,  sustains,  and  fills  the  whole  with 
goodness?  The  hope  of  one  day  seeing  this  Wonderful  One,  of  be¬ 
holding  him  that  made  my  body  and  is  the  father  of  my  spirit — the 
anticipation  of  being  introduced  into  the  palace  of  the  universe,  the 
sanctuary  of  the  heavens,  transcends  all  comparison  with  all  sublu¬ 
nary  things.  Our  pbwers  of  conception,  of  imagination,  and  our 
powers  of  computation,  and  expression,  are  alike  baffled  and  pros¬ 
trated  in  such  an  attempt. 

Take  away  this  hope  from  me,  and  teach  me  to  think  that  I  am 
the  creature  of  mere  chance,  and  to  it  alone  indebted  for  all  that  1 
am,  was,  and  ever  will  be,  and  I  see  nothing  in  the  universe  but 
mortification  and  disappointment;  death  is  as  desirable  as  life;  and 
no  one  creature  or  thing  is  more  deserving  of  my  attention  or  consi¬ 
deration  than  another.  But  if  so  much  pleasure  is  derived  from 
surveying  the  face  of  nature,  from  contemplating  the  heavens  and  th& 
systems  of  astronomy ;  if  there  be  so  much  exquisite  enjoyment  from 
peeping  into  the  great  laboratory  of  nature,  and  in  looking  into  the  de¬ 
licate  touches,  the  great  art,  the  wonderful  design  even  in  the  smaller 
works,  in  the  kingdom  which  the  microscope  opens  to  our  view,  what 
will  be  the  pleasure,  the  exquisite  joy  in  seeing  and  beholding 
him  who  is  the  Fountain  of  Life ,  the  Author  and  Artificer  of  the 
whole  Universe.  But  the  natural  and  physical  excellencies,  and  ma¬ 
terial  glories  of  this  great  fabric,  are,  but,  as  it  were,  the  substratum* 
from  which  shine  all  the  moral  glories  of  the  Author  of  Eternal  Life, 
and  of  the  august  scheme  which  gives  immortality  to  man ! 

No  unrestrained  freedom  to  explore  the  penetralia  of  voluptuous¬ 
ness,  to  revel  in  all  the  luxury  of  worms,  to  bask  in  the  ephemeral 
glories  of  a  sunbeam,  can  compensate  for  the  immense  robbery  of 
the  idea  of  God  and  the  hope  of  deathless  bliss.  Dreadful  adventure  !- 
hazardous  experiment!  most  ruinous  project,  to  blast  the  idea  of 
God!  The  worst  thing  in  such  a  scheme  which  could  happen,  or 
even  appear  to  happen,  would  be  success.  But  as  well  might  Mr. 
Owen  attempt  to  fetter  the  sea,  to  lock  up  the  winds,  to  prevent  the 
rising  of  the  sun,  as  to  exile  this  idea  from  the  human  race..  For 
although  man  has  not,  circumstanced  as  he  now  is,  unaided  by  reve¬ 
lation,  the  power  to  originate  such  an  idea;  yet  when  it  is  once 
suggested  to  a  child,  it  never  can  be  forgotten.  As  soon  could  a 
child  annihilate  the  earth,  as  to  annihilate  the  idea  ol  God  once  sug¬ 
gested.  The  proofs  of  his  existence  become  as  numerous  as  the  drops 
of  dew  from  the  womb  of  ihe  morning — as  innumerable  as  the  blades 
of  grass  produced  by  the  renovating  influences  of  spring — every 
thing  within  us  and  every  thing  without,,  from  the  nails  upon  the 


DEBATE. 


ends  of  our  fingers,  to  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  confirm  the  idea  of 
his  existence  and  adorable  excellencies.  To  call  upon  a  rational 
being  to  prove  the  being  and  perfections  of  God,  is  like  asking  a  man 
to  prove  that  he  exists  himself.  What!  shall  a  man  be  called  upon  to  • 
prove,  a  priori ,  or  a  posteriori ,  that  there  is  one  great  Fountain  of 
Life!  a  Universal  Creator!  If  the  millions  of  millions  of  witnesses 
which  speak  for  him  in  heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  will  not  be  heard,  the  ij 
feeble  voice  of  man  will  be  heard  in  vain.  •  if 

Some  questions  have  been  handed  me  to-day,  which  do  not  come  r 

within  the  lawful  purview  of  this  discussion .  They  are  of  a  sectarian 
character,  and  therefore  we  cannot  attend  to  them  at  this  time,  how¬ 
ever  agreeable  it  might  be  for  us  on  some  other  occasion  to  attend  to 
them. 

The  question,  What  is  the  Word  of  God?  has  already  been  antici¬ 
pated  in  my  remarks  upon  what  constitutes  revelation.  In  the  Bible, 
we  have  seen,  are  the  revelations  of  God;  but,  besides  these,  much  of 
the  history  of  the  world.  The  discriminations  already  laid,  down  on 
this  subject,  a  re,  we  presume,  sufficiently  plain  to  enable  all  to  form  a 
a  correct  decision  upon  this  subject  . 

That  which  is  emphatically  called  the  Word  o^  God,  the  Word  of 
the  Lord ,  or  the  Word,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  generally,  if  not 
exclusively,  the  Gospel,  or  Good  News  concerning  Jesus  Christ., 

Of  the  many  proofs  of  this,  I  will  give  you  but  one  at  present,  and 
then  conclude: — Peter  had  the  honor  of  making  the  first  clear,  ex¬ 
plicit,  and  correct  confession  of  the  faith,  ever  made  upon  earth. 
When  all  the  apostles  were  interrogated  by  the  Lord  in  his  own  per¬ 
son  concerning  their  views  of  himself,  Peter  thus  spoke,  “We  believe 
and  are  sure  that  thou  art  the  Messiah  the  sox  of  the  living  god.” 
This  drew  the  blessing  of  the  Saviour  upon  the  head  of  Peter,  and 
obtained  him  the  honor  of  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  By 
this  figure  was  meant,  that  Peter  should  have  the  honor  of  opening  the 
gates  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  the  new  reign  announced  by  John 
the  Baptist,  the  Saviour,  the  twelve  Apostles,  and  the  seventy  disci¬ 
ples,  as  near  at  hand,  or  as  approaching.  These  keys  have  been  long 
a  bone  of  contention  among  the  clergy.  The  Pope  says  he  wears 
them  at  his  girdle;  the  Archbishops  of  York  and  Canterbury  think 
they  have  them  in  joint  keeping;  the  good  old  Kirk  of  Scotland  thinks 
she  has  them  in  the  archives  of  her  General  Assembly;  and  Indepen¬ 
dents  think  each  congregation,  or  an  association  of  congregations 
have  them  in  charge.  But,  as  we  have  no  aceount  of  them  in  the  last 
will  and  testament  of  the  Apostle  Peter,  we  have  no  good  reason  to 
conclude  that  he  made  any,  or  all,  of  these  good  ecclesiastics  the 
keepers  of  the  keys.  Besides  I  do  not  know  that  we  have  any  use  for 
them.  Peter  opened  that  kingdom  of  which  they  were  the  keys  to 
the  Jews  and  proselytes  in  Jerusalem  upon  the  ever-memorable  Pen¬ 
tecost.  And  some  years  afterwards,  when  God  designed  to  call  the 
Gentiles  into  the  kingdom,  much  pains  were  taken  to  obtain  Peter. 

He  was  sent  for  to  Joppa,  and  came  to  Cesarea,  and  opened  the  king¬ 
dom  to  the  Gentiles.-  The  •gates  of  this  kingdom  have  never  since 


DEBATE.  Ul 

been  locked  against  Jew  or  Gentile — against  none,  but  tbe  impenitent 
and  unbelieving;  and  Peter  declared  once  already,  that  he  could  not 
open  the  kingdom  to  such.  But  having  once  opened  the  kingdom, 
and  never  having  locked  it,  he  took  the  keys  with  him;  and  so  it  is 
all  an  idle  controversy  about  the  keys — none  of  them,  none  of  us, 
have  them. 

But  my  special  object  in  introducing  this  occurrence  is  to  show 
how  Peter,  when  opening  the  reign  of  favor  in  Jerusalem  and  Cesa- 
yea,  defined  the  Word  of  God,  6r  the  word.  In  opening  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven,  or  that  new  state  of  society  and  privilege,  of  which 
the  Saviour  spoke  to  Nicodemus,  when  he  told  hirn,  “Except  a  man 
were  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit ,  into  the  kingdom  of  God  he  could  not 
enter”  Peter  narrated  the  deeds,  and  mission,  and  death,  and  resur¬ 
rection  of  Jesus;  and  showed  the  Jews  how  they  might  be  born  of 
water  and  the  Spirit,  and  thus  enter  the  kingdom.  He  did  so  also  in 
Cesarea.  He  defined  the  message,  or  proclamation,  in  this  way, 
*That  word ,  or  message,  which  God  sent  by  Jesus  Christ,  you  have, 
no  doubt,  heard  the  report  of;  how  it  was  proclaimed  by  John  con¬ 
cerning  the  mission  of  Jesus,  who  did  so  and  so.  To  him,”  said  he. 
*‘did  all  the  prophets  testify,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  might 
obtain  remission  of  sins.”  They  were  born  of  the  Spirit  and  of  water 
too;  and,  moreover,  received  the  miraculous  powers  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Thus  Peter  defined  the  Word  of  God.  And  this  is  now  emphatically 
the  Word  of  the  Lord ,  or  the  Word  of  God ,  to  which,  my  friends,  we 
ought,  one  and  all,  to  pay  supreme  regard. 

We  rejoice  that  the  Word  of  God  is  well  defined  in  this  volume, 
and  most  easily  distinguished,  not  only  from  all  former  communica¬ 
tions  of  the  Almighty,  but  from  all  other  information  found  in  the 
.sacred  records.  They  who  presumed  to  make  criticisms  upon  the 
terms  and  phrases  found  in  the  Bible,  ought  first  to  ascertain  well 
whether  they  are  biblical  critics. 

I  should  now  proceed  to  give  you  a  concentrated  view  of  the  whole 
argument,  but  I  must  give  place  to  my  friend,  that  he  may  make  his 
objections  to  my  long  speech. 

Monday  evening ,  4  o^clock. 

[The  above  speech  commenced  on  Friday  at  3  oclock,  and  in  all 
occupied  12  hours.] 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

It  is  my  wish  to  make  the  present  meeting,  which  is  a  very  singu  ¬ 
lar  one  in  its  nature,  as  extensively  beneficial  as  possible.  After 
the  full  statement  of  my  views,  with  which  I  opened  this  discussion, 
it  was  not  my  intention  to  occupy  much  of  your  time  in  listening  to 
a  rejoinder  to  Mr.  Campbell.  But  not  knowing  what  my  friend 
was  going  to  say  in  answer  to  that  statement,  and  finding  that,  in¬ 
stead  of  replying  to  my  arguments,  he  has  given  you  a  full  and 
elaborate  developement  of  the  Christian  religion,  it  is  necessaty  to 
detain  you  somewhat  longer  than  1  intended, 


DEBATE. 


U2 


I  have  listened  to  Mr.  C.  with  profound  attention;  and  have, 
therefore,  received  the  impressions  which  his  elaborate  exposition 
of  the  Christian  systejn,  and  his  whole  ©hath  of  evidence  are  capa¬ 
ble  of  producing  on  a  rnind  long  accustomed  to  severe  and  accurate 


reasoning.  I  now  owe  it  to  you,  who  have  attended  here  so  patiently 


through  this  discussion — I  owe  it  to  the  present  generation,  and 
to  ail  future  generations,  to  declare  without  reserve  what  these 
impressions  are. 

Mv  friends,  Mr.  Campbell  appears  to  me  to  have  done  his  duty 
manfully,  and  with  a  zeal  that  would  have  been  creditable  to  any 
of  the  primitive  fathers  of  the  church.  Ilis  own  conviction  of 
the  truth  and  divine  origin  of  the  system  which  he  advocates,  and 
his  ardent  desire  to  impress  that  conviction  upon  my  mind,  and 
upon  yours,  all  here  have  witnessed.  Ilis  learning,  his  industry, 
and  some  very  extraordinary  talents  for  supporting  the  cause  which 
he  advocates,  have  been  conspicuous;  and  for  one  trained  in  the 
fiery  notions  produced  by  the  tree-will  doctrines,  he  has  restrained 
his  temper  beyond  my  most  sanguine  expectations.  That,  however, 
which  1  admire  in  him  above  all,  is  his  downright  honesty  and  fair¬ 
ness  in  what  he  believes  to  be  the  cause  of  truth.  He  says  to  his 
opponent:  “I  am  strong  in  the  car.se  l  advocate.  It  is  from  heaven; 
and  I  fear  not  what  man  can  do  against  it.  I  am  ready  to  meet  you 
at  any  time  and  place,  provided  I  may  reply  to  yon,  and  that  our 
arguments  shall  go  together  to  the  public,  to  pass  its  ordeal,  and 
await  its  ultimate  cairn  decision.”  Now,  this  is  a  straight  forward 
proceeding  in  the  investigation  of  truth,  which  I  have  long  sought 
tor,  hut  which,  until  now,  I  have  sought  for  in  vain.  The  friends 
of  truth,  therefore,  on  whichever  side  of  the  question  it  may  be 
found,  are  now  more  indebted  to  Mr.  Campbell  than  any  other  Chris¬ 
tian  minister  of  the  present  clay. 

These  are  the  impressions  made  upon  my  mind,  with  regard  to  my 
friend,  Mr.  Campbell’s  conduct  m  this  delicate  and  difficult  task 
which  he  has  volunteered  to  perform.  It  is  now  my  duty  to  give  you 
the  living  impressions  which  Mr.  Campbell’s  learning,  industry,  and 
"zeal  have  made  upon  my  mind,  through  the  long  discussion  we  have 
heard.  And  you  will  not,  I  trust,  imagine  that  what  I  am  about  to 
state  proceeds  from  any  other  cause  than  the  love  o  f  truth ,  and  a  sin¬ 
cere  desire  to  benefit  the  present  and  future  generations. 

Then,  my  friends,  my  impressions  are,  that  Christianity  is  not  of 
divine  origin:  that  it  is  not  true;  and  that  its  doctrines  are  now  any 
thing  but  beneficial  to  mankind.  On  the  contrary,  my  impressions 
are  deeply  confirmed,  that  its  miracles  and  mysteries  are  of  man’s 
contrivance,  to  impose  on  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  who  have 
never  yet  been  taught  to  reason ;  to  enable  the  few  to  govern  the 
many,  through  their  interested  hopes  and  fears  for  the  future;  and 
to  induce  the  many  to  prostrate  their  minds  bofore  an  order  of  meq, 
who,  through  these  means,  can  easily  keep  them  in  subjection  to  the 
powers  that  he.  That  its  doctrines  are  now,  by  turning  aside  the 
rpind  from  investigating  its  own  powers,  the  cxnl/  obstacle  in  chris- 


■ 


i 


J 


I 


DEBATE, 


143 


tendom  to  the  most  important  improvements;  and  that  the  whole, 
system,  in  its  principles  and  practice,  in  despite  of  all  we  have  heard  in 
advocating  it,  is  the  greatest  bar  to  the  progress  of  knowledge,  that 
now  exists;  and  that,  if  my  impressions  are  right,  Christianity,  as  it 
is  now  taught  all  over  Christendom,  by  preventing  man  from  acqui¬ 
ring  an  accurate  knowledge  of  himself,  or  of  the  only  means  by 
which  his  character  can  be  uniformly  well  formed,  is  the  greatest 
curse  with  which'  our  race  is  at  this  time  afflicted. 

My  friends,  do  you  .suppose  that  I  could  utter  such  a  sentiment 
as  you  have  now  heard  lightly,  and  without  due  consideration?  No! 
it  is  the  settled  conviction  of  my  mind,  arising  from  forty  years  of 
the  greatest  possible  industry  in  tracing  chrisiianity  in  all  its  influen¬ 
ces  and  operations  upon  the  whole  of  society. 

There  is  no  individual  in  this  assembly,  who  regrets  the  necessity 
of  wounding  your  feelings  more  than  I  do.  But,  my  friends,  I  am 
not  speaking  for  the  hour,  or  the  day,  or  the  few  hundreds  that  are 
here.  I  speak  tp  you  a  truth,  \vhich  I  expect,  when  once  promul¬ 
gated,  will  pass  from  mind  to  mind,  until  it  shall  pervade  every  part 
of  the  world.  I  speak  to  you  a  truth,  which,  whatever  may  be  your 
present  impressions,  will  one  day  prove  to  you  the  most  valuable 
truth  vou  ever  heard. 

My  friends,  would  you  not  suppose,  from  what  you  have  heard  of 
the  practical  advantages  of  Christianity,  that  ail  is  now  right  amongst 
you;  that  you  are  very  angels  in  condnct;  that  you  have  among  you 
the  very  perfection  of  virtue  and  of  all  excellence?  But  you  all  well 
know  this  is  not  the  case.  You  well  know  that  Christian  Society,  all 
over  Christendom,  abounds  in  vice  and  iniquity.  [ Here  there  was 
some  stir  among  the  audience.]  My  friends,  if  any  of  you  are  afraid 
to  hear  the  truth,  it  is  time  for  you  to  depart.  [ Here  a  little  more 
excitement ,  and  some  few  left  the  church. 

My  friends,  when  the  Jewish  system  was  worn  out,  and  the  time 
had  arrived  for  another  to  be  introduced,  the  excitement  which  took 
place,  when  communications  were  publicly  made  that  a  new  order 
of  things  was  about  to  commence,  was  much  greater  than  the  trifling 
movement  which  we  have  just  now  witnessed.  The  time,  however, 
has  arrived,  when  the  corruptions  of  the  Christian  system,  like  the 
corruptions  of  all  preceding  and  existing  old  systems,  call  loudly  for 
a  great  and  mighty  moral  change.  Do  not  you  all  acknowledge 
daily,  and  with  great  truth,  that  you  are  now  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins?  If  you  really  mean  what  you  say,  it  is  high  time  that  you 
should  arise  under  new  circumstances  into  new  life.  But  unless 
the  truth,  without  any  fear  of  man,  shall  be  honestly  spoken  to  you, 
what  help  is  therefor  you?  You  have  not,  in  this  discussion,  heard 
from  me  one  syllable  that  is  not  deeply  fixed  in  mv  mind  as  a  valua^- 
ble  truth;  nor,  during  the  remainder  of  these  proceedings,  shall  you 
hear  a  word  from  me,  that  is  not  dictated  by  an  ardent  desire  to  place 
without  disguise  the  most  valuable  truths  before  you. 

•Here  a  lady  almost  fainted,  and  another  had  her  foot  bruised  in  the  crowd. 


144 


DEBATE. 


The  evidences  which  Mr.  Campbell  has  brought  to  prove  the  truth 
of  Christianity,  prove  to  me  its  falsehood.  And  all  he  has  said  about 
the  purity  of  its  doctrines,  and  their  efficacy  for  practice,  is  disproved 
by  the  daily  conduct  of  every  Christian  population  in  every  quarter 
of  the  world. 

A  Christian  population  is,  emphatically,  in  practice,  a  population 
preying  upon  each  other,  and  living  very  generally  in  a  state  of 
unnatural  anxiety  for  useless  and  surplus  property,  in  the  midst  of 
hourly  deception  and  hypocrisv^;  having  and  disliking  each  other 
because  they  cannot  think  and  feel  alike,  having  been  taught  the 
notion  that  they  may  think  and  feel  as  they  please.  It  is  every 
where  a  population  of  inequality  of  condition,  and  necessarily  of 
pride,  poverty,  envy  and  jealousy.  It  is  a  population,  in  which  ten¬ 
fold  more  of  exertion  and  anxiety  is  required  from  each,  to  produce 
the  misery  they  experience,  than  is  necessary  to  secure  a  full  supply 
of  the  best  of  every  thing  for  all.  In  short,  I  find  it  to  be,  in  prac¬ 
tice,  so  full  of  ignorance,  weakness,  insincerity,  and  counteraction 
of  each  other’s  views  and  objects,  and  of  weekly  preaching  to  per¬ 
petuate  all  these  evils,  that,  did  I  not  firmly  believe  that  truth  is  om-  i 
nipotent  to  remove  error,  and  that  we  are,  in  consequence,  rapidly 
approaching  a  new  state  of  existence,  in  which,  with  regard  to  these 
things,  there  will  be  a  new  birth  and  a  new  life,  a  regeneration  that 
will  purge  man  from  all  these  abominations,  I  could  feel  no  interest 
in  the  present  irrational  proceedings  of  the  human  race.  And  if  I 
had  wanted  any  further  proof  of  the  Christian  world  being  in  this 
wretched  condition,  Mr.  Campbell’s  sermon  in  this  place,  on  Sunday 
last,  and  the  appearance  of  the  state  of  mind  of  the  congregation, 
would  have  rendered  more  unnecessary.  Never  did  I  see  so  much 
line  talent  so  miserably  misdirected.  Never  did  I  see  human  beings 
30  ready  to  receive  poison  under  the  undoubting  supposition  that  it 
was  good  and  wholesome  food. 

Mr.  Campbell  is,  however,  according  to  my  conviction  of  right  1 
and  wrong,  blameless.  Like  all  other  men,  he  has  been  made  sub- 1 
ject  to  the  fifth  law  contained  in  the  casket;  he  has  been  compelled  I 
to  receive  the  instructions  which  have  been  forced  into  bis  mind,  .which  I 
is  by  nature  of  that  honest  firmness  and  consistency,  that  he  is  com-  I 
pelled  to  retain  them  with  great  tenacity.  I 

My  friends,  I  do  say  again,  that  so  long  as  this  weekly  preaching,  1 
without  reply  from  the  congregation,  shall  be  allowed  to  proceed, you  1 
and  your  posterity  will  be  kept  in  the  very  depth  of  darkness,  as  you  I 
are  at  this  hour.  In  consequence  of  this  preaching,  Mr.  Campbell.  1 
unconscious  to  himself,  with  all  his  energies  and  fine  natural  talents  i 
has  fallen  a  complete  victim  to  it.  His  mind  has  been  closed  by  hbJ 
early  training  and  consequent  prepossessions,  and  held  in  chains,  b)  I 
which  he  is  prevented  from  receiving  one  ray  of  natural  and  tria  l 
light.  He  is,  at  this  time,  I  am  compelled  to  believe,  in  the  depth  o  I 
mental  darkness — blind  as  a  mole.  '  | 

Thus  from  age  to  age  do  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  until  they  all  fall 
into  the  ditch  of  error.  And  out  of  this  ditch,  I  perceive,  they  eanno  I 


DEBASE. 


145 


eome,  until  some  one  shall  open  the  eyes  of  their  mind,  and  enable 
them  to  see  the  wretched  condition  in  which  tliey  are.  The  present 
and  past  generations  have  been  rendered  mentally  blind  from  their 
birth,  and  they  truly  require  many  physicians  to  make  them  whole. 
Now  I  am  persuaded,  tha  t  neither  Mr.  Campbell  nor  the  larger  part  of 
his  congregation,  were  in  the  least  conscious,  that  throughout  his 
sermon  on  Sunday  morning.,  he  reasoned  as  falsely  and  spoke  as  much 
error  as  could  well  be  spoken  in  the  same  period. 

And  these  false  impressions  were  taken  home  by  those  present, 
whose  conduct  would  not  be  improved  by  it  in  the  least;  for  they 
would  think  worse  of  their  neighbors  who  are  compelled  to  differ  from 
them  in  opinions  and  feelings,  and  immediately  begin  to  enter  upon 
the  regular  daily  sins  of  life,  such  as  I  have  described  them  to  be — 
the  same,  in  fact,  as  they  were  engaged  in  the  day  before,  and  all 
their  lives^  This  kind  of  preaching  has  no  other  effect— it  can  have 
no  other  effect — -in  practice,  than  to  perpetuate  the  dark  ages  of  ig¬ 
norance  and  hypocrisy. 

And  before  I  leave  this  part  of  the  subject,  I  wish  to  put  it  upon  re¬ 
cord,  that  the  most  despotic  power  in  the  world,  at  this  day,  is  the  week¬ 
ly  preachings  in  the  churches,  without  the  liberty  of  reply  to  the 
preacher.  And  tiie  United  States,  free  and  independent  as  they  are 
supposed  to  be,  are  more  overrun  with  the  blind  thus  leading  the  blind 
than  many  other  countries.  Yes,  my  friends,  by  this  cunningly  de¬ 
vised  mechanism,  which  extends  its  ramifications  far  and  wide,  even 
into  the  lands  and  territories  the  most  distant,  you  are  made  to  pay 
for  erecting  the  buildings  and  the  cost  of  repairs ;  to  pay  the  preach¬ 
er,  and  bow  your  neck  to  him,  that  he  may  the  most  conveniently 
rivet  on  you  the  chains  of  ignorance,  and  make  you  always  subservi¬ 
ent  to  his  purposes.  Until  this  evil  shall  be  removed,  there  will  be 
no  hope  for  the  rising  generation.  You  can  never  be  free  as  long 
as  you  have  weekly  or  frequent  unanswered  preachings  and  pray¬ 
ings. 

Now,  this  is  a  different  view  of  the  subject  from  any  anticipated  by 
Mr.  Campbell.  His  mind,  in  consequence  of  his  early  instruction 
and  prepossession,  has  not  been,  in  any  degree,  prepared  for  it,;  nor 
does  4*e  now,  as  it  appears  to  me,  perceive  or  comprehend  much  of 
my  reasoning.  I  apprehend,  also,  there  are  but  few  in  this  assem¬ 
bly,  who,  with  their  present  impressions,  can  be  prepared  to  under¬ 
stand  it. 

The  twelve  old  laws,  which  appear  so  much  to  puzzle  Mr.  Campbell, 
may  be  fitly  compared  tq  a  casket  in  which  are  contained  twelve  of 
the  most  valuable  jewels  that  the  imagination  can  conceive;  but  a 
casket  composed  of  steel  so  highly  polished,  that  all  who  look  upon  it 
see  only  the  reflection  of  their  own  minds.  You  may  also  imagine 
that  the  casket  has  been  closed,  by  ingenious  workmen  employed  for 
that  purpose,  many  thousand  years,  in  order  that  no  ordinary  person 
should  open  it  to  inspect  its  contents.  Mr.  Campbell  has  .looked  upon 
this  casket;  but  with  all  his  talents,  owing  to  the  tenacity  of  his  early 

VOL.  IK  13 


146  DEBATE. 

impressions,  it  has  reflected  the  association  only  of  Ins  instructions 
in  the  Christian  mysteries. 

A  fortunate  combination  of  circumstances,  originating  in  certain 
causes,  over  which  I  had  no  control,  has  enabled  me  to  open  this  cas¬ 
ket,  and  at  leisure  calmly  to  survey  the  precious  deposit  therein. 

The  jewels  it  contains  have  laid  within  it  for  unnumbered  thou¬ 
sands  of  years.  They  have  not,  therefore,  that  brilliant  appearance, 
which  they  would  possess  if  they  had  been  lately  polished  by  profes¬ 
sed  and  experienced  jewellers.  But  this  evening,  after  the  meeting 
adjourns,  I  will,  although  1  am  not  an  experienced  working  jeweller, 
in  the  absence  of  those  more  expert  in  the  trade,  take  the  liberty  to 
burnish  them  up  a  little,  and  to-morrow  endeavor  to  bring  out  some 
of  their  beauties  for  your  inspection,  I  shall  not  have  time  to  perform 
this  burnishing  as  it  ought  to  be  done ;  but  what  the  time  will  permit, 

I  will  do. 

Adjourned  till  to-morrow. 

Tuesday ,  April  21,  10  o’clock  A.  M, 
[Met  agreeably  to. adjournment.] 

Mr.  Owen  proceeded — 

Mr.  Campbell  has  said  that  the  Christian  religion  is  divine,  and 
that  the  Supreme  Power,  who  revealed  it,  is  most  anxious  that  men 
should  believe  it.  How  came  it,  then,  that  Mahomet,  after  Christ 
had  preceded  him  six  hundred  years,  and  the  Christians  had  all  that 
time  to  mature  their  plans,  should  have  obtained  more  prosolytes,  and 
that  the  Musuiman  should  at  this  day  nearly  equal  if  not  outnumber 
the  Christians?  That  which  proves  the  truth  of  the  Christian  reli¬ 
gion,  as  Mr.  Campbell  has  attempted  to  prove  it,  will  equally  prove 
the  truth  of  the  Mahometan  and  every  other  religion.  The  verity  of 
each  depends  upon  the  same  kind  of  testimony— -they  all  have  their 
mysteries  and  their  miracles,  Whenever  we  become  rational  beings 
we  shall  be  assured  that  the  Power  which  governs  the  universe, 
whatever  it  may  be,  requires  no  mysteries  or  miracles  to  effect  its 
purposes. 

If  my  plan  was  to  arouse  too  much  local  irrational  feelings,  it  would 
not  he  difficult  to  make  very  short  work  of  these  proceedings.  To  en¬ 
ter  fully  into  an  examination  of  the  mysteries,  miracles,  and  errors 
which  Christians  have  been  taught  from  infancy  to  hear  with  rever¬ 
ence,  would  bo  productive  of  no  practical  benefit.  I  shall,  therefore, 
not  go  much  into  detail  upon  subjects,  which  so  few  are  yet  prepared 
to  hear  freely  discussed. 

There  may,  however,  be  some  utility  in  deviating  a  little  from  the 
course  to  which  originally  I  intended  to  adhere.  For  although  I  think 
it  right,  for  the  reasons  stated,  not  to  enter  minutely  into  what  ap¬ 
pears  to  me  the  glaring  inconsistencies  of  any  of  the  religions  of  the 
world ;  yet  as  Mr.  Campbell  has  taken  so  much  pains  to  develope  the 
whole  of  the  christiaq  scheme,  I  will  advert  to  some  of  his  points  of, 
defence,  and  afterwards  give  a  further  developement  of  those  twelve 
fundamental  laws,  which  Mr,  Campbell  calls  old  principles,  and  show 


DEBATE. 


147 


that  these  old  principles,  being  all  proved  to  be  facts,  it  becomes  utterly 
impossible  that  any  religion  can  be  true. 

Mr.  Campbell  has  told  you  the  Christian  religion  consists  in  faith, 
and  that  faith  depends  upon  testimony ;  that  the  faith  necessary  for  you 
to  have,  is  an  undoubting  beliefin  the  miraculous  birth,  in  the  death 
and  burial,  and  in  the  ascension  into  heaven  of  the  marr  Jesus  Christ, 
who — it  is  the  most  essential,  however*  to  believe — was  really  and 
truly  the  Son  of  Cod,  begotten  by  him  of  a  virgin. 

This  is  the  position  in  which  Mr*  Campbell  has  placed  the  discus¬ 
sion.  He  is,  from  the  circumstances  in  which  he  has  been  placed 
from  his  infancy,  unprepared  to  discuss  it  upon  any  other  grounds. 
His  mind  is  completely  overwhelmed  with  the  theological  learning  he 
has  been  induced  to  acquire*  Mr.  Campbell  has  little  or  no  practical 
knowledge  of  the  present  state  of  the  human  mind,  or  of  society,  out 

of  the  western  districts  of  this  country. 

•/ 

It  was  not  my  intention,  as  I  have  previously  mentioned,  to  enter 
at  all  into  the  endless  details  of  the  incomprehensible  mysteries,  which 
have  been  contrived  to  confound  the  understandings  of  the  ignorant, 
in  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  past  and  now  existing. 

The  most  intelligent  of  the  population  of  Europe  never  thii  k  of 
introducing  religious  subjects  for  argument.  They  are  well  aware 
that  all  religious  mysteries  and  miracles  are  opposed  to  reason,  and 
are  useless  for  any  good  purpose.  They  abandon  them,  therefore,  to 
men  who  discard  reason — to  untaught  women  and  children;  and  by 
these  means  relieve  their  society  from  a  subject,  upon  which  they 
tacitly  acknowledge  that  all  men,  who  devote  their  time  to  it,  become 
more  or  less  insane. 


I  shall,  there  fore,  not  waste  much  of  your  time,  and  mine,  by  enter¬ 
ing  upon  a  discussion  of  subjects  in  wh:~l 
ner  of  use,  but  quite  the  reverse. 


van  i jxd  \ji  IlO  nid.II- 


For  reason  would  say,  that  if  God  made  us,  and  could  make  us  as 
he  liked,  and  he  desired  we  should  believe  in  his  existence  with  any 
nefinite  qualities,  and  to  obey  any  fixed  laws  for  his  advantage  or 
ours,  that  he  would  at  once  have  made  us  so  to  believe,  and  so  to  act. 
That  he  never  could  be  angry  or  displeased  with  his  own  work ;  and 
that,  having  the  ordering  and  direction  of  all  things,  even,  as  they 
say,  of  creating  the  very  materials,  all  things  must  exist,  be  and  act 
as  he  intended  ;  and  that  nothing,  by  any  possibility,  and  more  par¬ 
ticularly  after  the  Creator  saw  and  pronounced  that  “all  was  very 
goody’  could  go  wrong,  or  remove  out  of  the  eternal  order  which  he 
foreknew  or  preordained. 

Reason  also  would  say,  that  if,  by  some  mystery  wholly  incompre  ¬ 
hensible  to  reason,  man,  the  last  and  most  finished  work  of  this  all 
wise,  all  good,  and  all  powerful  Creator,  did  actually  disobey  the 
laws  given  to  him  by  his  Creator,  almost  as  soon  as  man  and  woman 
were  created;  and  that  the  Creator  really  wished  to  have  a  good  and 
happy  race  of  human  beings ;  the  better  mode  would  have  been  to  have 
put  Adam  and  Eve  quietly  asleep,  and  humanely  put  them  out  of  ex- 


DEBATE. 


148 

/ 

istence  again,  before  they  had  begotten  any  children,  if  they,  ateo, 
were  to  be  rendered  unhappy  for  their  parents’  acting  naturally  under 
the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  placed. 

And  when  Adam  and  Eve  were  thus,  without  experiencing  pain  or 
knowing  evil,  put,  without  noise  or  disturbance,  out  of  the  way*  rea-* 
son  would  say,  that  the  Creator,  if  such  were  his  wishes,  having  ac¬ 
quired  the  experience  in  which  he  proved  himself  to  be  deficient  at 
the  creation  of  the  first  man  and  woman,  might  in  this  second  attempt 
have  succeeded  to  his  utfnost  desire,  and  obtained  men  and  women, 
who  would  always  think  as  he  intended  they  should  think,  and  aet  as 
he  made  them  to  act. 

But  again — if  some  other  mysteries,  quite  incomprehensible  for 
human  nature  to  divine,  did  stand  in  the  way  of  God  acting  in  this 
reasonable  manner;  and  that, for  this  one  action  of  man  and  woman, 
performed,  no  one  knows  how,  contrary  to  the  divine  will,  it  became 
the  wish  of  God  that  innumerable  myriads  of  human  beings  should 
suffer,  through  thousands  of  generations  in  this  world,  and  eternally 
in  another;  reason  capnot  discover  why  God  repented  himself  that 
he  had  made  man,  or  why  he  should  suffer  man  to  make  him  angry, 
or  to  thwart  all  his  good  intentions  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  raee. 

But  passing  over  these  impassable  matters  to  reason — it  seems 
Strange  that  God  should  relent  in  part  of  the  horrid,  cruel,  and  unjust 
treatment  to  which,  as  it  appears  to  reason,  he  had  doomed  mankind ; 
and  wish  to  devise  some  expedient,  by  which  man  might  have  some 
chance  of  relieving  himself  from  that  part  of  his  punishment  which 
consigns  hirn  to  eternal  misery. 

Again — it  seems  very  extraordinary  to  our  faculties,  that  he  should 
have  created  man  without  any  power  over  his  belief;  and  that  God 
should  make  the  condition  of  his  escape  from  hell  and  damnation  to 
consist  in  firmly  believing  what  is  opposed  to  his  senses,  and  what  he 
cannot  receive  into  his  mind  until  he  has  been  reduced  from  a  rational 
to  an  irratioual  being.  That  is,  he  must  believe  that  the  Power  which 
pervades  all  space  overshadowed  a  particular  virgin  of  the  human 
race,  and  that  thus  the  Son  of  God  was  procreated  and  produced; 
that  the  Son  of  God  was  an  infant  man,  and  grew  as  other  men  grow ; 
that  he  was  upwards  of  thirty  years  in  making  a  few  individual  be¬ 
lieve  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God ;  that  then  he  was  crucified  as  an 
impostor;  that  this,  the  only  Son  of  God  in  the  universe,  was  God 
himself;  that  he  died,  although  we  are  told  God  cannot  die;  that  on 
the  third  day  he  rose  from  the  dead,  and  appeared,  as  in  his  life  time, 
with  his  natural  material  body:  that  he  ate  and  drank  with  some 
of  his  disciples  for  forty  days,  at  divers  times  and  places,  and  then- — 
with  all  his  materiality,  for  they  saw  him  with  their  material  eyes — 
he  ascended  up  to  heaven,  as  they  say,  from  whence  he  has  never 
returned. 

Why  were  these  strange  tilings  made  of  so  doubtful  a  character  to 
man,  that  very  few,  compared  with  the  number  living  at  the  time  * 
they  were  said  to  have  occurred,  could  or  did  believe  them?  Reason 
also  Says,  if  God  and  the  Son  desired  that  all  men  should  believe  these 


DEBATE. 


149 


mysteries  and  miracles,  how  came  it  that  Mahomet  successfully  oppo¬ 
sed  both  Father  and  Son  on  this  subject,  and  got  the  better  of  the 
Christians,  after  they  had  had  six  hundred  years  to  tix  these  divine 
doctrines  among  mankind? 

Reason  also  asks,  how  is  it  that,  at  this  day,  there  are,  as  Christians 
say,  but  few  sincere  believers  in  the  story  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  the 
apple  and  serpent,  and  in  the  birth,  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension 
of  Jesus  Christ? 

But  reason  would  ask  ten  thousand  pertinent  questions  of  this  na¬ 
ture,  to  not  one  of  which  could  a  rational  answer  be  given, 

I  shall  only  offend  my  intelligent  hearers,  by  pursuing  such  a 
heterogenous  mass  of  incomprehensible  absurdities  as  these;  and  I 
will,  therefore,  conclude  this  part  of  the  subject,  by  asking  Mr. 
Campbell,  what  evidence,  in  these  days,  would  now  be  sufficient  to 
induce  him  to  believe  that  a  virgin  had  conceived,  and  was  delivered 
of  a  male-child?  Or  that  one  rose  from  the  dead,  and  appeared  with 
a  material  body,-— and  with  that  body,  or  without  it,  was  seen  ascend¬ 
ing  up  to  heaven?  I  know  that,  as  I  am  constituted,  and  as  mil¬ 
lions  of  my  fellows  are,  no  power,  which  we  possess  over  our  wills, 
can  prevent  us  having  the  most  thorough  conviction  that  the  whole 
is  nothing  but  an  invention,  and  a  very  inferior  and  inconsistent  one, 
to  frighten  ignorant  men  and  weak  women,  and  children  out  of  their 
sober  senses,  and  to  render  them,  for  life,  irrational  beings,  and  bad 
members  of  society.  And  if  we  cannot,  avoid  these  impressions, 
who  is  to  blame?  Man,  who  cannot,  by  his  origination,  command 
his  will  contrary  to  his  conviction,  or  the  being  who  created  the  will 
for  man? 

This  part  of  the  subject  is  to  me,  as  it  exhibits  the  degradation  to 
which  the  reasoning  faculties  of  man  has  been  reduced,  most  un¬ 
pleasant,  and  more  especially  as  all  must  become  irrational  on  these 
topics,  before  they  can  become  sincere,  i  will,  therefore,  dismiss 
it, — as  I  hope  all  mankind  will,  before  a  few  years  have  expired, — 
and  proceed  to  subjects,  which  the  human  mind  can  reason  upon 
without  feeling  that  it  is  degraded  by  the  operation. 

I  shall,  therefore,  merely  repeat,  that  to  a  sane  mind,  Mr.  Camp* 
bell’s  evidences  are  no  evidences  at  all,  except  to  prove  the  errors  of 
the  doctrines  which,  according  to  a  known  law  of  our  nature,  he  has 
been  compelled  to  receive,  and  which,  of  his  own  power,  he  cannot 
remove  from  his  mind. 

1  hope,  that  when  he  shall  hereafter  reflect  upon  this  discussion, 
the  facts  stated  will  be  sufficient  to  overcome  his  present  convictions, 
and  make  aright  impression  on  his  mind,  and  enable  him  to  see  the 
inestimable  practical  value  of  the  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  our 
nature;  for  then,  with  his  talents,  he  would  be  a  powerful  advocate 
in  dispelling  error  from  the  minds  of  others. 

After  taking  up  a  large  portion  of  your  time  upon"  these  evidences, 
none  of  which  would  be  admitted  into  any  of  our  courts  of  law  to 
prove  to  the  value  of  one  dollar,  Mr.  Campbell  gave  us  many  learned 
documents  as  extracts  from  deists,  atheists  and  sceptics;  but  fc&what 
VOL.  H.  13* 


150 


DEBATE. 


purpose,  in  this  discussion,  I  know  not,  except  to  prove  that  there 
was  no  connexion  between  my  views  and  those  of  many  of  these 
writers. 

The  truth  is,  I  cannot  feel  that  high  importance,  that  many  do,  for 
writings  which  proceed  from  mere  closet  speculators  in  metaphysics, 
who,  perceiving  some  of  the  false  notions  derived  from  the  doctrines 
ot  free-will,  could  not  discover  what  human  nature  really  is,  so  as  to 
be  competent  to  recommend  any  practical  improvement  in  relation  to 
t  ie  affairs  of  life. 

They  were,  therefore,  men  in  the  second  stage  of  the  human  mind. 
They  had  discovered  some  of  the  errors  of  religion,  and  had  lost  its 
influences,  without  acquiring  any  better,  or  any  substitute  at  all  for 
them.  I  consider  them,  therefore,  to  have  been  in  the  state  in  which 
almost  all  the  learned  and  most  enlightened  men  of  Europe  are  at 
this  moment — without  religion,  and  without  knowledge  of  any  other 
principles  which  can  produce  a  superior  practice  in  the  conduct  of 
the  population  of  the  world.  This  is  the  worst  state  in  which  society 
can  be;  and  from  my  extensive  communications  with  the  leading 
minds  of  Europe  and  America,  I  know  it  to  be  the  present  condition 
©f  the  civilized  world.  And  this  is  the  true  reason  why  this  discus¬ 
sion  has  been  so  necessary  at  this  period.  The  world  must  have  a 
change,  and  it  well  merits  a  public  contest  to  ascertain  what  that 
change  shall  be ;  whether  it  shall  return  back  to  the  superstition  and 
ignorance  of  the  dark  ages,  or  proceed  forward,  to  bring  into  full 
practice,  physically,  mentally  and  morally,  the  discoveries  and  im¬ 
provements  of  the  past  ages,  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race. 

It  is  from  knowing  the  danger  of  this  second  stage  of  the  human 
mind,  and  the  necessity  of  union  to  accomplish  any  great  change 
without  evil,  that  you  have  heard  of  my  progress  from  country  to 
country.  I  thus  proceed  from  one  country  to  another  with  the  view 
of  laying  a  broad  and  solid  foundation  for  a  new  mode  of  life  and 
enjoyment,  and  to  prepare  the  means  to  prevent  society  from  continu¬ 
ing  long  in  its  present  condition  without  a  beneficial  governing  prin¬ 
ciple.  For,  whatever  you  may  think  in  this  part  of  the  world,  the 
governors  and  great  men  of  all  countries  are  at  present,  with  few 
exceptions,  without  religion,  and  without  a  knowledge  of  those  princi¬ 
ples  which,  alone  can  create  real  virtue  in  the  world.  They  are 
more  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  govern  their  respective  states  now, 
owing  to  the  general  progress  of  knowledge,  than  they  have  been  for 
centuries.  They  perceive  that  a  great  change  is  unavoidable;  but 
they  are  at  a  loss  to  know  how  it  is  to  be  effected  without  confusion. 

The  British  government  and  nation,  now  while  I  speak,  are  at  the 
very  height  of  civilization  under  the  present  irrational  system  of  so¬ 
ciety.  They  inhabit  a  beautiful  island,  and  possess  another  imme¬ 
diately  adjoining,  with  a  valuable  population,  capable  of  rendering 
and  receiving  to  and  from  each  other  every  possible  social  service, 
benefit  and  advantage;  yet,  at  this  moment,  that  government  is  greatly  , 
at  a  loss  to  determine  what  measures  to  adopt,  to  put  that  population 
in  a  state  of  prosperity.  The  opposing  parties  were  lately  on  tho 


DEBATE, 


151 


point  of  dissention;  and  if  they  had  proceeded  to  hostilities,  no  one 
could  calculate  the  extent  of  the  evil  and  misery  that  would  have 
followed.  And  what  is  the  real  obstacle  to  their  union,  prosperity 
and  happiness?  It  is  religion.  Ask  the  Irish,  if,  to  their  cost,  they 
have  not  found  religion  to  be  the  greatest  curse  with  which  they  have 
ever  been  afflicted  ?  In  Ireland,  it  has  been  the  parent  of  every 
crime  and  evil,  of  which  the  mind  can  conceive.  Were  that  obstacle 
removed,  what  a  glorious  opportunity  would  arise  to  make  that  coun¬ 
try  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  and  the  inhabitants  among  the  most 
happy,  in  any  part  of  the  world!  Yes!  I  know  nothing,  but  religion, 
and  the  consequent  ignorance  which  it  generates  of  our  nature, 
which  now  prevents  Ireland  from  becoming  one  of  the  most  desirable 
places  of  abode  in  any  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe, — little  short, 
indeed,  of  the  paradise  described  by  Mr.  C.  But  all  the  members 
who  administer  the  government  of  Great  Britain,  as  'Well  as  the 
population,  are  utterly  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  with  their  over¬ 
abundant  means  of  creating  a  surplus  wealth,  and  a  superior  charac¬ 
ter  for  the  population  of  both  islands.  They  are  like  sheep  without 
a  shepherd — they  know  not  whither  to  go,  what  new  direction  to 
take,  or  how  to  overcome  the  difficulties  in  which  they  are  involved. 
I  well  know,  and  I  have  known  for  twenty  years  past,  that  meas¬ 
ures  wrere  in  a  steady  progress  to  produce  this  state  of  things  in  both 
islands.  I  have  long  known,  that  they  were  proceeding  at  a  rapid 
pace  through  all  the  necessary  previous  stages,  until  they  should 
come  to  a  point,  beyond  which  they  could  not  advance  without  an 
entire  change  of  the  principles  by  which  they  have  been  governed. 
And  they  have  now  reached  this  point.  Fortunately  for  them,  and 
the  world,  they,  must  nowr  adopt  new  principles  and  practices. 

The  circumstances  which  now  exist  every  where,  plainly  indicate 
to  all  who  are  engaged  in  the  affairs  of  men,  that  the  population  of 
the  wrorld  is  gorged  with  the  means  of  obtaining  every  good  thing; 
but  that  such  is  the  ignorance  which  prevails,  that  instead  of  ration¬ 
ally  using  the  wealth  so  easily  to  be  obtained,  or  properly  applying 
the  newly  acquired  scientific  means,  by  which  the  best  things  to 
promote  the  happiness  of  society  may  be  beneficially  procured  in 
the  greatest  abundance,  the  wealth  accumulates  in  a  few  hands,  and 
is  missapplied ;  while  the  new  producing  pow  ers  obtained  from 
mechanical  improvements  and  chemical  discoveries  are  so  misdi¬ 
rected,  as  to  be  made  the  most  powerful  engines  yet  known,  to 
inflict  poverty  and  distress  on  the  largest  portion  of  mankind.  I 
mean  that  portion  of  it,  which,  by  their  labour,  produces  all  the 
wealth  which  is  consumed  by  those  who  create  none  for  themselves. 

But,  my  friends,  although  I  foresaw  distinctly,  twrenty  years  ago, 
that  these  results  would  necessarily  arise  from  the  progress  of  new 
improvements  and  inventions,  and  published  my  reasons  for  these 
opinions;  yet,  so  little  is  the  world  aware  of  these  movements,  the 
inevitable  consequences  of  this  new  state  of  things,  that  the  change 
is,  even  now,  coming  upon  the  most  civilized  nations  “like  a  thief  in 


152 


DEBATE. 


the  night,”  unheeded  and  unprovided  for.  You  know  not,  that  the 
vej*y  circumstances  in  which  you  and  the  whole  population  of  the 
world  at  present  exist,  render  it  inevitable  that  this,  the  most  mighty 
change  which  the  world  has  yet  experienced,  must  take  place  within 
a  few  years.  There  is  no  power  on  earth,  that  can  resist  its  progress. 
It  is  proceeding  forward  with  a  mighty  impetus,  such  as  your  minds 
are  now  inadequate  to  comprehend.  This  new  scientific,  mechani¬ 
cal  and  chemical  power  is  advancing,  with  the  efficient  force  of  an 
army  equal  to  many  hundred  millions  of  men,  well  disciplined, 
equipped  and  provided,  to  accomplish  its  purpose. 

Irresistible,  however,  as  this  force  now  is,  it  is  daily  upon  the  in¬ 
crease.  It  is  annually  recruited  in  Europe  and  America,  but  chiefly 
in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  by  new  inventions,  and 
extensions  of  the  old,  with  new  powers,  such  as  appal  the  present 
state  of  the  human  mind  to  contemplate,  and  far  exceed  the  belief 
of  those  wrho  are  inexperienced  upon  these  subjects.  I  believe  I  am 
much  within  the  real  amount,  when  I  state,  that  the  increase  of  this 
new  power  within  the  last  ten  years,  over  Europe  and  America,  has 
exceeded  in  its  results,  each  year,  upon  the  average  of  that  period, 
the  well  directed  industry  of  twenty  millions  of  laborers  unaided  by 
machinery  or  other  scientific  aid. 

This  is  the  power  which  will  force  the  nations  who  are  now  the 
most  advanced  in  arts  and  sciences  to  stand  still,  and  inquire  what  is 
to  be  done  with  this  enormous  force,  daily  increasing,  in  direct  com¬ 
petition  with  all  the  producing  classes,  having  a  continual  tendency 
to  diminish,  under  the  existing  system  of  trade  and  commerce,  the 
value  of  their  labour,  and  to  reduce  them  and  their  families  to  poverty 
and  slavery.  Modern  governments  know  not  what  measures  to  adopt, 
to  give  this  enormous  and  continually  increasing  power  a  right  di¬ 
rection.  Yes!  as  governments  and  nations,  they  will  be  speedily 
overwhelmed  by  that  worthless  object,  for  which  th£y  have  been  all 
taught  to  sacrifice  their  real  happiness,  and  which  they  now  worship 
as  their  god.  I  mean  wealth — what  is  called  gold  and  silver  and 
bank  notes,  which,  after  all,  but  represent  real  wealth. 

There  will  soon  be  so  much  real  wealth  produced,  by  the  daily 
multiplying  labor-saving  machines,  that  nations  will  be  no  longer 
competent  to  prosecute  any  of  their  present  measures  with  success. 
This  wealth  will  accumulate,  and  become  as  an  impassable  mountain 
barrier  to  permanent  prosperity.  It  has  already,  in  your  technical 
phrase,  overstocked  many,  and  soon  it  will  oversupply  all  markets; 
and  require,  in  consequence,  more  and  more  exertion  from  the  work¬ 
ing  and  middle  classes,  to  enable  them  to  live. 

These  are  the  signs  of  the  times.  I  wTish  your  eyes  could  be 
opened,  to  enable  you  to  perceive  these  things  even  a  little  wray  off; 
for  they  are,  w  hile  I  speak,  but  a  short  distance  from  us  1  see  it  in 
the  smoke  of  your  new  factories  before  me.  I  hear  it  in  the  strokes 
of  your  heavy  hammers,  mechanically  moved,  which  now  din  upon, 
the  ear.  This  is  one  reason  why  this  discussion  is  so  necessary  at 
this  period.  It  wrell  igerits  a  public  contest,  to  ascertain  what  that 


DEBATE, 


153 

change,  wkieh  all  things  indicate  to  be  so  near  at  hand,  shall  be;— * 
whether  it  shall  return  back  to  the  superstition  and  ignorance  of  the 
dark  ages;  or  proceed  forward,  to  bring  into  full  practice,  physically, 
mentally,  and  morally,  the  discoveries  and  improvements  of  the  past 
ages,  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race. 

We  may,  therefore,  dismiss  these  quotations  of  Mr.  Campbell’s, 
from  the  atheists,  deists,  sceptics,  &c.  as  he  calls  them ;  for  they  do 
not,  in  any  degree,  belong  to  the  subject.  I  brought  none  of  theirv 
forward  to  support  my  argument.  He  had  supposed  that  I  had  none 
but  such  broken  reeds  to  depend  upon,  and  he  prepared  his  defence; 
accordingly.  I  have  derived  little  advantage  from  the  past  writings 
of  the  human  race,  except  as  finger-posts,  to  inform  me  “that  this  is 
not  the  right  road  to  virtue  and  happiness.” 

I  iiave  derived  far  more  wisdom  from  ealmly  and  attentively 
watching  the  minds  and  proceedings  of  children,  from  a  very  early 
age,  than  I  have  acquired  from  all  the  writings,  sacred  and  profane, 
that  I  have  read. 

The  authors  of  these  works  assumed  facts  which  did  not  exist, 
reasoned  upon  them  as  though  they  were  true,  and  let  their  imagina¬ 
tions  run  into  every  kind  of  error.  Hence  the  mythologies  of  the 
Pagans,  and  the  mysteries  and  miracles  of  the  Jews,  Hindoos, 
Christians,  and  Mahometans.  All  the  sacred  and  theological  wri 
tings  of  the  Pagans,  Jews,  Hindoos,  Christians,  and  Mahometans, 
are  of  no  value.  Nay,  my  friends,  instead  of  any  real  value,  they 
are  the  greatest  «vil  existing  among  men;  for  they  derange  or  destroy 
all  the  superior  faculties  and  feelings  of  the  human  race,  and  make 
man,  as  he  is  at  this  day,  more  irrational  than  any  of  the  animal 
creation. 

For  the  brute  creation,  as  we  call  them,  act  agreeably  to  their 
nature,  and  enjoy  it;  while  man,  governed  by  the  caprice  of  his 
imagination,  acts  contrary  to  it,  and  is  miserable. 

The  millions  of  volumes  of  this  kind  of  writing,  with  which  the 
world  has  been  burthened,  have  had  but  one  object — and  that  is,  to 
derange  all  the  faculties  of  those  who  read  them.  It  were  happy  for 
mankind  if  they  could  all  be  collected  in  one  heap — and  an  immense 
one  it  would  be — with  fire  placed  under  it,  so  that  it  might  be  con¬ 
sumed  until  not  a  fragment  was  left.  The  conflagration  would  be 
the  greatest  blessing  that  could  now  be  conferred  upon  the  human 
.family.  It  is  from  these  books  that  you  have  derived  your  present 
irrational  ideas.  And  until  those  ideas  can  be  extracted  from  your 
minds;  until  they  can  be  unassociated  even  to  their  very  foundations; 
until  your  minds  can  be  regenerated,  and  made  to  receive  other  and 
wholly  opposite  ideas,  founded  on  principles  all  true,  and  therefore 
all  consistent  with  each  other,  you  will  see  nothing,  except  through  a 
glass  so  dark  and  obscure,  that  you  cannot  distinguish  cne  object  as 
it  realiy  exists  in  nature. 

I  have  said  that  all  the  sacred  and  theological  writings,  of  all  re- 
ligions,  are  of  no  value ;  for  they  have  not  taught  us  a  practice  that 
is  of  any  utility :  they  cannot  teach  one. 


DEBATE 


154 


To  acquire  true  wisdom,  the  world  must  become  again  as  little  'J 
children,  and  observe  with  care  the  facts  which  every  where  abound  4 
to  give  them  true  and  valuable  knowledge.  For  the  world  has  almost  * 
every  thing  yet  to  acquire  from  these  facts,  relative  to  a  superior 
mode  of  existence,  4 

The  inhabitants  of  the  earth  have,  indeed,  eyes,  but  see  not;  ears 
have  they,  but  hear  not ;  understandings,  and  understand  not.  For 
all  their  natural  senses  are  deceived  by  false  instruction  from  infancy, 
and  thereby  rendered  highly  injurious.  4 

While  every  past  and  present  fact  demonstrates  that  your  character,  -s 
from  birth  to  death,  is  formed  for  you,  you  have  been  made,  by  a 
legerdemain  of  which  you  are  quite  unconscious,  to  believe  that  you 
form  them  yourselves,  and  that  you  have  merit  or  demerit  for  what  : 
you  are.  Why,  my  friends,  whether  you  have  been  made  vessels  of  ! 
honor  or  dishonor,  you  are  no  more  than  wax  or  clay  in  the  hands  of 
the  potter.  ; 

I  hope  the  tihie  is  approaching,  when  I  shall  be  permitted  to  dis¬ 
charge  an  important  duty  to  you  and  all  mankind.  Silver  and  gold  n 
have  1  not  now  to  spare ;  and  if  I  had,  it  could  be  of  no  real  use  to  you. 
But  I  trust  that  I  shall  give  you  that  which  is  beyond  all  price,  and 
thereby  render  gold  and  silver  unnecessary  to  you,  to  your  children,  i 
and  to  all  future  generations.  Instead  of  mankind  being,  as  hereto-  > 
fore,  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter,  I  have  the  most  thorough 
conviction,  that  it  is  now  practicable  to  make  you  potters  yourselves 
for  your  children ;  and  I  can  show  you  the  way  to  become  good  j 
potters,  so  as  to  enable  you  to  new-form  them,  to  the  extent  that  the 
materials  of  which  they  are  composed  will  admit;  then  shall  I  do  for  j 
you,  and  them,  and  future  generations,  the  greatest  service  that  one 
man  has  ever  performed  for  his  fellows.  I  do  not  despair,  indeed,  of 
enabling  many  of  the  present  generation,  by  certain  inducements 
derived  from  real  knowledge,  to  place  themselves  in  a  new  furnace, 
as  jt  were,  in  which  their  hearts  and  minds  shall  be  softened,  and  by 
which  operation  they  may  be  enabled  in  part  even  to  amend  some  of 
the  numerous  deformities  and  imperfections  which,  through  the  ignor- 
ance  of  their  instructors,  they  have  been  compelled  to  receive. 

This  many  will  be  enabled  to  do  for  themselves;  but  their  children, 
through  an  early  training  and  instruction  in  this  invaluable  know¬ 
ledge,  may  be  made  to  become  greatly  superior  in  this  new  art  or 
calling;  while  their  children  again,  will  greatly  improve  upon  their 
immediate  predecessors.  And  thus  shall  an  improved  character  be 
given,  through  all  future  time,  to  every  succeeding  generation. 

This  happy  result  will  arise,  when  all  the  jewels  within  the  casket 
shall  be  so  burnished  as  to  compel  public  attention  to  examine,  not 
only  their  external  beauty,  but  also  their  intrinsic  worth. 

Now,  my  friends,  can  I  give  you  any  thing  of  more  intrinsic  value, 
than  to  enable  you  to  make  your  offspring  superior,  physically  and 
intellectually,  to  the  most  perfect  human  being  that  now  exists  ?  I  • 
can  do  this;  and  this  I  will  not  cease  to  endeavor  to  do,  while  health 
and  the  power  of  exertion  shall  be  spared  to  me.  There  is  nothing  in 


DEBATE. 


155 


'the  whole  range  of  human  society,  that  can  be,  in  any  degree,  com¬ 
pared  with  the  value  of  this  knowledge.  Having  this,  you  will  have 
every  thing;  and  without  it,  you  have  comparatively  nothing. 

When  you  shall  thus  become  expert  potters,  and  be  enabled  to  put 
your  children  in  superior  moulds,  there  will  be  no  occasion  for  week¬ 
ly  preachings— -no  necessity  for  formal  precepts  of  any  kind,  to  adults. 
The  superior  formation  of  the  character  of  each  individual  will  be 
secured  in  childhood ;  and  before  the  period  of  youth  expires,  it  will 
be  matured  in  good  habits  and  dispositions — in  a  correct  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  through  a  close  inspection  of  the  laws  within  the 
casket;  and  it  will  have  attained  the  high  intellectual  acquirements 
and  fixed  moral  principles,  which  will  make  it  evident  to  all,  that 
the  present  weekly  preachings  are  most  injurious  to  the  best  and 
highest  interests  of  the  human  race. 

And  unless  this  superior  workmanship  shall  be  applied  at  an  early 
period  of  life,  it  is  useless  to  expect  that  it  can  ever  be  effectually  well 
done  afterwards.  When  your  children  have  been  put  into  an  ill- 
formed  mould  from  infancy,  and  thereby  forced  to  acquire  irrational 
feelings  for  their  fellows,  erroneous  ideas  and  notions  respecting 
their  own  powers,  and  bad  habits,  which  tenaciously  adhere  to  them, 
it  is  in  vain  to  expect  that  you  can  undo  that,  except  by  some  acci¬ 
dental  occurrence,  which  has  been  so  unfortunately  done  at  the  most 
important  period  of  the  child’s  life,  for  givij^  the  best  form  to  his 
character, 

You  have  heard  much  from  my  friend,  Mr,  Campbell,  of  the  genius 
and  tendency  of  the  Christian  faith  and  religion.  He  has  told  you 
what  he  has-been  taught  to  believe  of  it  from  his  youth  upwards.  And 
he  has  informed  you  what  his  impressions  are,  with  as  much  honesty 
as  a  conscientious  Musselman  would  tell  yomoi  the  spirit  and  genius 
of  the  Mahometan  faith  and  religion.  For  the  Mahometans  and 
Hindoos  are  as  conscientious  in  their  belief,  and  as  tenacious  of  the 
superiority  of  their  religion,  as  Mr.  Campbell,  or  any  Christian  ii* 
Christendom,  can  be  of  theirs,  And  have  they  not  as  much  faith  as 
the  members  of  any  other  religion  ? 

But  the  conscientiousness  or  tenacity  of  the  Fagan,  Jew,  Hindoo, 
Christian,  or  Mahometan,  do  not  add  one  grain  to  the  argument  in 
favor  of  the  divine  origin  or  truth  of  either.  They  prove  only  the  divine 
origin  and  truth  of  the  fifth  law  of  human  nature;  and  the  value, 
beyond  price,  which  it  will  become  to  the  world,  when  it  shall  be 
regenerated  and  born  again,  and  it  shall  cease  to  be  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins,  as  almost  all  Christendom,  as  the  other  portions  of  the  worlds 
are  at  present. 

We  shall  presently  see  how  these  laws  of  nature  harmonize  and 
explain  each  other,  and  their  applicability  to  all  the  business  and 
duties  of  life. 

Did  Mr.  Campbell  explain  to  you  the  spirit  and  genius  of  the 
phristian  system?  I  listened  to  him  with  all  the  attention  in  my 
power;  and  then  I  contrasted,  in  my  mindr  the  real  effects  produced  in 


156  debate; 

Christendom  by  that  spirit  and  genius.  Because,  soy  friends,  it  is 
“by  the  fruits  that  ye  shall  know  them.” 

The  mode  of  judging  of  the  tree  by  its  fruit,  is  alone  the  one  I' 
adopt,  when  I  examine  the  spirit  and  genius  of  any  religion,  of  any 
government,  of  any  code  of  laws,  or  any  of  the  institutions  which 
flow  from  them.  And  by  this  guide  1  have,  without  prejudice  or 
favor,  compared  the  spirit  and  genius  of  the  Christian  mysteries, 
miracles,  fables,  and  dogmas,  with  their  fruits;  and  by  their  fruits,  so 
abundantly  growing  around  me  in  every  direction,  1  have  become 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  tree  from  the  blossom  to  the  root. 

And  what  have  I  found  this  tree,  of  two  thousand  years’  growth, 
to  produce,  in  every  soil  in  which  it  has  been  planted  ?  Abundance 
of  insincerity  and  deception;  for  the  whole  life  of  a  Christian  is  a 
continued  striving  in  opposition  to  his  nature,  and  therefore,  of  ne¬ 
cessity  he  must  be  a  hypocrite.  It  is  notorious  over  Asia  and  Africa, 
that  there  is  so  little  truth  in  a  Christian,  that  little  or  no  faith  is 
placed  in  what,  he  may  say  or  do.  But  to  come  nearer  home — show 
me  a  man  or  woman  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  whose  daily  life  is 
not  a  perpetual  lie  to  his  or  her  profession.  It  cannot  be  otherwise. 
It  is  necessarily  so;  and  no  one  can  avoid  this  consequence,  with¬ 
out  being  so  unnatural  as  not  to  partake  of  human  nature.  It  is 
the  natural  fruit  of  the  tree.  It  is  the  spirit,  the  genius,  the  neces¬ 
sary  tendency  of  Christianity;  and  therefore  the  individuals,  who 
have  been  compelled  to  receive  it,  are  objects  of  our  greatest  com¬ 
passion. 

Other  fruits  of  this  tree  are,  pride  and  spiritual  pride,  among  many 
other  kinds  of  it,  and  envy  and  jealousy. 

My  friends,  do  you  know  any  pride  of  wealth,  of  birth,  of  con¬ 
nexions;  any  spiritual  pride,  any  pride  of  learning,  or  personal  pride, 
in  this  city?  Do  you  know  any  who  envy  the  advantages  possessed, 
or  which  they  suppose  to  be  possessed,  by  others?  Or  do  you  know 
any  who  are  jealous  of  their  neighbor’s  superiority,  or  of  their  feel¬ 
ings  for  others  in  preference  to  themselves  ?  If  you  do,  these  are  the 
genuine  fruits  of  this  tree;  and  you  well  know  they  superabound 
every  where. 

Other  fruits  of  this  same  tree  are,  ignorance  and  presumption, 
most  peculiarly  combined. 

Have  you  any  ignorant  among  you,  who  know  nothing  of  them¬ 
selves,  and  very  little  of  nature ;  who  yet  imagine  themselves  to  be 
God's  elect;  and  who,  in  consequence,  look  down  upon  their  fellow 
beings  as  though  they  were  not  of  the  same  species,  and  say,  “Stand 
aloof,  for  I  am  more  holy  than  thou  ?” 

This  again  is  the  natural  fruit  of  the  tree.  Religious  wars,  mas¬ 
sacres,  and  persecutions  for  conscience  sake,  are  also  some  of  its 
fruit;  and  these  have  been  shed  abundantly  all  over  Christendom. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  tell  me  what  any  system  will  do  when  carried 
into  practice,  whilst  I  have  its  practical  results  before  me;  whilst  I 
see  what  it  has  produced  in  the  past,  and  what  it  is  producing  in  the 
time — what  it  produces  to-day*  and  what  it  ypust  produce 


DEBATE. 


15  V 

during  the  continuance  of  the  practice  among  men.  From  the  facts 
and  reasonings  thus  obtained,  it  is  most  evident,  that  if  the  Christian 
doctrines  were  to  continue  to  form  your  characters  for  ten  thousand 
years,  they  would  make  you,  at  the  eno  of  that  period,  worse  than 
you  are  to-day;  for  they  are  daily  becoming  more  and  more  incon¬ 
gruous,  when  compared  with  the  knowledge  derived  from  the  grow¬ 
ing  experience  of  the  world.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  doctrines 
which  the  gospel  enforces  upon  the  young  and  tender  mind,  every 
generation,  if  it  can  be  supposed  possible  that  these  doctrines,  in 
opposition  to  experience,  could  continue  to  influence  them,  must 
become  more  and  more  irrational.  For- as  t^e  world  advances  in 
knowledge  and  experience,  the  professing  Christian  must  necessa¬ 
rily  become  either  more  hypocritical,  or  more  ignorant.  And  from 
this  simple  cause,  I  doubt  whether,  since  the  days  of  Christ’s  first 
appearing,  there  ever  was  a  time  of  mere  hypocrisy,  over  the  whole 
of  Christendom,  than  at  the  present. 

I  know  the  world  cannot  help  being  what  it  is:— you  cannot 
help  being  what  you  are.  And,  in  consequence  of  the  overwhelming 
circumstances  which  now  exist,  religious  societies  arc  jiow  every 
where  a  cheat  from  beginning  to  end.  Owing  to  the  certain  inform- 
ation  1  have  derived  from  the  casket,  I  can  easily  discover  that  your 
looks,  your  words,  and  your  actions  are  continually  opposed  to  each 
other. 

Do  not  be  offended,  my  friends,  nor  suppose  I  speak  in  anger,  or 
with  the  intention  to  offend  you.  So  far  from  being  angry,  I  feel  the 
utmost,  the  most  sincere  compassion  for  you,  and  all  who  are,  like 
you,  under  the  influence  of  any  religious  delusion. 

I  do  not  attach  a  particle  of  blame  to  one  of  you.  Possessing 
the  knowledge  contained  in  this  casket,  and  the  charity  which  it 
necessarily  compels  me  to  have  for  every  human  being,  how  can  I 
blame  you?  Do  I  not  know,  with  the  greatest  certainty,  how  the 
character  of  each  has  been  formed  for  him  from  infancy. 

My  friends,  every  one  admits — -even  your  sacred  books  teach,  that 
there  is  no  possibility  of  judging  fairly  of  any  tree,  save  by  its  fruits. 
I,  therefore,  judge  of  Christianity  by  the  bitter  fruits  which  it  has 
produced  wheresoever  it  has  been  planted . 

My  friends,  1  have  had  time  only  to  polish  some  parts,  and  those 
imperfectly,  of  the  contents  of  this  casket,  as  you  have  witnessed. 
This  afternoon,  I  shall  be  prepared  with  some  more  of  it,  and  I  will 
endeavor  to  produce  as  much  as  will  occupy  our  attention  from 
four  to  five  o’clock.  Seeing  the  course  Mr.  Campbell  has  adopted, 
I  wish  to  have  time  to  do  equal  justice  to  the  subject  which  I  advo¬ 
cate.  1  do  not  like  to  depend  solely  upon  the  accidental  ideas  which 
may  arise  when  I  address  you,  without  any  preparation.  For  as 
I  enter  more  fully  into  this  subject,  its  importance  continually  grows 
upon  me.  Having  proceeded  thus  far  in  attempts  to  open  a  new 
light  in  this  city,  as  it  must  be  to  many  of  you,  I  am  the  most  desi¬ 
rous  .not  to  leave  you  partially  informed  respecting  it.  I  w  ish  to  do 
justice,  in  this  case,  to  the  subject,  to  you,  and  to  the  millions  to 

VOL,  .II.  14 


158 


DEBATE. 


whom  these  records  will  be  transmitted .  I  therefore  trust,  that  it  will 
not  be  too  inconvenient  to  the  gentlemen  who  sit  as  moderators,  to 
allow  time  sufficient  to  do  that  which  it  would  be  most  improper  to 
leave  undone.  I  could  not  begin  to  reply  to  Mr.  C.  until  he  had 
finished  his  elaborate  argument  and  his  long  chain  of  documents, 
which  have  occupied  one  half  more  time  than  I  required  to  place 
my  views  before  you, — and  he  speaks,  as  you  may  notice,  three 
words  for  two  of  mine,  I  mean  not,  however,  to  occupy  your 
time  with  words  without  corresponding  ideas,  as  must  be  done  in 
all  cases  in  which  much  is  spoken  on  the  subject  of  any  religion. 
For  the  mysteries  of  religion  can  be  made  to  pass  current  only  when 
many  words  are  used  to  confound  the  understanding  of  the  hearers, 
by  no  definite  meaning  being  attached  to  them.  When  the  deepest 
prejudices  of  mankind  have  to  be  uprooted,  there  must  be  substantial 
ideas  for  each  word  to  represent,  and  ideas,  too,  that  are  perfectly 
consistent  with  each  other,  or  I  shall  have  no  chance  of  making 
the  permanent  impression  I  intend.  1  have  promised,  that  when  I 
shall  have  finished  this  part  of  the  discussion,  if  Mr.  Campbell,  or 
any  other  individual,  shall  discover  one  error,  or  one  inconsistency, 
in  the  principles  and  system  which  I  advocate,  I  w  ill  give  up  the 
whole  contest.  For  should  one  error  be  found,  I  shall  be  convinced 
I  have  been  deceived;  for  where  there  is  inconsistency,  there  cannot 
be  truth.  At  present  I  say  no  more. 

[Here  some  conversation  took  place  between  the  chairman  and  Mr. 
Campbell .  Mr.  Owen  stated  that  lie  would  be  prepared  to  proceed 
with  kis  afternoon's  address ,  after  Mr.  C.  had  replied ,  as  he  wished 
io  do,  to  what  he  had  offered  this  morning.]* 

Mr.  Owen  resumed.  I  am  sure  we  are  all  greatly  indebted  to 
the  moderators,  w'ho  have  attended  here  so  punctually  day  by  day. 
They  have  given  us  already  so  much  of  their  time,  that  I  can  readily 
suppose  it  w  ill  be  inconvenient  for  them  to  continue  their  attendance 
much  longer.  I  have  done  all  that  seemed  to  me  desirable,  to  curtail 
the  duration  of  this  discussion.  My  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  no  doubt, 
deemed  it  of  great  importance  to  place  before  the  public  all  his 
notions  of  the  system  in  which  he  has  been  trained ;  and  it  has  been 
the  extraordinary  length  of  my  friend’s  erudite  exposition,  (during 
the  utterance  of  wrhich  I  was  under  the  necessity  to  remain  silent,) 
that  has  taken  up  so  much  of  the  time. 

But,  my  friends,  there  is  another  view  of  this  subject.  The  sys¬ 
tems  which  I  have  to  oppose  are  of  several  thousand  year’s  standing. 

•This  conversation  was  to  this  effect. — Mr.  C.  asked  Mr.  Chairman  whether 
Mr.  Owen  had  a  right  to  change  the  times  of  adjournment,  and  whether  his 
having  adjourned  to  10  o’clock  this  morning  was  not  contrary  to  our  original 
stipulations — Moreover,  said  Mr.  C.  I  would  ask  whether  Mr.  Owen  should  be 
allowed  time  to  retire  to  write  speeches  as  circumstances  may  require;  and 
whether  we  must  wait  here  from  day  to  day,  so  long  as  Mr.  Owen  can  write 
new  essays  upon  the  twelve  “ Divine  laws  of  human  nature;”  adjourning  from 
time  to  time,  as  may  suit  his  writing  convenience?  Mr.  Owen’s  recalling  the 
motion  to  adjourn  till  four  o’clock  and  promising  to  be  prepared  at  three, 
prevented  a  reply  from  the  board. 


DEBATE. 


159 


They  have  been  supported,  during  these  thousand  years,  by  millions 
of  ministers,  who  have  been  paid,  in  that  time,  enormous  sums  to 
instruct  the  population  m  various  countries, — and  for  more  than  a 
hundred  in  this. 

Can  it  be  expected,  then,  that  in  a  few  days,  or  rather  in  little 
mpre  than  one, — for,  during  this  discussion,  1  have  spoken  but  fifteen 

hours, _ I  can  unassociate  in  your  minds  all  the  ideas  thus  derived 

from  nast  ages— ideas  which  have  been  instilled  into  your  minds 
with  so  much  care,  from  your  birth?  Is  it  to  be  expected,  I  ask  you, 
my  friends,  that,  in  a  few  hours,  I  can  combat  and  put  to  flight  all 
the  host  of  errors  which  have  been  accumulating  for  thousands  of 
years,  when,  by  the  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature  we  are 
compelled  to  retain  early  impressions  with  great  tenacity? 

Although  such  a  result  no  one  would  anticipate,  I  have  yet  un¬ 
bounded  confidence  in  the  omnipotence  ot  truth.  I  care  not  what 
obstacles  may  be  placed  in  its  way:  whatever  they  are,  I  expect  that-, 
sooner  or  later,  they  will  be  overcome.  If,  on  the  present  occasion, 
I  shall  not  be  allowed  time  for  the  full  performance  of  the  task  I  wish 
to  accomplish,  I  trust  it  shail  he  so  executed,  within  whatever  time 
is  now  to  be  allowed  before  the  discussion  terminates,  that  what  I  put 
upon  record  will  be  sufficient  to  induce  those  who  have  not  yet  been 
taught  to  reflect  upon  these  subjects,  to  begin  to  think  for  themselves. 
I  can  hardly  believe,  that  there  can  be  any  wish  that  this  subject 
should  not  be  as  fully  heard  on  one  side,  as  it  has  been  on  the  other; 
or  that  what  remains  to  be  said  on  my  part  should  not  be  said  in  the 
best  manner. 

But,  my  friends,  I  find  that  upon  this,  as  upon  all  other  occasions, 
we  must  necessarily  be  governed  by  the  circumstances  which  sur¬ 
round  us.  To  these  circumstances  I  must  yield,  as  we  are  all  obliged 
to  do,  when  we 'cannot  change  those  in  which  we  are  involved.  It 
seems  the  circumstances  which  limit  this  debate  cannot  now  be 
easily  changed.  I  must,  therefore,  submit  to  the  audience  the 
remainder  of  what  I  intend  to  say,  without  having  time  to  do  all  the 
justice  to  the  subject,  which  its  high  practical  importance  deserves. 

These  debates  are  familiar  to  Mr.  C.  and  he  has  been  in  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  public  speaking  week  after  week,  or  rather  day  by  day,  for 
many  years.  I  am  obliged  to  think  well  what  I  say,  before  I  give  it 
utterance.  It  is  always  necessary,  but  now  peculiarly  so,  for  me, 
after  the  engagement  I  have  made,  to  take  care  that  there  shall  be 
no  inconsistency  in  any  thing  I  may  say.  I  have  only  to  regret, 
that  what  I  may  speak  is  not  likely  to  be  so  well  digested,  as  that 
which  I  should  write  at  more  leisure.  But  as  I  now  must  be  gov¬ 
erned  in  what  I  shall  say,  to  the  termination  of  this  discussion,  by 
the  impulse  of  the  moment,  I  trust  that  the  ideas  and  expressions 
which  may  arise,  when  I  address  you  in  the  afternoon,  will  be  equal 
to  the  emergency. 

Adjourned  to  meet  at  three  o’clock,  when  the  discussion  is  to  tfe 
closed. 


160  DEBATE. 

Tuesday  afternoon ,  21  st  April,  l&JD. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — -Public  attention  and  curiosity  have  been  much 
excited  from  the  first  proposal  of  this  discussion  even  up  to  the 
present  moment.  On  Mr.  Owen’s  first  appearance  in  this  country 
our  expectations  were  raised  to  an  unusual  degree.  Corriing  direct 
from  one  of  the  most  enlightened  countries  in  the  world;  having 
traversed  the  British  Isles,  and  visited  several  places  on  the  continent 
of  Europe;  professing  to  have  discovered  very  great  errors  in  the 
present  order  of  society,  and  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  new  modify 
the  world,  by  some  very  rational  changes,  resulting  from  the  march 
of  mind  and  the  progress  of  science;  our  expectations  were  very 
much  raised,  and  we  bade  the  benevolent  visitant  a  hearty  welcome 
to  our  shores.  Under  these  favorable  circumstances  Mr.  Owen  was 
received  by  the  good  citizens  of  these  United  States.  He  was  treated 
with  all  the  liberality  of  our  republican  institutions. 

In  his  first  addresses  he  was  cautious  and  reserved  on  the  subject 
of  religion.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  from  the  first  address  which  1 
«a\v  in  print  from  Mr.  Owen,  I  observed  the  poison  artfully  infused 
into  the  golden  chalice  which  he  presented  to  the  American  people. 
But  for  some  time  he  was  a  little  cautious.  He  became  bold;  and 
finally,  as  large  as  life,  he  appeared  the  advocate  of  irreligion,  or  no 
religion — and,  like  all  his  brotherhood  in  France,  he  talked  much  of 
reason,  and  common  sense.  Philosophy  too,  (most  abused  word,) 
was  adored  as  the  patron  goddess  of  the  whole  scheme.  All  this,  too, 
associated  with  a  good  moral  exterior,  uncommon  mildness  and  sua¬ 
vity  of  temper,  procured  for  Mr.  Owen,  (to  say  nothing  of  the 
charms  of  wealth,}  a  degree  of  respect  and  courtesy,  which  would 
not  have  been  shown  to  the  system  in  the  person  of  almost  any  other 
advocate,  and  still  less  in  the  person  of  one  who  should  have  exhibi¬ 
ted  the  more  natural  and  the  more  usual  tendency  of  the  system  in  his 
own  conduct. 

But  added  to  all  this,  it  was  published  fhr  and  wide  that  Mr.  Owen 
was  a  gentleman  of  the  most  extensive  reading,  great  research,  a  first 
rate  political  economist,  and  profoundly  acquainted  with  every  thing 
connected  with  the  political,  religious,  and  economical  systems, 
practices,  and  relations  of  mankind.  He  seemed  to  understand 
every  thing  relative  to  the  subjects  on  which  he  declaimed  and  wrote, 
more  profoundly  than  any  person  else — and  from  the  plenary  confi¬ 
dence,  and  the  air  of  infallibility  which  decorated  his  ratiocinations, 
deductions,  and  proofs,  all  were  almost  afraid  to  call  any  of  his 
dogmas  in  question.  Progressing  thus,  specious  in  his  philosophy, 
and  the  perfect  gentleman  in  his  manners,  it  was  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  he  found  many  disciples  and  admirers  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  whithersover  he  turned  his  course.  He  attempted  to  organ¬ 
ize  societies  among  us,  and  to  set  on  foot  a  new  order  of  things.  But 
religion  impedes  his  progress,  and  finally  it  absorbs  all  his  energies 
and  those  of  his  friends.  It  is  combatted  on  new  principles,  as  it 
did  appear,  and  was  threatened  to  be  prostrated  by  reason  and  science , 


DEBATE. 


161 


The  old  artillery  of  little  Deists  and  petty  cavillers  were  all  to  be  laid 
aside,  and  nothing  but  the  apparatus  of  good  logic  and  genuine  philo¬ 
sophy  were  to  be  employed  by  Mr.  Owen  in  pulling  down  ah  the 
religions  of  the  world.  And  now  our  ears  have  heard,  and  our  eyes 
have  seen  the  whole  strength  of  this  new  armament  against  the  faith. 
This  discussion  will,  I  think,  be  a  new  and  no  ordinary  confirma¬ 
tion  of  the  faith  of  Christians.  Mr.  Owen,  the  cool  philosopher,  the 
great  political  economist,  the  universal  reader,  the  extensive  traveller, 
the  shrewd  and  logical  thinker,  after  surveying  the  productions  of 
six  thousand  years,  appears  with  the  maturity  of  almost  three  score 
years,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  time,  standing  upon  the  shoulders  of 
all  the  sceptics  of  Greece,  Rome,  England,  and  America,  selects 
the  most  puissant  weapons,  and  chooses  the  best  mode  of  attack, 
which  all  his  reading,  observation,  and  experience  could  de¬ 
vise.  You  have  heard  it,  my  friends,  you  have  seen  it  ail  in  twelve 
principles,  all  poised  upon  one  metaphysical  question.  This  is  the 
dos  pou  sto  of  Archimedes.  Here  Mr.  Owen  places  the  fulcrum 
for  his  puissant  lever  which  is  to  raise  the  human  family  from  all  the 
superstitions  good  and  bad,  and  from  all  political  degradation,  from 
poverty,  ignorance  and  suffering.  This  is  the  Usummum  bonum 
“the  philosophers  stone”’ — the  old  doctrine  of  Epicurus  in  modern 
broad  cloth. 

Now  it  is  lawfully  to  be  presumed,  that  Mr.  Owen  has  taken  the 
strongest  ground  which  can  be  taken  upon  the  sceptical  hypotheses. 
He  has  scon  where  all  his  predecessors  have  been  foiled;  and  there¬ 
fore  selects  the  ark  of  safety,  the  impregnable  fortress,  the  strongest 
tower  which  his  imagination  and  reason  could  grasp.-— Forth  comes 
the  essay  which  you  have  heard.  This  is  the  cream  of  fifty  years 
reading,  travelling,  studying,  conversing  with  minds  of  the  “best 
calibre.”  Arrayed  in  the  majesty  of  twelve  propositions,  which  will 
equally  suit  the  horse  and  his  rider.  Mr.  Owen  appears  brandishing 
the  sixth ,  the  fatal  sixth ,  which  like  a  two  edged  sword  is  to  cut  off 
all  the  heads  of  all  the  priests  and  kings  in  the  world. 

Upon  the  whole,  we  were  glad,  to  see  Mr.  Owen  take  such  high 
ground.  First,  because  he  made  Thomas  Paine,  Gibbon,  cum  multis 
aliis ,  with  all  the  old  sceptics,  a  set  of  simpletons  and  drivelling 
philosophers.  And  next,  because  he  was  all  for  reason  and  philoso¬ 
phy,  which  no  intelligent  Christian  ever  feared — We  met  him  on  his 
own  five  propositions  on  which  he  defied  the  world.  You  however 
heard  the  contents  of  Mr.  Owen’s  logic  upon  these  premises.  And 
you  have  seen  what  he  has  offered  in  defence  of  them.  It  would  be  only 
a  species  of  insult  to  the  good  sense  of  any  hearer  of  this  discussion 
to  state  again  that  Mr.  Owen  has  only  repeated  over  and  over  the 
same  dogmas ;  and  that  he  has  in  every  instance  refused  joining  issue 
either  upon  his  own  propositions  or  mine.  He  has  met  all  sorts  of 
argument  by  mere  assertions,  by  mere  declamation. 

Regarding  Mr.  Owen  as  the  present  magnus  Apollo  of  scepticism, 
as  a  man  of  great  reason  and  philosophy,  we  did  most  certainly  ex¬ 
pect  that  he  would  reason  and  not  merely  assert — that  he  would  not 
VOL.  11.  14* 


162 


DEBATE. 


at  last,  when  foiled  in  argument,  descend  into  the  ranks  of  those 
little  spirits,  who  strut  about  in  the  pomposity  of  two  or  three  witi- 
cisms  or  sneers,  which  they  have  heazxl  and  z’etail  from  some  infidel 
apostle.  Nay,  indeed,  I  did  not  expect  to  hear  Mr.  Owen  talking  in 
the  ribaldry  of  these  little  demagogues  of  infidelity,  who  talk  about 
Eve,  and  the  apple,  and  the  serpent;  about  the  virgin  Mary,  and 
Joseph,  with  a  sort  ot  significant  grin,  expressing  the  great  detesta¬ 
tion  of  their  great  little  souls  against  such  fables!  ; 

There  is  nothing  proof  against  these  Parthian  missiles,  that  the 
vanquished  Parthian  throws  behind  him  on  his  rerti*eat  from  the  pui*- 
suing  conqueror.  I  could,  without  pretending  to  any  genius  in  this 
way,  turn  every  virtue  in  the  world  to  ridicule, and  laugh  out  of  coun¬ 
tenance  the  gi'avest  and  best  man  that  ever  lived. — Only,  as  the 
great  Warburton  said,  “put  a  fool’s  coat  upon  a  philosopher  or  a  saint, 
and  you  may  under  this  covering  laugh  him  down.”  Call  bravery , 
temerity;  call  generosity ,  prodigality;  call  wisdom ,  gravity;  call 
honesty ,  simplicity;  and  good  manners ,  foppery;  and  the  work  is 
done.  So  the  atheist  ridicules  the  idea  of  God.  A  pretty  world 
this,  to  come  from  a  rational  first  cause!  Talk  not  of  wisdom 
while  yau  see  so  much  folly  in  the  univei'se!  Only  see  the  waste 
of  water  and  the  waste  of  land ;  only  look,  says  he,  how  many  half 
begun  operations,  and  how  many  unfinished  enterprizes  there  are. 
Look  at  the  deformities  and  the  irregularities,  and  the  maladapta- 
t  ions  every  where.  Talk  not  of  goodness,  says  the  ridiculing  athe¬ 
ist;  dont  }rou  see  poisons  lurking  in  your  fields  and  gardens — pesti¬ 
lence  and  death  stealing  upon  you  in  the  invisible  miasmata?  Talk 
not  of  justice-  see  the  good  man  punished  for  his  virtue,  and  the 
wicked  rewarded  for  his  vice,  &c.  &c.  So  the  idea  of  God  is 
laughed  out  of  the  world  by  the  atheists.  Tell  me  the  virtue  I  can¬ 
not  caricature  and  render  ridiculous.  I  will  call  humility,  mean¬ 
ness;  charity,  pride  or  ostentation,  and  thez',  under  such  a  garb,  laugh 
them  out  of  society. 

Is  there  any  way  of  proving  in  a  court  of  law,  that  Queen  Elizabeth 
or  Oliver  Cromwell  once  lived  ?  If  there  be,  the  same  sort  of  evidence 
will  prove  in  a  court  of  law,  that  all  the  gospel  facts  are  true.  But 
there  is  as  much  wit  in  a  pedlar’s  telling  you  to  prove  how  many 
yards  are  in  a  given  web,  by  weighing  it  in  scales,  or  by  putting  it 
into  a  bushel,  as  there  is  in  Mr.  Owen’s  telling  you,  you  cannot  prove 
the  gospel  facts  in  a  court  oflaw.. 

His  Adam  and  Eve,  the  apple  and  serpent  puns  are  very  puissant 
weapons  in  his  armor;  and  his  representing  the  imbecility,  or  folly, 
or  malevolence  of  the  Deity,  in  giving  birth  to  the  present  state  of 
things,  are  all  in  unison  with  the  nice  discernment,  good  taste,  and 
hue  feelings,  of  the  champion  of  scepticism.  The  human  body,  and 
all  its  organs,  internal  and  external,  by  the  same  logic  could  he 
shown  to  be  ridiculous.  Call  it  an  animal  machine  and  then  exam¬ 
ine  it  in  detail.  You  may  then  laugh  at  yourselves,  as  we  might  con-  * 
ceive  an  actor  would,  who  had  assumed  a  character  which  did  not 
suit  him. 


DEBATE, 


163 

But,  ray  friends,  I  cannot  but  admire  the  influence  which  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  now  exhibited  in  you.  In  speaking  of  the  Christian  re- 
iio ion This  morn  in  as  on  other  occasions,  Mr.  Owen  has  severely 
tested  the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  us.  He  has  tried  our  Chris¬ 
tian  patience  and  forbearance  to  the  utmost.  I  feel  a  degree  of  pride 
to  see  you  bear  these  indignities  with  so  much  patience.  These  in¬ 
sults  were  all  gratuitous,  and  ill-timed,  too,  if  there  be  anytime  for 
insults.  When  I  was  laying  before  you  the  historic  evidences  of 
Christianity,  if  Mr.  Owen  had  any  objection  to  any  of  the  historic 
facts,  testimonies  ,or  proofs  adduced,  then  was  the  time  to  have  made 
his  objections.  But  it  is  an  easy  method  of  refuting  any  argument, 
to  say  it  is  impertinent,  or  inconclusive ;  to  call  any  document  a  fable* 
a  legend ;  and  to  represent  the  most  credible  testimony  in  the  world  as 
a  story,  &  fiction.  This  is  a  wholesale  way  of  rebutting  all  argument 
and  proof,  and  I  am  much  disappointed  to  find  the  boasted  reason  of 
the  sceptical  heroes,  compelled  to  adopt  this  miserable  subterfuge  of 
the  poorest  drivellers,  who  have  not  sense  to  know  when  a  point  is 
proved,  or  when  a  conclusion  is  fairly  drawn  from  just  premises.  Mr. 
Owen  arrogates  too  much  for  a  philosopher.  He  puts  himself  in  the 
Pope’?  chair,  and  makes  his  say  so ,  his  ipse  dixit,  go  as  far  as  the  Ro 
man  Pontiff  ever  claimed  for  himself.  I  have  never  heard  so  few 
wherefores,  so  few  illative  particles  in  as  much  reading  as  in  Mr, 
Owen’s  speeches. 

But  after  all  Mr  Owen’s  great  reading  and  research,  there  is  one 
book  which  he  has  not  often  read,  and  which  above  all  others  he  ought 
( even  to  attack  it  successfully)  often  to  have  read.  I  need  not  tell  you 
that  this  is  the  Bible.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  he  told  me  he  read  it 
some  two  or  three  times  when  an  infant  at  school — but  what  of  that? 
At  this  1  am  astonished.  How  dare  any  man  attack  a  book,  of  such 
high  pretensions,  from  a  school-boy-reading  of  it!  But  this  is  in 
unison  with  the  sceptical  school.  Thomas  Paine  wrote  against  the 
Bible  from  recollections,  and  acknowledged  that  he  had  not  much  read 
it.  David  Hume  acknowledged,  not  long  before  his  death,  that  he 
had  never  seriously  read  the  New  Testament  through.  I  have  never, 
to  this  hour,  met  with  a  sceptic,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  or  who  had  in  his  writings  evinced  that  he  had  given 
them  a  close  or  critical  examination.  If  it  were  lawful  thus  to  retort 
upon  Mr.  Owen,  [  would  engage  to  prove  that  his  opposition  to  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  predicated  upon  his  ignorance  of  it,  instead  of  its  being  predi¬ 
cated  upon  the  ignorance  of  mankind,  in  his  sense,  or  as  he  pre¬ 
sumes. 

Mr.  Owen’s  logic  reads  thus:  I  have  read  five  hours  per  diem  for 
twenty-five  years.  I  have  explored  all  the  systems  of  government, 
political  economy,  and  of  religion  for  forty  years.  I  have  visited 
many  countries.  I  have  early  discovered  the  influence  which  the 
doctrines  o f free-wiU  have  upon  the  advocates  of  this  system.  I  have 
come  in  contact  with  the  greatest  minds  of  the  present  day; — there¬ 
fore,  (pardon  this  one  therefore,)  all  religions  are  false.  Moses  was.. 
an  astrologer,  a  sorcerer,  or  what  you  please;  the  passage  of  Israel 


164 


DEBATE. 


through  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  miracles  said  to  have  been  wrought  in 
Egypt,  are  mere  legends;  all  the  prophets  and  apostles  were  impos¬ 
tors.  Yes,  from  my  experience  and  observation,  all  religions  ought 
to  be  proved  by  arithmetic,  and  when  we  come  to  add  up  the  eviden-  *> 
ces,  they  are  as  absurd  as  one  plus  one,  equal  three.  This  is  one  half 
ofhis  logic ;  and  the  other  is  as  follows .  I  say  to  a  blind  man,  This  is  « 
apieceof&Zwe  cloth — 1  don’t  believe  you,  sir,  he  replies.  Why  ?  I  t 
ask — He  answers,  it  does  not  smell  blue — I  do  not  hear  or  taste  it  blue 
— I  cannot  feel  it  blue.  All  this  may  be  true;  yet  all  this  will  not  < 

prove  that  it  is  not  blue.  But  upon  such  logic  does  Mr.  Owen  rely  - 

for  the  proof  of  his  live  positions.  ? 

If  Mr.  Owen’s  experience  is  to  be  relied  upon  by  us,  he  claims  the 
very  same  sort  of  faith  from  us  that  the  Apostle  Paul  claimed, 
and  without  affording  us  any  evidence.  And  surely  we  have  infi¬ 
nitely  more  reason  to  rely  upon  the  testimony  of  Paul  in  attestation 
of  palpable  facts ,  than  upon  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Owen  in  attestation 
of  his  opinions— i  think,  and  I  saw,  are  very  different  sorts  of 
evidence  upon  matters  of  fact. 

Mr.  Owen  might  think,  from  his  mode  of  reasoning,  that  the  inhabi¬ 
tant  of  the  torrid  zone,  who  wrould  not  believe  him  thattvater  became  in 
the  Ohio  river  so  hard  and  firm,  that  waggons  and  horses  passed  upon 
its  surface;  or  that  the  inhabitant  of  Iceland,  who  would  not  believe 
him  that  there  were  men  as  black  as  jet  in  Virginia — I  say,  he  might 
think  such  persons  very  incredulous ;  and  yet,  upon  his  own  princi¬ 
ples,  they  could  not  believe  him  because  they  had  no  such  experi¬ 
ence.*  I  presume  the  absurdity  of  this  species  of  reasoning  has 
already  been  made  apparent  to  the  dullest  capacity.  We  do  not  sup 
pose  that  Mr.  Owen’s  experience  is  equal  to  set  aside  any  single  fact 
well  attested,  of  an  ordinary  or  extraordinary  character,  and  still  less 
equal  to  disprove  any  fact  which  occurred  two  thousand  years  ago. 

To  ridicule  your  faith,  my  friends,  upon  such  feeble  arguments  as 
Mr.  Owen  has  to  offer  in  favor  of  infidelity,  appears  tome  as  impolitic 
as  it  is  profane.  When  men  have  reasoned  very  strongly,  and  carried 
a  point  by  a  very  powerful  attack  upon  the  human  understanding,  they 
may  be  allowed  to  slacken  the  reins  upon  their  passions,  and  to  make 
some  appeal  to  the  hearts  or  feelings  of  the  audience.  But  this  sup¬ 
poses  a  case  very  unlike  that  before  us.  Mr.  Owen  commenced  his 
ridicule  before  he  had  weakened  the  faith  of  a  single  soul  in  the  audi¬ 
ence.  And,  indeed,  I  must  tell  you  that  I  have  never  felt  so  much 
disgusted  at  the  spirit  of  infidelity,  as  in  hearing  this  last  speech 
from  Mr.  Owen.  The  abuse  was  uncalled  for,  undeserved, and  every 
way  mal-appropos.  I  could  not  but  think  of,  I  could  not  but  remem-  j 
ber,  while  he  was  uttering  those  scoffs,  an  anecdote  which  I  heard  a 
few  days  ago  from  a  citizen  of  this  city,  concerning  a  Dr.  Patterson 
of  England.  This  bold  and  impious  sceptic  riding  out  in  harvest 

*It  is  said  that  the  king  of  Siam  ordered  the  Dutch  navigator,  who  asserted  ■ 
that  water  in  Holland  occasionally  became  passable  for  men  and  horses,  to  be 
punished  for  lying. — Reporter. 


DEBATE. 


165 


time  in  England,  was  overtaken  with  his  companions  in  a  violent 
stunn  of  wind  and  rain,  which  prostrated  the  harvest  fields  arid  seem¬ 
ed  to  blast  the  hopes  of  the  husbandmen  of  the  vicinity.  Coming 
into  contact  with  some  Christians,  who  were  probably  talking  of  the 
calamity,  he  remarked,  “Only  see  what  sort  of  a  God  you  Christians 
worship!  Dont  you  think  he  ought  to  be  tied  up  and  whipped  for  send- 
irur  such  a  storm  upon  your  fields  in  this  important  crisis!”  But  this 
saucv  sceptic  was  not  permitted  long  to  pass  unpunished ;  [call  it  my 
superstition  if  you  please,]  and  by  a  shower  of  rain  too,  the  God  of 
Christians  called  him  to  account.  For  not  long  after,  while  attending 
a  horse-race,  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  coming  up,  compelled  him  and 
his  companions  to  seek  a  shelter.  While  endeavoring  to  escape,  his 
horse  stumbled,  fell,  and  broke  his  master’s  neck.  So  departed  this 
life  the  scoffing  Doctor.  But  although  I  doubt  not  many  thousand 
such  occurrences  happen,  1  would  not  draw  a  general  conclusion 
from  them,  and  say,  that  so  it  shall  always  happen.  No,  indeed,  “the 
Lord  knows  how  to  reserve  the  ungodly  until  the  day  of  judgment  to 
he  punished.”  But  to  speak  as  philosophy  authorizes,  it  is  only  in 
the  absence  of  argument,  that  recourse  is  had  to  ridicule;  and  the 
chair  of  the  scoffer  is  never  filled  until  that  of  the  logician  is  vacated. 

But  when  Mr.  Owen  assails  us,  my  friends,  through  the  medium 
of  our  sectarian  divisions  and  discords,  ’tis  then  he  wounds  us  most 
sensibly.  He  has  told  you  very  plainly,  several  times  in  this  discus¬ 
sion,  that  it  was  the  wild  and  conflicting  dogmas  and  rancors  of 
sectarian  pride  and  jealousy  that  made  him  first  of  all  a  sceptic;  and 
you  see  this  yet  confirms  him  in  his  scepticism.  Here  we  are  vulner¬ 
able.  Were  it  not  for  the  spirit  and  temper,  as  well  as  for  the  foolish 
and  absurd  dogmas  of  the  fashionable  systems  of  religion,  the  at¬ 
tacks  of  sceptics  would  avail  no  more  than  the  barkings  of  a  dog  at 
the  full  moon.  Even  here,  however,  his  logic  fails:  for  what  good 
thing  under  heaven  has  not  been  abused  and  perverted  by  the  wicked¬ 
ness  of  man!  And  is  it  not  an  axiom  among  all  reasoners  upon  all 
subjects,  that  no  man  can  reasonably  make  the  abuse  of  any  thing  an 
argument  either  against  the  use  of  the  thing,  or  the  thing  itself? 

But  as  the  matter  has  stood,  and  now  stands,  we  should  have  been 
discouraged  long  since  in  vindicating  the  divine  authority  of  this  re¬ 
ligion,  had  not  Paul  and  the  other  Apostles  foretold  these  times— 
these  divisions ;  their  rise,  continuance,  and  termination.  And  although 
it  is  a  fact,  and  an  evidence,  which,  in  itself,  and  abstractly  con¬ 
sidered,  is  very  discouraging;  yet,  when  contemplated  through  the 
da*a  which  the  New  Testament  affords,  it  forms  a  very  powerful  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  divine  authenticity  of  this  religion.  To  this  we  have  paid 
sufficient  attention  while  reasoning  upon  the  Apostacy ,  and  need  not 
now  repeat  what  was  then  demonstrated ;  namely,  that,  from  the  be¬ 
ginning,  it  was  known,  foreseen,  and  declared,  that  such  an  apostacy 
should,  for  certain  ends  and  purposes,  take  place.  It  has  taken  place, 
and  has  fully  corresponded  with  all  the  predictions  of  its  rise  and 
progress,  and  the  signs  of  its  speedy  destruction  are  among  the  most 
impressive  signs  of  the  times. 


166 


DEBATE. 


The  necessity  of  the  union  of  all  the  disciples  of  Christ,  in  order 
to  the  triumphant  and  universal  spread  of  the  gospel  throughout  all 
nations,  was  distinctly  declared,  and  its  influence  fully  depicted  in 
that  admirable  prayer  of  the  Founder  of  our  Religion,  in  the  17th 
chapter  of  John:  “Neither,'’  said  he,  “pray  I  for  these  alone,  (who 
now  believe  in  ine  and  are  my  Apostles  to  the  nations,)  but  for 
all  them  who  will  hereafter  believe  on  me  through  their  testimony;  that 
thev  all  may  he  one;  that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent 
me .”  The  universal  conviction  of  the  world  of  the  truth  of  the 
divine  mission  of  Jesus,  is  made  dependent  on  the  union  and  harmony 
of  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  And  as  this  view  of  the  matter  came  from 
the  fountain  head  of  all  wisdom  and  goodness,  it  is  fairly  to  be  pre¬ 
sumed,  that  it  is  a  sine  qua  non — a  something  indispensable  to  the 
progress  and  all  triumphant  success  of  Christianity;  that  until  Chris¬ 
tians  are  united  the  world  cannot  he  con  verted  to  the  belief  of  the  mission 
of  Jesus. 

I  doubt  not  hut  the  ground,  the  true  ground  of  Christian  union,  is 
now  discovered ;  and  it  has  been  declared  in  this  discussion  more 
than  once — indirectly  it  is  true,  but  it  is  fairly  inferrable  from  these 
premises.  It  is  this — that  Christian  faith  is  to  he  known  and  recog¬ 
nized  as  a  belief  of  the  gospel  facts ,  and  not  the  assent  of  the  human 
understanding  to  certain  matters  of  opinion — a  belief  of  facts,  and  not 
of  doctnnes — of  tacts  resting  upon  the  divine  testimony — and  not  of 
opinions  dependent  upon  the  acuteness  of  the  human  intellect  or  the 
logical  powers  of  inferential  reasoners.  A  regard  to  men’s  moral 
actions,  more  than  to  the  strength  of  their  intellects,  will  soon  sub¬ 
vert  the  metaphysical  systems  of  past  ages;  and  place  Christianity 
upon  a  new  footing  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  This  is  not  the  place, 
nor  the  occasion,  for  minute  expositions  of  these  sentiments;  but  they 
can  be  given,  and  they  do  now  appear  in  the  publications  of  the  day  : 
but  so  far  we  deemed  it  expedient  to  call  up  this  matter,  alike  to  the* 
consideration  of  sceptics  and  of  Christians. 

But  still  I  am  very  far  from  agreeing  with  Mr.  Owen  that  Christian¬ 
ity,  as  it  is  now  taught,  is  the  greatest  curse  to  mankind.  Mr.  Owen, 
who  never  speaks  any  thing  but  the  truth,  will  have  to  retract  this 
assertion.  For  most  surely  there  are  many  greater  curses  in  the 
nations  of  this  world,  tiian  is  Christianity  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  Credat  Judaeus  Apella ,  non  ego.  Apella  the  Jew  may  be¬ 
lieve  it,  not  I.  It  will  require  more  facts  and  documents  than  Mr. 
Owen  can  command  to  makegood  this  assertion. 

I  did  entertain  some  hopes  that  when  Mr.  Owen  arose,  he  was  about, 
to  concede  that  he  had  been  mistaken;  that  Christianity  is  what  it 
purports  to  be — a  revelation  from  God.  I  felt  conscious  that  he  could 
not  rebut  the  arguments  in  favor  of  Christianity ;  and  did  hope,  as  he 
would  doubtless  find  them  too  strong  for  him,  that  he  would  have  the 
candor  to  retract  the  rash  positions  he  had  taken. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  I  thought  Mr.  Owen,  of  all  men,  the  must  un¬ 
likely  to  be  convinced.  I  knew  that  the  circumstances  created  for 
him  and  by  him  rendered  his  conviction  almost  impossible.  He  has 


DEBATE. 


167 


been  so  long  the  apostle  of  his  own  tenets,  his  whole  soul  has  been 
engrossed  in  these  speculations.  He  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
men;  he  cares  not  for  praise;  he  knows,  he  says,  he  deserves  it  n  U; 
and,  as  for  fame,  he  has  no  taste  for  it  at  all !  To  these  causes  is  to 
be  attributed,  perhaps,  his  insensibility  to  the  force  or  power  of  argu¬ 
ment.  It  is  not  reasonable  that  a  person  who  has  so  far  wand  red 
from  the  common  sentiments,  feelings,  and,  indeed,  nature  of  the 
species,  could  feel  the  force  of  arguments.  For  my  par.,  when  I 
shall  be  insensible  of  praise  or  blame,  of  any  difference  other  than 
utility  between  virtue  and  vice,  I  shall  then  consider  myself  incapable 
of  distinguishing  the  truth  or  force  of  any  argument.  And,  therefore, 
taking  all  these  things  into  view,  I  do  not  wonder  that  Mr.  Owen 
cannot  be  convinced. 

There  was,  notwithstanding,  one  good  omen  —one  symptom  of  re- 
turning  conviction  in  his  last  address.  He  qualified  his  denunciation 
of  Christianity  with  these  remarkable  words,  “As  it  is  note  taught ? 
He  did  admit  that  I  had  given  such  an  exhibition  of  the  genius  and 
spirit  of  Christianity,  as  to  make  it  appear  most  excellent.  My  oppo¬ 
nent  would  not  venture  to  attack  the  Bible  Christianity,  but  “ Christi¬ 
anity  as  it  is  now  taught. ”  But  even  with  this  reservation,  I  cannot 
admit  this  sweeping  denunciation.  Mr.  Owen’s  social  system  has 
never  been  tested;  but  his  materialist  or  atheistical  system  has  been 
tested.  France,  revolutionary  France,  can  tell  the  tale.  Equality 
and  Liberty — no  religion,  no  God,  no  hereafter.  On  the  gates  of  the 
grave  yards  were  inscribed  “ Death  an  Everlasting  Sleep!”  The  di¬ 
vision  of  time  into  weeks  of  seven  days,  because  it  was  of  no  human 
origin,  became  obnoxious  to  the  materialists;  and  nothing  short  of  an 
indiscriminate  obliteration  of  every  vestige  of  Christianity,  even  to 
new-modifying  the  divisions  of  time,  would  satiate  their  deadly  anti¬ 
pathy  against  every  thing  like  religion.  Paris,  in  1789,  under  the 
domination  of  the  infamous  Robespiere  and  his  brethren,  is  a  pretty 
good  example  of  the  tendency  of  the  no  praise ,  no  blame  system;  and 
an  admirable  per  contra  to  the  assertion  that  Christianity,  in  its  present 
form,  is  the  greatest  curse  that  can  happen  to  any  nation.  I  think 
not  so  bad  as  atheism  when  it  had  the  ascendant,  Mr.  Owen  himself 
being  judge. 

Christianity  has  its  direct  and  its  indirect  influences  upon  society. 
The  direct  or  the  reflex  light  of  this  holy  religion  affects  almost  every 
man  in  the  region  where  it  shines.  It  shines  into  the  hearts  of  some, 
and  in  their  lives  it  is  reflected  as  from  a  mirror  upon  all  around.  And 
thus  some  are  christianized ,  more  are  moralized ,  and  all  are,  in  some 
good  degree  civilized ,  by  its  light.  A  single  pious,  man  in  a  village  is 
a  restraint  upon  the  wickedness  and  profanity  of  all  the  villagers.  I 
have  known  some  instances,  and  have  heard  of  others,  where  a  general 
deterioration  of  morals  has  followed  the  death  or  removal  of  a  good 
man  out  of  a  small  town  or  neighborhood.  There  is  a  charm — there 
is  an  indescribable  influence  in  the  genuine  fruits  of  Christianity, 
which,  when  exhibited  in  living  Christians,  the  most  abandoned  are 
constrained  to  respect  Hence  an  increase  of  genuine  Christians  is 


168 


DEBATE. 


one  of  the  greatest  national  blessings — if,  indeed,  it  be  a  truth  tha 
righteousness  exalteth  a  nation. 

But,  says  Mr.  Owen,  Where  is  the  Christian  now  living  whose 
whole  life  is  not  in  direct  contradiction  to  his  professions?  Christi¬ 
anity  certainly  is  highiv  encomiazed  in  this  challenge :  so  excellent 
that  it  condemns  in  every  point  the  best  man  living?-  By  this  appeal 
to  our  modesty,  Mr.  Owen  has  prevented  us  from  pointing  to  any  one 
present,  and  he  would  not  believe  upon  any  testimony  any  thing 
favorable  of  the  absent  living.  We  shall  then  have  to  go  to  the  dead. 
I  have,  then,  just  lately  heard  that  in  this  city  two  very  aged  Christi¬ 
ans  recently  died,  both  members  of  the  Methodist  Church,  in  whose 
house  we  now  meet.  The  one  had  been  sixty  years,  and  the  other 
forty,  professors  of  the  Christian  religion — both  of  the  most  unexcep¬ 
tionable  reputation;  living  proofs  of  the  excellency  of  the  religion 
which  they  professed,  and  .conformed  to  it  in  temper  and  behaviour. 
But  after  thus  giving  us  a  new  sort  of  “argumentum  ad  hominem or 
uad  modestiam ,”  Mr.  Owen  is  ready  to  claim  all  the  men  of  large 
souls,  of  great  minds,  as  of  his  creed,  while  we  have  not  one;  no,  not 
one  who  lives  up  to  the  Christian  religion.  I  fear  Mr.  Owen  is  in 
this  respect  of  that  jaundiced  or  distempered  eye  to  which  every 
thing  appears  discolored.  There  is  a  malady  called  hysteria ;  corpo- 
rial  and  mental  too.  Some  of  those  laboring  under  a  real  mental 
hysteria ,  cherish  their  hallucinations  until  at  last  they  imagine  that 
demonstration  itself  is  not  half  so  clear  as  their  wild  conceptions. 
In  this  state  of  mind  all  arguments  are  thrown  away.  It  is  much 
more  difficult  to  convince  a  man  whose  mind  is  in  this  morbid  state, 
than  it  is  to  convince  the  most  confirmed  hypochondriac,  that  his 
legs  are  not  made  of  glass,  or  that  there  is  not  some  other  peculiarity 
in  his  composition.  But  Mr.  Owen  will  have  all  the  sons  of  science, 
all  the  enlightened  minds  in  the  world  on  his  side  of  the  question. 
Let  him  make  out  his  list;  we  have  ours  ready;  here  it  is,  (Mr.  C. 
pointed  to  a  manuscript.) — we  are  prepared  to  shew  that  all  the 
fathers  of  modern  science,  in  fact  that  all  the  men  of  profound  eru¬ 
dition,  and  of  mighty  enterprize  are  of  the  Christian  school.  This, 
however,  is  no  argument;  but  when  Mr.  Owen  gives  his  cloud  of 
witnesses,  ours  shall  be  forthcoming. 

The  most  intelligent  persons  in  Europe,  Mr.  Owen  says,  “are 
well  aware  that  all  religious  mysteries  and  miracles  are  opposed  to 
reason,  and  therefore  abandon  them  to  men  who  discard  reason.1” 
Thus,  by  the  authority  of  these  “intelligent  men’5  Mr.  Owen  would 
rebut  all  argument  and  demonstration.  But  we  must  have  faith  in 
Mr.  Owen’s  testimony  about  these  intelligent  men;  and  hence  Mr. 
Owen  requires  us  to  exercise  faith  in  his  mere  assertion  as  the  best 
weapon  he  can  wield  against  the  Christian  faith.  I  might  tell  Mr. 
Owen  in  the  same  loose  style  that  1  believe  that  all  the  mysteries 
and  miracles,  (meaning  thereby'  the  pretended  miracles,  and  artificial 
mysteries  of  Popery)  were  all  contrary  to  reason — But  what  of  that? 
Will  my  arguing,  or  my  proving  that  certain  bank  bills  are  coun- 


DEBATE. 


109 


terfeits,  prove  that  all  bank  bills  are  counterfeits ;  and  that  there  is 
not  a  genuine  bank  note?  No:  nor  ever  was,  nor  ever  will  be! 

We  want,  moreover,  to  hear  the  names  of  some  of  these  “intelli¬ 
gent  men ;”  perhaps  they  are  the  sceptics  of  France  and  Germany, 
and  not  an  intelligent  man  among  them.  We  must  first  agree  that 
they  are  intelligent  men,  and  then  to  refer  this  discussion  to  them 
os  arbitrators  before  their  verdict  will  be  of  any  consequence.  Mr. 
Owen  may  tell  us  we  are  “insane”  “blind  as  moles”  and  that  he 
sees  like  Argus;  is  sane',  a  sage,  a  philosopher,  a  reason er,  a  lo¬ 
gician,  a  standard  of  reason;  and  with  the  powerful  artillery  of  such 
browbeating  syllogisms,  and  with  such  egotistic  demonstrations 
amongst  the  vulgum  pecus ,  the  common  mass  of  society,  who  think 
that  he  who  asserts  most  stoutly  and  arrogates  most  to  himself  is  the 
hero,  the  logician  and  the  philosopher,  he  may  obtain  faith,  con¬ 
fidence,  and  admiration.  But  the  really  intelligent  will  always 
discriminate  between  argument  and  assertion,  between  logic  and 
calumny,  between  philosophy  and  egotism. 

Were  I  to  talk  about  sanity  of  mind ,  1  would  undertake  to  prove, 
tliat  every  atheist  under  heaven  is  insane.  And  that  there  can  he 
no  greater  proof  of  insanity,  than  to  hear  a  person  say  that  there  is 
no  God.  Such  persons  may,  like  other  insane  persons,  be  rational 
upon  many  other  subjects.  But  by  all  the  arguments,  counting  them 
one  by  one,  by  which  any  person  is  proved  to  be  insane,  I  will  en¬ 
gage,  logically,  to  prove,  that  all  atheists  are  insane.  By  atheists, 
here  I  mean  those  who  oppose  the  being  and  government  of  God, 
after  having  heard  and  understood  the  terms  and  phrases  used  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  upon  this  subject. 

Mr.  Owen  puts  into  the  mouth  of  reason  certain  interrogatories, 
which,  of  course,  his  obsequious  reason  answers,  just  to  suit  him. 
This  reason  is  more  religious  than  Mr.  Owen,  for  it  acknowledges  its 
Creator;  and  unreservedly  complies  with  all  his  requisitions. — - 
“Reason  would  ask  ten  thousand  questions  of  this  nature^  says  ho, 
to  not  one  of  which  could. a  rational  answer  be  given.”  Yes,  but 
Sir  Isaac  Newton’s  reason,  and  Mr.  Owen’s  reason  are  very  different 
sorts  of  matter.  What  would  convince  the  former,  would  not  convince 
tihe  latter — and  what  would  convince  the  latter  would  appear  ridicu¬ 
lous  in  the  eyes  of  the  former.  The  secret  is  here,  my  friends, 
there  is  no  inconsistency  at  all  in  Mr.  Owen’s  system.  For,  vou 
know,  there  can  be  nothing  crooked  unless  there  be  something 
straight.  Now  Mr.  Owen  has  a  vast  advantage  over  us  Christians; 
there  is  something  straight  in  our  system  to  which  he  can  compare, 
and  by  which  he  can  measure,  and  which  will  show,  all  our  aberra¬ 
tions;  but  there  is  nothing  in  his  system  by  which  we  can  measure, 
.or  to  which  we  can  compare  any  part  of  it.  Every  thing  with  Mr. 
Owen  is  quite  straight:  if  a  child  kill  its  mother,  it  is  quite  righ' ; 
for  it  is  according'to  nature;  if  it  support  and  honor  its  mother,  it 
is  quite  right;  for  it  is  according  to  nature  or  necessity.  All  things 
are  straight;  that  is,  exactly  conformable  to  necessity.  Mr.  Owen, 
then,  has  a  system  of  straight  lines,  and  nothing  in  it  is  crocked. 

VOL.  11.  15 


170 


DEBATE. 


There  is  no  aberration  from  necessity,  and  therefore,  aii  is  straight. 
There  is  then  no  inconsistency  in  Mr.  Owen’s  scheme.  I  have  but 
one  fault  to  it ,  and  that,  is,  his  measuring  rod  is  crooked  itself,*  and 
while  he  thinks  it  is  straight,  he  must  inevitably  be  in  an  error  fo 
every  comparison  or  measurement  which  he  makes.  A  person  who 
has  a  false  standard,  who  calls  a  rule  straight  which  is  crooked ,  will 
err  in  every  measurement.  And  so  all  his  conclusions  are  false. 
If  that  be  a  straight  line  which  makes  every  thing  straight  to  which 
is  is  applied,  then  is  Mr.  Owen’s  standard  correct. 

Mr.  Owen,  this  morning,  deeply  lamented  this  weekly  preaching 
institution ;  or  rather  that  no  person  was  permitted  to  reply.  I  should 
not  care,  provided  it  did  not  disturb  the  wprship  of  a  Christian  con¬ 
gregation,  that  every  person  would  rise  up  in  the  midst  of  an  assem¬ 
bly,  and  in  good  order,  make  his  objections  to  the  Christian  religion. 
For  my  part  I  think,  if  we  had  a  few  such  gentlemen  as  Mr.  Owen,  so 
privileged  as  to  rise  in  congregations,  calmly  to  interrogate  or  to  oppose, 
it  would  tend  much  to  confirm  the  Christians,  and  to  confute  the  scep¬ 
tics,  provided  they  reason  would  as  my  friend,  Mr.  Owen,  reasons, 
Christianity,  like  its  Founder,  never  loved  darkness.  Jt  never  shun¬ 
ned  light.  But  it  would  illy  suit  the  peaceful  worship  of  Christian 
congregations  to  turn  them  into  debating  schools.  There  is  a  time 
for  every  thing.  But  I  think  aft,er  the  results  of  the  present  discussion 
n.re  appreciated  and  known,  Mr.  Owen  will  think  it  safer  for  his  cause, 
that  the  preachers  be  permitted  to  proceed  as  usual  in  their  weekly 
sermons. 

I  never  saw  the  superiority  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity  so  fully 
exhibited  as  Mr.  Owen’s  last  speech  has  evinced.  He  presumed  not 
to  attack  a  single  position  in  my  long  speech,  although  he  promised 
to  reply  to  it,  «and  come  to  ttciose  quarters ”  as  soon  as  it  should  be 
brought  to  a  close.  A  few  general  assertions,  such  as, Christianity  is 
all  foble,  and  every  way  pernicious,  constitute  the  inventory  of  the 
whole  of  tfie  magazine  of  Mr.  Owen's  logic  against  it.  This  ecclair- 
cisscment  folly  proves  Dr.  Chalmers’  position  that  there  is  nothing 
left  after  the  argument  for  Christianity  is  fairly  stated,  but  a  firm 
belief  of  it,  or  atheism. 

Mr.  Owen  has  said  that  I  have  made  my  defence  of  Christianity  to 
rest  upon  testimony,  alone,  or  that  I  have.made  Christianity  altogether 
a  matter  of  faith.  This  is  true,  but  not  as  Mr.  Owwi  represents  it. 
$  do  certainly  contend  that  Christianity  is  legitimately  predicated  up¬ 
on  historic  facts,  and  that  it  is  properly  a  matter  of  belief.  But  I  have 
done  more  than  was  necessary  to  be  done;  I  have  by  one  philosophic 
^eries  of  reasonings  shown  that  no  man  philosophically  or  rationally 
r^n  object  to  the  Christian  religion;  and  that  upon  principles  of  rea¬ 
son  lie  is  compelled  to  assent  to  the  divine  truth  of  Christianity.  I 
know  Mr.  Owen  intends  toeommunicate  an  idea  something  like  this: 
that  I  have  conceded  that  a  person  cannot  prove  Christianity  to  be  di¬ 
vine,  upon  principles  of  reason,  and  must  make  it  altogether  a  matter 
ol  belief  through  a  fatal  necessity,  and  faith  passing  for  little  else 
ffian  superstition  among  sceptics,  he  thinks  his  cause  pretty  safe  with 


DEBATE. 


171 


the  sceptics  upon  this  representation  of  mv  defence.  This  is,  then, 
not  a  correct  statement  in  the  meaning  which  he  intends  to  convey. 

[  have  shown  that  if  a  person  act  rationally,  upon  principles  of  reason, 
thev  must  assent  to  the  truth  and  certainty  of  the  Christian  religion, 
as  supernatural  and  divine.  I  have  called  the  argument  based  upon 
these  principles  a  philosophic  argument  in  the  singular  number, 
though  comprising  many  distinct  arguments,  as  the  historic  argument 
is  one.  I  must  then  call  upon  Mr.  Owen  to  admit  that  1  have  produ 
eed  one  philosophic  argument  which  he  has  not  in  one  instance  at¬ 
tempted  to  oppugn.  He  may  call  it  by  what  name  he  pleases; 
but  1  am  thoroughly  convinced  neither  he  nor  any  sceptic  on  the 
globe  can  shake  it.  1  only  have  to  regret  that  I  was  not  opposed  with 
earnestness  and  ability  on  this  topic,  because,  then,  I  would  have  il¬ 
lustrated  and  confirmed  it  more  fully.  An  attempt  to  refute  it  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Owen,  would  he  more  compatible  with  the  character  of  a 
truthdoving  philosopher,  than  to  hear  such  unfounded  assertions  ai 
that  ul  am  unprepared  to  discuss  the  evidences  of  Christianity  upon 
any  other  ground  than  that  of  testimony.” 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

Mr.  Chairman — Mr.  Campbell,  as  you  heard,  has  just  concluded, 
by  desiring  me  to  retract  my  assertion  that  I  have  not  heard  from 
him  one  philosophical  argument  in  support  of  the  Christian  religion. 
While  he  was  speaking,  I  have  again  taxed  my  memory,  and  I  can¬ 
not  recollect  one.  I  have  no  doubt,  that  he  has  adduced  many  ar¬ 
guments  which  he  deems  philosophic;  but  they  do  not  appear  so  to 
me.  My  conviction  is,  that  no  philosophic  argument,  derived  from 
facts  to  be  understood  by  man,  can  be  adduced  in  favor  of  any  re¬ 
ligion.  And  therefore,  however  acute  Mr.  Cfs  mind  may  be;  how¬ 
ever  much  h(f  may  have  read;  yet,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  subject, 
he  has  not,  and,  in  my  mind,  he  cannot,  bring  one  philosophic 
argument — one  that  is  in  accordance  with  facts — in  support  of 
Christianity,  or  any  other  religion.  I  can  only  speak  of  arguments, 
according  to  the  impressions  they  have  made  upon  my  mind. 

But  there  was  another  point  adverted  to,  which  it  seems  quite 
necessary  to  explain.  I  did  not,  in  the  remotest  degree,  mean,  by 
any  expression  which  might  have  fallen  from  me  to  impeach  Mr. 
C.’s  disinterestedness.  If  I  have  done  so,  it  would  have  been  doing 
violence  to  my  own  feelings;  because  I  know,  from  various  sources, 
that  both  Mr.  C.  and  his  father  have  sufFered  by  their  disinterested¬ 
ness  in  supporting  what  they  have  been  compelled  to  believe  to  be  a 
right  view  of  Christianity.  I  have  not  the  remotest  idea  that  Mr.  C. 
has  come  forward,  upon  this  occasion,  with  any  interested  motive. 

When  I  terminated  my  part  of  the  discussion,  this  morning,  I  was 
proceeding  to  show  in  detail  the  number  of  vices  and  crimes  which 
were  prevalent  in  Christian  society,  and  which  I  mean  to  prove 
emanate  directly  from  religion.  But  as  the  period  for  this  discussion 
will  not  be  very  much  limited,  I  shall  avoid  much  of  the  detail 
which  it  was  my  intention  to  develope,  and  shall  apply  the  remain- 


VrZ 


DEBATE. 


ing  part  of  our  time  to  effect  the  most  important  purposes/  I  was 
about  to  state  the  horrors  of  the  inquisition,  as  well  as  of  the  religious 
wars  and  massacres  of  many  centuries,  as  emanating  directly  from 
different  sects  of  different  religions.  But  I  shall  not  now  take  up 
your  time  with  matters  which  many  of  you  can  readily  bring  to  your 
3’etspUeetion,  but  proceed  to  those  which  are  more  important  in 
practice. 

As  circumstances  how  render  it  necessary  that  this  discussion 
should  be  brought  to  a  speedy  termination,  1  must  wave  all  minor 
points,  and  give  you  as  much  of  the  essence  of  the  subject  as  time 
will  permit,  and  come  at  once  into  the  midst  of  it. 

Air.  C.,  by  his  defence  and  manner  of  reasoning,  shows  that  his 
mind  has  been  formed  altogether  upon  the  notion  that  man  is  born 
with  a  will  to  think  and  to  act,  free  as  he  chooses,  upon  all  occasions, 
or  that  he  possesses  a  free  will, — and  that  he  is  responsible  for  his 
thoughts  and  actions.  All  Christendom,  and  all  the  world,  have 
J>cen  trained,  educated  and  confirmed  in  these  notions,  and  in  the 
practice  which  they  necessarily  engender.  The  Christian,  and  all 
other  religions,  are  founded  on  these  notions.  It  was  these  notions-, 
alone,  that  made  any  religion  necessary.  They  become  necessary, 
as  artificial  means  to  check  the  enormous  evils  that  the  notions  of 
man’s  free  will  and  free  agency  wore  sure  to  produce  in  practice. 
But  they  have  proved  themselves  incompetent  to  the  task;  and  like 
every  other  attempt  to  counteract  nature,  they  greatly  increase  the 
evil,  and  become,  themselves,  more  injurious  than  the  evil  which 
they  were  introduced  to  check.  In  fact,  upon  the  theory  of  free  will 
and  action  in  man,  are  founded  not  only  all  the  religions  of  the  earth, 
but  all  the  governments,  codes  of  laws,  and  customs,  with  all  phra¬ 
seology  of  all  languages,  creating  thereby  feelings,  thoughts  and 
actions  of  a  peculiar  cast,  derived  immediately  from  this  origin, 
which  extend  their  ramifications  through  every  portion  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  and  through  society,  wherever  man  has  yet  been  found. 

It  is,  however,  as  we  have  proved  by  the  twelve  fundamental  laws 
of  human  nature,  an  error  more  obvious,  upon  reflection,  than  the 
one  universally  received  by  all  our  ancestors,  that  the  sun  moved 
round  the  earth.  Both  errors  were  derived  from  the  first  impressions 
< Jf  our  senses;  but  facts,  subsequently  acquired,  demonstrate  both 
impressions  to  be  contrary  to  reason. 

\Ve  see,  then,  that  the  notion  of  free  will  and  action  has  given 
birth  to  all  the  religions,  governments,  laws,  phraseology,  customs 
and  practices  of  mankind;  and  that  it  has,  through  these  agencies, 
fanned  the  mind  and  character  of  the  whole  human  race.  The 
existing  ignorance,  poverty,  vice  and  suffering  of  mankind  are  all 
directly  chargeable  upon  the  errors  of  free  will  doctrines,  acting 
through  these  mighty  agencies. 

It  is  the  extraordinary  deceptions  produced  on  human  nature,  by 
being  subjected,  every  moment  of  its  existence,  to  the  influences  of 
this  doctrine,  that  compel  the  most  enlightened  men  of  the  age  to 
acknowledge  the  impossibility  of  denying  the  truth  of  all  the  grind- 


Debate. 


173 


pies  on  which  the  doctrines  of  the  formation  of  character  are  predi¬ 
cated;  and  yet  to  say,  that  they  are,  at  the  same  time,  conscious 
that  they  must  be  governed,  in  their  feelings,  thoughts  and  actions, 
by  their  pre-received  notions  of  freewill.  They  cannot,  of  them¬ 
selves,  so  thoroughly  have  they  been  imbued,  through  religion, 
government,  laws,  language  and  practice,  with  all  the  physical  and 
mental  influences  arising  from  the  notions  of  free  will,  ever  after¬ 
wards  divest  themselves  of  the  feelings  and  habits  which  they 
generate.  It  is  this  which  makes  these  men  say,  Our  judgments 
are  convinced;  but  in  spite  of  ourselves,  the  feelings,  which  have  by 
some  means  or  other  been  formed  within  us,  are  opposed  to  our  judg¬ 
ments.  We  are,  therefore,  constrained  to  think  one  way,  and  to  act 
another — to  act  contrary  to  our  judgments. 

. s  Now,  my  friends,  this  doctrine,  the  origin  of  all  religions, 
governments,  laws,  institutions  and  practices,  carries  with  it  sin 
and  misery,  through  the  whole  extent  of  its  ramifications.  It  is 
destructive  of  sincerity,  of  affection,  of  confidence,  of  charity,  and 
of  permanent  prosperity  and  happiness,  among  the  whole  family  of 
mankind.  It  is  the  direct  cause,  operating  through  these  influences, 
that  generates  anger,  irritation,  and  all  the  inferior  passions  and 
jealousies  which  are  now  so  prevalent  in  human  society.  And  until 
its  influences  shall  he  withdrawn,  the  world  will  be  filled,  as 
heretofore,  with  contention  and  strife,  and  all  evil,  and  peace  and 
good  will  can  never  enter  among  the  habitations  of  men, — and  that 
charity  which  thinketh  no  ill,  will  be,  as  at  present,  unknown  except 
in  name. 

Instead  of  this  doctrine,  which  directly  emanates  from  the  igno¬ 
rance  and  experience  of  the  least  experienced,  and  therefore  the  most 
ignorant,  I  place  before  you  the  laws  of  human  life, — the  same  w  hich 
existed  from  the  beginning,  as  they  are  tc-day,  and  as  I  believe 
they  will  be  for  ever. 

They  are  laws  which  require  not  to  persuade  you  to  consent  to 
act  in  obedience  to  them.  Knowing  them — understanding  them  in 
all  their  connexions  one  with  another,  they  will  make  so  much  real 
knowledge  present  to  your  mind,  upon  all  occasions,  that  you  will 
be  compelled  to  act  in  obedience  to  their  dictates,  and  you  will 
always  act  right. 

These  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature,  or  laws  of  Ine, 
are  the  only  foundation  for  real  virtue  that  man  can  discover. 

They  are  complete  in  themselves,  and  need  no  aid  from  any 
doubtful  authority.  They  are  divine  decrees,  if  ever  decrees  were 
divine;  and  they  have  now  gone  forth  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth.  They  will,  my  friends,  produce  in  due  time,  “Peace  on 
earth,  and  good  will  to  man.” 

[ Here  Mr.  Owen  held  up  a  copy  of  the  twelve  laws ,  which  had  just 
come  from  the  printer .] 

If  you  could  remember  all  I  stated  to  you  in  the  early  part  of  this 
discussion,  it  would  be  unnecessary  for  me  to  rise  again,  or  say  one 
word  more.  But  aware,  as  I  am,  that  the  subject  is  new  to  many : 

VOL.  11.  15* 


m 


DEBATE 


th  it  very  few,  if  any,  can  retain  the  remembrance  of  conclusions, 
which  are  the  condensed  results  of  forty  years  reading,  reflection  and 
experience;  1  will  endeavour  to  make  these  fundamental  laws  still 
more  easy  to  be  understood. 

Mr.  C.  says,  and  I  know  he  believes  it,  that  I  have  not  brought 
forward  one  argument  against  the  Christian  religion.  I  Want  no 

C?  c5  O 

other  proof,  that  Mr.  C.  has  looked  at  this  casket,  and  seen  only  his 
own  ideas  reflected  in  it,  being  altogether  unable  to  discover  the 
spring  and  to  open  it. 

Mr.  O,  says  I  have  advanced  no  argument  to  prove  that  religions 
nr©  founded  in  ignorance.  Here  are  twelve  arguments,  each  one 
of  which,  when  it  shall  be  understood,  is  more  than  sufficient  to  lay 
the  axe  to  the  root  of  every  religion,  and  of  all  the  codes  of  law,  that 
ever  emanated  from  them.  They  do  not  send  you  to  the  dark  ages, 
to  look  for  authority  that  deserves  the  consideration  of  the  better 
informed  mind  of  the  present  day.  These  laws  speak  intelligibly 
to  the  understanding  of  all  who  have  been  trained  to  think  and 
reflect..  When  these  shall  be  understood,  and  taught  to  the  rising 
generation,  we  need  not  telL  them  that  they  must  be  good  boys  and 
girls,  or, men  and  women;  for  they  cannot  possibly  be  otherwise. 

They  will  be  compelled  by  the  strongest  of  all  possible  motives,  a 
clear  and  distinct  knowledge  of  their  own  interests  and  happiness, 
to  act,  at  all  times  and  upon  all  occasions,  according  to  the  perfect 
law  of  obedience — according  to  that  law,  which  they  must  perceive 
and  feel  will  secure  their  happiness. 

It  is,  my  friends,  the  full  understanding  of  the  twelve  laws  con¬ 
tained  in  so  small  a  compass,  that  can  alone  make  you,  and  your 
children,  and  your  children’s  children,  through  innumerable  genera¬ 
tions,  potters  of  the  very  highest  class,  in  the  formation  of  the 
characters  of  your  descendants.  You  will,  hence  discover  how  to 
mould  human  nature  in  a  mariner  so  superior  to  what  has  yet  been 
done,  as  to  become  more  perfect  than  the  population  of  the  world,  in 
its  present  ignorant  state,  is  prepared  to  suppose  practicable. 

You  will  know  how  to  impress  the  minds  of  all  your  descendants 
with  that  pure  charity  of  which  I  have  spoken — that  charity  which 
thinketh  no  evil. 

We  shall  have  our  minds  so  purged  from  all  those  inferior  passions, 
jealousies  and  feelings  which  now  distract  the  world,  that  we  shall 
go  straight  forward  to  our  object,  seeing  most  distinctly  what  it  is 
'v©  all  have  to  do.  We  shall  then  know  how  to  form  the  most  per¬ 
fect  mould,  and  to  put  the  clay  properly  within  if,  and  to  finish  it 
in  the  best  manner.  And  will  not  this  be  an  acquisition  of  great 
value? 

A  knowledge,  however,  of  these  laws,  will  not  only  lay  the  foun¬ 
dation  for  this  charity  in  the  hearts  of  all,  but  it  will  speedily  enable 
ms  to  discover  the  beauty  of  an  intelligent  existence  in  unison  with 
all  nature,  when  contrasted  with  the  glare  and  fashion  of  an  artificial 
life.  We  shall  then  not  contest  with  each,  other  who  shall  have  the 


il 


‘i 


1 


DEBATE, 


175 


largest  and  most  splendid  house,  the  richest  clothing,  or  the  greatest 
-variety  of  useless  trappings  of  any  kind. 

We  shall  understand  wherein  the  real,  substantia],  tangible  hap-' 
piness  of  life  consists.  We  shall  know  that  a  nation  trained  in 
simplicity  of  manners — taught  to  acquire  high  intelligence,  with 
regard  to"  what  constitutes  real  knowledge,  and  to  possess  the  most 
charitable  feelings  toward  the  whole  human  race,  will  form  that 
combination  of  circumstances,  from  which  alone  any  thing  that  de¬ 
serves  the  name  of  happiness  can  be  looked  for. 

Shall  I  now,  in  detail,  unlock  the  casket  for  you  ?  Snail  I  again 
go  through  the  twelve  laws,  and  enable  you  how  to  understand  how 
each  sentence  applies  directly  to  the  subject  of  this  discussion? 
There  is  not  one  sentence,  or  clause  of  a  sentence,  that  does  not  ap¬ 
ply  to  the  questions  intended  to  be  solved  at  this  meeting. 

What. does  the  casket  disclose  to  us  at  its  commencement  ?  “That 
man,  at  birth,  is  ignorant  of  every  thing  relative  to  his  organiza¬ 
tion.”  And  if  this  be  true — and  who  doubts  it? — surely  for  that 
organization,  and  its  qualities,  no  individual  can  be  justly  made  re¬ 
sponsible.  I  ask  Mr.  C.,  and  all  who  are  present,  whether  any  other 
conclusion  can  be  adduced  from  this  important  fact?  Whether  any 
other  conclusion  would  be  rational?  What,  then,  becomes  of  the 
imaginary  notion,  taught  to  our  ancestors  and  to  ourselves,  that  we 
are  bad  fey  nature?  My  friends,  to  say  that  man  is  culpably  bad  by 
nature,  is  an  assertion  not  less  untrue  and  absurd,  than  if  I  were  to 
say  that  the  sun  is  culpably  bad  by  nature;  for  both  have  their  origin 
from  the  same  Cause,  whatever  that  Cause  may  be.  And  that  we 
are  ignorant,  at  birth,  of  every  thing  relative  to  our  organization,  is 
an  eternal  truth,  depending  solely  upon  facts  obvious  to  every  one, — 
a  iaw  which  came  with  us  into  existence,  and  which  will  remain 
until  man  shall  cease  to  exist.  It  is  no  law  of  man’s  devising;  but 
a  law  emanating  from  the  same  Eternal  Source  from  whence  all 
facts  proceed. 

The  casket  tells  you,  moreover  on  its  first  opening,  that  man  has* 
not  been  permitted  to  create  the  slightest  part  of  any  of  his  na  tural 
propensities,  faculties  or  qualities,  physical  or  mental.  And  do  you 
not  know,  ray  friends,  that  the  infant,  at  birth,  is  the  foundation  of 
the  man?  Some  will  say  that  the  infant,  the  original  organization, 
at  birth,  is  the  whole  man;  that  he  only  requires  time  to  grow;  and 
that  what  he  is  at  birth,  he  will  be  till  death.  I  know  the  contrary. 
I  know  that  it  forms  the  foundation,  but  only  the  foundation,  of 
the  character  of  man.  But  I  also  know,  if  any  unchangeable 
foundation  be  laid  for  a  house,  that  whatever  superstructure  may  be 
subsequently  raised  upon  it,  the  foundation  itself  ought  not  to  be 
blamed  for  any  imperfection  it  may  possess,  butthe  architect.  And, 
my  friends,  although  I  do  not  agree  with  those  philosophers,  who 
take  but  a  partial  view  of  human  nature,  and  Who  do  not  investigate 
y  11  the  facts  for  themselves,  being  content  to  receive  them  from  others, 
and  conclude  that  man  is  wholly  formed  by  his  education ;  1  do  not 
»gree  with  those  other  philosophers,  who  hold  that  the  organization. 


DEBATE 


m 

at  birth,  is  every  thing,  and  that  education,  or  the  circumstances 
in  which  it  is  placed,  is  a  mere  covering  and  deceptious  garb,  in  the 
character  of  man.  This  organization  is  unquestionably  a  very  im¬ 
portant  part  of  our  nature ;  and  if  we  are  to  be  made  responsible  for 
it,  we  ought  to  have  had  the  forming  of  all  its  minute  and  general 
qualities  for  ourselves.  It  is  surely  irrational  for  any  one  to  assert, 
that  after  we  have  been  compelled  to  receive  our  organization,  which 
is  the  foundation  and  contains  the  germ  of  all  our  faculties,  we 
should  be  held  responsible  for  it.  This  is  a  notion  wholly  irrecon- 
cileable  to  common  sense,  and  it  is  also  exceedingly  unfavorable  to 
the  formation  of  a  superior  character  by  a  right  education;  for  it 
destroys  all  correct  ideas  upon  the  subject.  There  never  can  be  any 
virtue  in  the  world,  so  long  as  this  error  respecting  the  nature  of  man 
shall  continue — so  long  as  men  are  made  to  believe  that  they  ought  to 
be  held  responsible  for  that  over  which  they  have  no  control.  If  we 
really  desire  to  improve  man,  and  to  form  a  virtuous,  intelligent  and 
happy  state  of  society,  we  must  make  haste  to  discard  notions  so 
directly  opposed  to  common  sense. 

My  friends,  this  first  law  gives  us  a  distinct  knowledge  of  what 
we  are,  when  we  first  come  into  the  world.  Here  we  are  ushered 
into  existence,  utterly  unconscious  of  any  thing  appertaining  to  our¬ 
selves.  Then  what  follows?  how  is  the  remainder  of  our  character 
made  up?  Let  us  see. 

I  request  your  best  attention  to  this  part  of  the  subject,  for  all  our 
subsequent  reasoning  will  be  erected  on  this  foundation;  fur  this  is 
not  the  wordy  wandering  you  have  been  accustomed  to  hear,  week 
after  week,  during  your  lives,  and  to  which  you  may  listen,  or  not* 
and  be  as  wise  in  the  former  case  as  the  latter.  No,  this  part  of  our 
subject  is  fraught  with  consequences  of  deep  import  to  every  human 
being.  Every  word  of  it,  when  understood,  will  be  found  invaluable 
for  future  practice. 

The  second  lav/  is,  “That  no  two  infants,  at  birth,  have  yet  been 
known  to  possess  precisely  the  same  organization;  while  the  physi¬ 
cal,  mental  and  moral  differences  between  all  infants  are  formed 
without  their  knowledge  or  will.” 

No  two  infants  have  ever  been  known  to  be  alike.  This  is  a  most 
important  conclusion.  It  lays  the  foundation  for  virtues  in  the 
human  character,  which  no  other  knowledge  can  ever  form,  or  make 
permanent  and  ever  active.  It  is  the  only  knowledge  on  which  genu¬ 
ine  charity  can  be  formed  to  apply  to  every  individual  of  the  human 
race,  and  it  is  abundant  to  effect  this  object.  A  knowledge  of  this 
single  fact,  when  rightly  understood,  will  so  form  our  minds,  as  to 
compel  us  to  be  charitable  to  all  mankind  without  any  exception. 

[Here  Mr.  Campbell  rose  and  remarked  that  lie  would  beg  leave  to 
’  suggest  that  these  laws  should  not  be  commented  on  more  than  eleven 
times .] 

Mr.  Owen  resumed — I  find  the  expounding  of  these  laws,  and 
bringing  them  to  bear  on  the  practical  conduct  of  mankind,  is  more 
than  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  can  bear.  Well !  you  see,  my  friends, 


DEBATE. 


177 


this  second  law  is  quite  sufficient  to  overset  all  the  arguments  of  my 
friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  and  it  is  evident  he  begins  to  feel  its  extensive 
influence. 

Assuredly,  if  no  two  infants  are  born  alike,  but  receive  from  that 
Power  which  gives  them  existence,  qualities  which  differ  in  their 
strength  and  combinations,  there  ought  to  be,  in  justice  to  these  in¬ 
dividuals,  if  they  are  to  be  considered  responsible  beings,  a  different 
religion  for  every  child  that  is  born.  Is  not  this  true?  If  they  are 
organized  differentlv,  can  we  with  one  atom  of  rationalitv  render  them 
amenable  to  the  same  laws.  I  do  say,  that  to  act  justly  by  the  hu¬ 
man  race,  if  a  religion  be  necessary  for  any  one  individual,  a  differ* 
ent  religion  is  equally  necessary  for  every  other  individual  of  the 
human  family;  and  that  these  religions  must  necessarily  be  as  vari¬ 
ous,  and  as  multiform,  as  are  the  individual  organizations  of  our 
species;  and,  also,  that  these  countless  religions  should  be  so  modified, 
as  to  adapt  themselves  precisely  to  the  strength  or  weakness  of  the 
faculties  with  which  each  individual  has  been  endowed. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  could  touch  Mr.  Campbell  again  and  again  with 
these  simple,  plain  facts;  but  they  are  so  decisive  of  the  great  ques¬ 
tions  before  us,  that  I  am  afraid  of  exhausting  his  patience  and  good 
feelings.  I  will  take  compassion  oh  him,  therefore,  and  proceed  to 
the  third  law.  It  is,  “That  each  individual,  is  placed,  at  birth, 
without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  within  circumstances,  which  act¬ 
ing  upon  his  peculiar  organization,  impress  the  general  character  of 
those  circumstances  upon  the  infant,  child  or  man.  Yet  that  the 
influence  of  those  circumstances  is,  to  a  certain  degree,  modified  by 
the  peculiar  organization  of  each  individual.” 

Now  we  come  to  another  part  of  the  subject,  which  is  most 
interesting  to  all,  and  which  has  not  been  explained  sufficiently  to 
give  those  unacquainted  with  these  facts  in  the  formation  of  the 
human  character,  a  right  understanding  of  its  importance  in  the 
every  day  practice  of  life. 

It  is  not  only  that  all  infants  are  made,  by  the  constitution  of  their 
respective  natures,  to  differ  from  each  other,  and  probably  to  differ 
in  ev^ry  one  of  their  senses,  as  well  as  in  their  general  organization; 
but  that  these  infants,  after  their  birth,  are  placed  in  circumstance^ 
so  different,  that  their  characters  must  be  often  formed  on  models 
having  little  or  no  resemblance  to  each  other,— -frequently,  indeed, 
the  very  opposite.  For  as  there  are  no  two  infants  born  alike, 
neither  is  it  in  the  power  of  man  to  place  two  infants  under  the  same 
identical  circumstances,  even  when  they  appear  to  be  the  most  alike. 
And,  therefore,  my  friends,  you  not  only  require  a  different  religion 
for  every  individual,  in  consequence  of  their  organic  difference  at 
birth,  but  you  also  require  a  separate  and  distinct  religion  for  each, 
according  to  the  various  kinds  of  circumstances  or  temptations  in 
which  each  of  these  individuals  may  be  placed,  from  their  birth  to 
death. 

My  friends,  there  never  were  two  infants,  who  for  one  day,  el¬ 
even  for  an  hour,  have  been  placed  under  precisely  the  same  circum- 


m 


Df)BAT£ 


stances.  Now  only  look  at  the  cruelty  and  injustice,  in  this  respect; 
of  the  doctrines  of  rewards  and  pbuishments  m  all  religions.  A 
moment’s  reflection  will  convince  any  intelligent  mind,  that  no  two 
can  be  placed  under  the  same  circumstances,  after  birth.  To  be  so 
placed,  they  must  be  born  at  the  same  moment — open  their  eyes  and 
see  the  light  precisely  the  same  direction;  whatever  impressions 
are  made  upon  the  one,  must  be  made  upon  the  other,  and  in  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  order  and  sequence  of  strength.  Now  this  is  utterly 
impracticable.  And,  therefore,  the  notion  that  any  human  being  is 
the  legitimate  object  of  reward  or  punishment,  on  account  of  the 
circumstances  in  which  he  ha3  been  placed  without  his  control, 
knowledge,  or  consent,  is  an  error  only  to  be  accounted  for  from  the" 
irrational  impressions  made  upon  us  by  our  ancestors,  relative  to  the 
real  character  of  human  nature. 

We  well  know,  from  the  general  history  of  the  world,  that  when 
irnfants  are  born,  they  must  become  men  according  to  the  country 
and  district  in  which  they  are  reared ;  that  they  must  be  influenced 
by  the  circumstances  existing  in  that  particular  country  or  dis¬ 
trict.  They  cannot  be  influenced  by  that  which  they  do  not  know 
and  cannot  feel.  Therefore,  as  infants  and  children  have  no  power 
whatever  to  direct  or  control  these  circumstances,  no  religion  can  be 
made  to  apply  to  them  without  the  greatest  injustice.  And  as  it  is 
demonstrated  that  children  and  men  are  the  effects  of  their  organ¬ 
ization  and  external  circumstances;  that  these  combined  operations 
form  them  to  be  whatever  they  are,  at  every  moment  of  their  time; 
no  religion  can  be  a 
formed. 

It  is  from  this  view  of  the  subject,  that  I  have  said,  again  and  again^ 
that  it  is  most  irrational  to  treat  children  or  men  in  the  manner  in 
which  we  have  heretofore  done,  and  to  consider  them  responsible,  as 
the  cause  of  their  own  characters, — when,  from  their  nature,  they 
have  been,  and  must  continue  to  be,  the  effects  of  combined  causes 
over  which  they  have  had  no  control. 

But,  my  friends,  although  it  were  possible  to  impress  children 
with  precisely  the  same  circumstance,  at  and  from  their  birth,  the 
variety  of  their  original  organization  would  make  a  material  and  very 
Important  difference.  For  the  circumstances  operating  upon  and 
influencing  the  mind  of  one  child,  would  create  a  very  different  im¬ 
pression  from  those  made  upon  another;  and  yet  the  child  itself  is  in 
no  degree  the  cause  of  this  diiference.  And  therefore,  again,  none 
of  the  religions  of  the  world  can  apply  with  justice  to  a  being  so 
formed  and  matured. 

Well,  let  us  look  at  the  next  argument  against  all  religions,  con¬ 
tained  in  the  fourth  law.  I  stated  to  you,  that  “no  infant  has  the 
power  of  deciding  at  what  period  of  time,  or  in  what  part  of  the 
world  it  shall  come  into  existence,  of  whom  it  shall  be  born,  in  what 
particular  religion  it  shall  be  trained  to  believe,  or  by  what  other 
circumstances,  it  shall  be  surrounded  from  birth  to  death,” 

Now,  ihy  frie$d3?  1  wish  you  to  remark,  as  I  proceed,  that  each  of 


ppiicable  to  beings  whose  characters  are  so 


DEBATE. 


m 

these  laws,  by  itself,  even  taken  separately  and  distinctly  from  their 
natural  and  necessary  connexion  and  dependence  one  upon  the  other, 
is  much  more  than  sufficient  to  refute  all  my  friend’s  fallacies. 

This  fourth  law  is  so  full  of  matter  and  meaning,  that  to  do  it  ample 
justice,  and  direct  your  attention  fully  to  all  its  important  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  considerations,  many  days  would  be  necessa¬ 
ry,  instead  of  the  hour  or  two  now  left  for  me  to  explain  many  other 
parts  of  the  subject  equally  important.  But  as  the  discussion,  at 
the  request  of  the  moderators,  must  terminate  to  night,  and  the 
.evening  is  rapidly  advancing  upon  us,  I  will  endeavor,  before  it 
becomes  dark,  to  place  before  you  as  many  facts  as  will  hereafter 
beneficially  occupy  your  minds  for  reflection;  and  refer  to  the  early 
part  of  my  statement  for  a  more  full  explanation  of  this  law,  and 
hasten  to  elucidate  some  of  the  remaining. 

The  next  in  order  is  the  fifth  law,  viz.  “That  each  individual  is  so 
created,  that,  when  young,  he  may, be  made  to  receive  impressions 
to  produce  either  true  ideas  or  false  notions,  and  beneficial  or  injuri¬ 
ous  habits,  and  to  retain  them  with  great  tenacity.” 

My  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  is  a  most  striking  living  example  of  the 
overwhelming  influence  of  this  law  of  our  nature.  He  has  been 
organized  as  we  behold  him;  for  which  he  has  neither  merit  nor 
demerit.  He  was  afterwards  trained  and  educated  in  a  particular 
part  of  Europe,  and  subsequently  in  this  country,  and  placed  under 
circumstances  by  which  he  has  been  forced  to  believe  in  his  particu¬ 
lar  views  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  by  which  we  all  perceive  lie 
is  now  influenced.  He  has  been  thus  influenced  to  his  peculiar  con¬ 
duct  by  the  same  general  laws  of  our  nature,  that  have  compelled  me 
to  act  as  I  have  done,  and  which  govern  the  birth,  life,  and  death  of 
every  being  that  has  yet  been  born. 

You  see,  then,  my  friends,  that,  through  this  law  of  our  nature-, 
we  may  force  any  child  to  become  a  Mahometan,  a  Christian,  or  an 
idolater,  a  Jew,  a  Quaker,  or  a  cannibal.  Xfie  child  is  a  perfectly 
passive  piece  of  clay,  to  be  moulded  by  those  around  him  into  any 
shape  they  please.  And  then  the  greater  or  less  tenacity  with  which 
the  ideas  given  to  it  will  be  retained,  depends  upon  a  great  many 
circumstances,  as  much  beyond  the  individual’s  control,  as  was  his 
original  organization. 

This  is  that  law  of  pur  nature,  which,  when  thoroughly  understood, 
will  enable  you  to  become  potters,  to  enable  you,  through  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  it,  to  place  your  children  in  any  mould,  more  or  less 
perfect,  according  as  you  may  have  been  better  or  worse  informed 
upon  the  subject,  or  more  or  less  expert  in  the  practice.  None  of 
the  religious  in  the  world,  however,  can  be  applicable  to  a  being* 
whose  character  is  thus  formed  necessarily  by  his  nature  and  condi¬ 
tion  in  life. 

The  sixth  law  states,  that  <ceach  individual  is  so  created,  that, 
when  young,  he  must  believe  according  to  the  strongest  conviction 
that  is  made  on  his  mind  and  other  faculties;  while  his  belief  in  r^o. 
case  depends  upon  his  will.?* 


ISO 


DEBATE. 


I 

In  commenting  on  this  sixth  law,  Mr.  Campbell  entangles  himself 
and  his  audience  in  the  mazes  of  metaphysical  disquisition.  I  saw  at 
once,  that  his  notions  regarding  this  law  were  confused  by  the 
notions  early  forced  into  his  mind,  relative  to  free  will  and  action  in 
man;  and  became,  therefore,  merely  metaphysical.  But  this  law 
promulgates  facts  which  are  either  true  or  false.  Now,  it  is  a  fact, 
that  man  can  believe  according  to  his  will,  or  that  he  cannot.  Now, 
let  all  of  you  endeavor  to  recollect  something  which  you  believe; 
and  then  try  if  you  have  power  sufficient  over  your  will  to  disbelieve 
it,  even  for  a  few  minutes.  Why,  my  friends,  it  is  contrary  to  this 
law  of  our  nature,  which  cannot  be  made  to  change  its  character  at 
the  bidding  of  any  individual,  however  learned.  I  perceive  you  dis¬ 
cover,  that  by  your  utmost  efforts  you  cannot  accomplish  it.  You 
might,  indeed,  as  well  attempt,  by  the  bare  exercise  of  your  volition, 
to  bring  down  the  sun  from  the  firmament,  as  to  disbelieve  what  you 
have  been  compelled  to  believe,  until  a  more  powerful  conviction 
shall  be  made  upon  your  minds.  Try  again,  then,  and  see  if  you 
can  believe,  for  ever  so  short  a  period,  what  former  convictions  now 
compel  you  to  disbelieve.  You  find  the  one  as  impracticable  as  the 
other. 

The  same  irresistible  law  of  your  nature  governs  and  controls  you 
in  your  disbelief  as  well  as  your  belief.  We  have  no  metaphysics 
here;  we  discard  them  as  useless  for  the  real  happiness  of  life,  and 
unworthy  a  discussion  of  this  character;  for  we  ought  to  proceed  en¬ 
tirely  upon  those  facts  which  all  can  examine  for  themselves,  and 
which  change  not — facts  which  can  be  investigated  with  all  their  at¬ 
tendant  circumstances,  at  all  times,  by  all  men,  who  desire  to  acquire 
a  Knowledge  of  the  truth  for  the  love  of  truth. 

From  a  hint  I  have  just  received  from  my  friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  l 
perceive  he  is  again  becoming  very  impatient  under  this  obvious  ex¬ 
position  of  a  few  plain  facts;  so  plain  indeed,  and  so  essential  for 
present  purposes,  that  he  feels  no  reply,  but  a  metaphysical  one,  can 
be  made  to  them. 

I  did  not  promise,  as  Mr.  Campbell  appears  to  suppose,  that  I  would 
conclude  in  an  hour;  but  I  stated  to  Mr.  Campbell  that  I  was  willing 
to  rest  all  the  points  in  controversy  between  us  upon  this  single  posi¬ 
tion,  as  upon  it  the  whole  controversy  depended :  Is  there  an  exception 
to  be  found,  throughout  the  whole  human  family,  to  the  universal  ap¬ 
plication  of  this  law?  Is  there  a  single  individual  who,  by  the  fiat  of 
his  own  will,  can  believe  or  disbelieve  contrary  to  previous  conviction 
made  upon  his  mind? 

But,  my  friends,  we  have  all  been  trained  from  infancy  in  the  op 
posite  notions.  Mr.  Campbell  has  been  trained  in  them — and  it  is 
therefore  no  wqjider  that  all  our  minds  have  been  forced  to  become 
irrational. 

The  notion  that  our  will  has  power  over  our  belief  or.  disbelief,  is 
the  principal  source  from  which  emanate  the  mistaken  notions,  the  in¬ 
jurious  feelings,  the  malignant  passions,  the  want  o' 
and  the  vicious  conduct  of  men.  This  subject,  my 


universal  charity, 
friends*  to  bn  fully 


DEBATE. 


181 


developed,  so  as  to  make  a  proper  impression  upon  your  minds,  would 
also  take  many  days  to  elucidate  and  trace  to  all  its  important  prac¬ 
tical  results.  It  is  this  kind  of  knowledge,  deeply  affecting  the  well 
being  of  each,  and  the  happiness  of  all,  that  this  little  casket  contains. 
It  is  true,  this  knowledge,  valuable  as  it  is,  has  laid  buried  for  several 
thousand  years,  and  no  one  suspected  its  intrinsic  practical  worth,  to 
induce  a  sufficient  search  for  its  discovery.  It  has  been  covered  with 
so  much  rubbish,  that  it  required  forty  years  daily  exertion  before  I 
could  discover  it  and  make  it  sufficiently  known  and  attractive  to  draw 
public  attention  to  its  real  merits.  The  question  1  have  put  to  you, 
taken  out  of  this  casket,  and  which  no  one  can  answer,  is  decisive  of 
the  result  of  the  whole  debate;  of  the  futility  and  uselessness  of  ail  re¬ 
ligions,  and  whether  or  not  they  are  derived  from  any  other  source 
than  the  ignorance  of  mankind. 

Mr.  Campbell  rose  and  said — The  stipulation  was,  that  Mr. 
Owen,  was  to  speak  for  one  hour,  and  that  I  should  have  the  conclu¬ 
sion. 

Mr.  Owen  rose — I  did  not  understand  that  I  was  to  be  tied  down  to 
an  hour  in  making  my  reply.  Mr.  Campbell  has  spoken  through¬ 
out  this  debate  nearly  twice  as  long  as  I  have  done,  and  now  he  feels 
that - 7 — 

The  Hon.  Chairman  said — You  have  spoken  longer  than  Mr. 
Campbell  did  the  last  time  he  was  up. 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. — 

Mr.  Chairman — Mr.  Owen  has  no  good  reason  to  complain  of  the 
time  fixed  for  bringing  this  discussion  to  a  close.  He  first  suggested 
the  idea  that  two  hours  would  be  sufficient  for  his  reply  to  rny  long 
speech.  He  seems  now  to  act  with  a  little  of  that  art  of  which  I  did 
not  think  him  capable.  And  what  new  matter  has  he  nowr  to  offer? 
Since  opening  his  casket  nothing  has  appeared  but  the  same  old  twelve 
positions,  facts,  or  laws,  as  you  please  to  call  them.  If  he  have  any 
thing  new  to  offer,  why  does  he  not  now  offer  it.  True,  indeed,  I 
ought  to  except  the  abusive  document,  which  he  read  this  morning; 
and  some  remarks  made  upon  the  Mahometan  religion.  This  latter 
I  neglected,  or  forgot,  to  notice  in  my  last  speech.  The  establish¬ 
ment  and  progress  of  this  religion,  all  the  world  knows.  No  greater 
contrast  can  he  found  in  any  book  upon  any  subject  than  the  contrast 
between  the  establishment  and  progress  of  Mahometanism  and  Chris¬ 
tianity.  The  ruffian  exploits  of  a  crew  of  pirates,  or  a  banditti  of 
highwaymen,  might  as  justly  be  contrasted  with  the  peaceful  march 
of  a  missionary  family,  or  of  the  almoners  of  a  Christian  community, 
in  distributing  their  charities  among  a  suffering  population,  as  to  com¬ 
pare  the  lustful,  vengeful,  avaricious  exploits  of  Mahomet  and  the 
Koran,  with  Jesus  the  Messiah,  and  his  apostles.  While  the  language 
of  the  Christian  teachers,  was,  “Glory  to  God  in  the  highest— peace 
on  earth,  and  good  will  among  men;”- — that  of  the  marauding  fa  1st) 
prophet,  was,  “Bogs,  you  know  your  option,  the  Koran,  tribute,  or  the 
sword Here  lies  the  volume.  [Mr.  Campbell  pointing  to  the  Koran  d, 
YOL.  41,  16 


182 


debate; 


Here  is  the  Mahometan  Bible.  I  have  examined  it  with  at  least  a# 
much  care,  as  most  sceptics  do  the  Bible;  and  while  it  admits  the  mis¬ 
sion  of  Moses,  Jesus,  and  the  apostles,  and  then  directly  proves  the 
truth  of  Christianity,  as  the  institution  of  Jesus  Christ,  its  doctrines, 
and,  as  far  as  they  have  a  supernatural  idea  in  them,  are  evidently 
stolen  from  the  two  testaments,  as  is  the  English  word  'philanthropy 
from  the  Greek  philanthropia. 

But  the  Koran  proves  the  divine  authorship  of  the  NeW  Testament 
as  clearly  as  ever  did  accomplishment  prove  the  truth  of  prophecy ; 
for  in  the  seven  letters  addressed  by  Jesus  Christ  to  the  seven  con¬ 
gregations  in  Asia,  written  by  John  while  in  Patmos,  the  setting  of 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  or  the  extinguishment  of  the  light  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  in  that  country,  is  threatened  as  consequent  upon  the  progres¬ 
sion  of  the  dereliction  of  Christian  principle  and  practice  then  appear¬ 
ing  among  the  dissolute  Asiatics.  All  the  world,  Jewish,  Christian, 
and  sceptical,  know  that  the  Mahometan  superstition  is  a  vile  imposi- 
tion,  and  notin  any  one  feature  comparable  to  Christianity.  Counter 
testimony,  and  every  sort  of  testimony,  can  be  adduced  against  the 
pretensions  of  the  Koran;  and  both  literally -and  symbolically  is  the 
rise  and  progress  of  the  imposture  portrayed  in  the  Apocalypse. 

Mr.  Owen  has  told  us  how  lone  the  contents  of  his  casket  have  lain 
hid.  For  four  thousand  years  anterior,  and  two  thousand  years  subse¬ 
quent  to  the  Christian  religion,  have  these  jewells  been  buried.  How 
Mr.  Owen  happened  to  disinter  them  is  the  question.  Was  it  never 
known  before  the  year  of  favor  1829,  that  no  child  chose  its  parent¬ 
age,  nor  the  place  and  circumstances  of  its  nativity!!  Was  it  never 
known  before  Mr.  Owen  descried  it,  that  children  are  much  influenced 
by  the  circumstances  of  their  childhood  and  by  the  example  of  their  pa¬ 
rents!!  These  burnished  gems  now  made  brilliant  by  being  changed 
from  manuscript  to  print  [Mr  Owen  had  them  printed  yesterday,]  have 
been  like  the  twelve  apostles;  the.  twelve  lions  on  which  the  throne 
of  Solomon  stood;  the  twelve  foundations  ofthe  New  Institution,  now 
read  twelve  times,  destined  to  great  honor  and  glory.  As*Mr.  Ov  en 
has  read  them  so  often,  1  hope  I  may  be  indulged  to  read  them  once ; 
and  that  I  may  make  them  more  famous  by  my  reading  them,  I  will 
show  the  whole  extent  of  their  latitude,  and  I  think  Mr.  Owen  himself 
will  be  indebted  to  me  for  the  liberal  and  extensive  construction 
which  I  am  about  to  give  them.  I  will  show  that  they  are  so  large 
and  so  liberal  as  to  engross  almost  every  animal  in  the  creation  within 
their  lawful  jurisdiction.  But  for  the  sake  of  trial  and  proof  I  will 
only  try  how  they  will  suit  one  species  of  quadrupeds.  Mr.  Owen 
has  told  you  twelve  times  that  they  will  exactly  suit  for  bipeds. 

THE  TWELVE  FUNDAMENTAL  LAWS  OF  BRUTAL  NATURE, 

On  which  Robert  Owen  predicates  a  change  of  society  that  will  form 

an  entire  new  state  of  existence. 

1.  That  a  goat,  at  its  birth,  is  ignoraiit  of  every  thing  relative  to  its 
own  organization,  and  that  it  has  not  been  permitted  to  create  the 
slightest  part  of  any  of  its  natural  propensities,  faculties,  or  qualities! 
physical  or  mental. 


debate. 


183 


2„  That  no  two  kid?,  at  birth,  have  yet  been  known  to  possess  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  organization;  while  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
differences,  between  all  kids,  are  formed  without  their  knowledge  or 
will. 

3.  That  each  individual  kid  is  placed,  at  birth,  without  its  know¬ 
ledge  or  consent,  within  circumstances,  which,  acting  upon  its  pecu¬ 
liar  organization,  impress  the  general  character  of  those  circumstances 
upon  the  infant  kid  and  goat.  Yet  that  the  influence  of  those  cir¬ 
cumstances,  is,  to  a  certain  degree,  modified  by  the  peculiar  natural 
organization  of  each  individual  goat. 

4.  That  no  kid  has  the  power  of  deciding  at  what  period  of  time,  or 
in  what  part  of  the  world,  it  shall  come  into  existence;  of  what  goat 
it  shall  be  born,  what  particular  tricks  it  shall  be  trained  to,  or  by 
what  other  circumstances  it  shall  be  surrounded  from  birth  to  death. 

5.  That  each  individual  goat  is  so  created,  that,  when  young,  it 
may  be  made  to  receive  impressions,  to  produce  either  true  ideas  or 
false  notions,  and  beneficial  or  injurious  habits,  and  to  retain  them 
with  great  tenacity. 

6.  That  each  individual  goat  is  so  created,  that  he  must  feel  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  strongest  impressions  that  can  be  made  on  its  feelings, 
and  other  faculties,  while  its  feelings  in  no  case  depend  upon  its  will. 

7.  That  each  individual  is  so  created  that  it  must  like  that  which  is 
pleasant  to  it,  or  that  which  produces  agreeable  sensations  on  its  indi¬ 
vidual  organization,  and  it  must  dislike  that  which  creates  in  it 
unpleasant  or  disagreeable  sensations ;  while  it  cannot  discover,  pre¬ 
vious  to  experience,  what  those  sensations  shall  be. 

6.  That  each  individual  goat  is  so  created,  that  the  sensations  made 
upon  its  organization,  although  pleasant  and  delightful  at  their  com¬ 
mencement  and  for  some  duration,  generally  become,  when  continu¬ 
ed  beyond  a  certain  period,  without  change,  disagreeable  and  painful. 
While,  on  the  contrary,  when  a  too  rapid  change  of  sensations  is  made 
on  its  organization,  it  dissipates,  weakens,  and  otherwise  injures  its 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  powers  and  enjoyments. 

9.  That  the  highest  health,  the  greatest  progressive  improvements, 
and  the  most  permanent  happiness  of  each  individual  goat,  depend  in 
a.  great  degree  upon  the  proper  cultivation  of  all  its  physical,  intel¬ 
lectual,  and  moral  faculties  and  powers  from  infancy  to  maturity, 
and  upon  all  these  parts  of  its  nature  being  duly  called  into  action,  at 
their  proper  periods,  and  temperately  exercised  according  to  the 
strength  and  capacity  of  the  individual  goat. 

9.  That  the  individual  goat  is  made  to  possess  and  to  acquire  the 
worst  character,  when  its  organization  at  birth  has  been  compounded 
of  the  most  inferior  propensities,  faculties,  and  qualities  of  its  com¬ 
mon  nature;  and  when  so  organized,  it  has  been  placed, from  birth  to 
death,  amidst  the  most  vicious  or  worst  circumstances. 

10.  That  the  individual  goat  is  made  to  possess,  and  to  acquire  a 
medium  character,  when  its  original  organization  has  been  created 
superior ,  and  when  the  circumstances  which  surround  it  from  birth 
to  death  produce  continued  vicious  or  unfavorable  impressions.  Or 


DEBATE* 


■m 

v'hen  its  organization  has  been  formed  of  inferior  materials*  and  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  has  been  placed  from  birth  to  death  are  of 
a  character  to  produce  superior  impressions  only.  Or  when  there 
has  been  some  mixture  of  good  and  bad  qualities  in  the  original  or¬ 
ganization,  and  when  it  has  also  been  placed,  through  life,  in  varied 
circumstances  of  good  and  evil.  This  last  compound  has  been  hither¬ 
to  the  common  lot  of  all  goats. 

12.  That  each  individual  goat  is  made  the  most  superior  to  its 
species,  when  its  original  organization  has  been  compounded  of  the  u 
best  proportions,  of  the  best  ingredients  of  which  goat  nature  is  form¬ 
ed,  and  when  the  circumstances  which  surround  it  from  birth  to  death  * 
are  of  a  character  to  produce  only  superior  impressions;  or,  in  other 

^words,  when  the  circumstances,  or  laws,  institutions  and  customs  in 
which  it  is  placed,  are  all  in  unison  with  its  nature. 

Mr.  Owen  has  told  you  that  he  believes  not  in  a  spiritual  system, 
consequently  none  of  these  laws  are  predicated  upon  any  thing  spir¬ 
itual  in  man.  Now  as  his  laws  are  all  built  upon  the  hypothesis  that 
man  is  a  pure  animal,  if  it  should  ever  appear  to  Mr.  Owen  that  there 
is  a  spiritual  system,  he  must  add  a  few  laws  to  his  code.  I  will,  there¬ 
fore,  add  a  few  laws  to  them,  which  will,  indeed,  exclude  the  goat 
and  every  other  animal  from  being  a  legitimate  subject  of  them.  The 
four  following  laws  are  just  as  plain,  as  true,  and  as  palpaple  as  the 
first  one.  As  these  are  the  beginning  of  a  new  series  for  Mr.  Owen, 
i  will  call  my  first  the  thirteenth  Maw  of  human  nature.'’ 

13.  That  man  has  aspirations  after  knowledge,  which  would  not 
cease,  did  he  know  and  perfectly  comprehend  every  particle  of  matter  ! 
in  the  globe,  in  the  solar  system,  in  the  universe,  with  all  its  laws, 
properties,  and  modifications;  and  never  can  he  feel  so  well  pleased 
with  his  acquisitions  of  knowledge  as  to  fix  a  period  to  his  inquiries.  ’| 

14.  That  man  has  a  taste  for  society  which  the  largest  and  most 

accomplished  society  which  could  exist  contemporaneously  with  him-  ilj 
sel  f  ca  n n ot  gratify .  4 

15.  That  he  has  desires  for  happiness  which  no  circumstances  on  L| 
firth  can  satisfy;  and  that  these  desires  are  commensurate  with  infi¬ 
nite  objects  which  the  present  state  of  existence  cannot  present  to  him.  I 

1(3.  That  when  he  has  formed  the  best  conceptions  of  himself  which  (| 
all  earth-born  opportunities  present,  he  feels  himself  painfully  ignor-  ill 
;  nt  of  every  grand  fact  connected  with  the  origin  of  his  existence  and  ijj 
of  every  grand  result  involving  his  own  ultimate  destiny.  i] 

These  are  a  sample  of  the  additions  which  I  hope  Mr.  Owen  will  i 

yet  see  necessary  to  append  to  his  original  twelve.  No  sheep  or  goat  t| 
can  dispute  its  right  or  title  to  any  of  these  four.  || 

I  would  also  prefix  two  to  his  animal  code  as  also  prefatory  to  the  i| 
original  twelve.  These  wmdd  be,  >| 

1.  That  the  first  man  was  not  born — and  if 

2.  That  man,  at  his  birth,  is  the  child  of  some  body,  and  by  nature  i 

is  dependent  upon  that  some  body  for  subsistence,  for  his  language,  | 

modes  of  thinking,  and  for  a  majority  of  all  the  peculiarities  of  his  .  | 
consitution.  *  :f«| 


DEBATE. 


185 


But  before  taking  my  final  leave  of  the  New  Code  of  Twelve,  I  must 
give  Mr.  Owen  a  critique  upon  the  sixth,  which  he  has  so  often  thrown 
in  our  way.  He  has  often  said,  prove  one  of  the  twelve  to  be  errone¬ 
ous,  and  he  will  abandon  all  of  them.  That  the  sixth  is  so  I  hope  the 
following  critique  will  show: — 

1.  The  first  and  fundamental  principles  of  our  nature  which  excite 
to  action,  arc  our  appetites  and  affections.  These  instinctive  facul¬ 
ties  we  have  in  common  with  all  animals.  A  high  excitement  of 
jdiese  we  call  passion. 

2.  Next  to  these  is  that  class  of  powers  by  which  we  obtain  all  our 
simple  original  ideas;  into  which,  as  elementary  principles,  is  ulti¬ 
mately  resolvable  all  our  knowledge — viz.  sensation,  perception, 
memory,  reason,  and  consciousness.  Now,  although  these  faculties 
are  affected,  or  called  into  action,  when  their  objects  are  presented; 
yet,  in  many  important  cases,  it  is  quite  optional  whether  the  objects 
shall  be  presented  or  not. 

3.  In  the  next  place,  the  use  or  operation  of  these  faculties,  for 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  is  dependent  on  our  volition;  viz,  re¬ 
collecting,  reflecting,  imagining,  reasoning,  judging. 

4.  Lastly,  the  combined  or  separate  influence  of  our  appetites, 
affections,  passions,  and  judgments,  determine  our  wills,  and  pro¬ 
duce  those  volitions  which  terminate  in  action. 

Inferences. — Hence  it  follows  that  every  action  of  our  lives  is 
naturally  subjected  to  our  judgments;  which  are,  or  ought  to  be, 
the  combined  and  ultimate  results  of  all  our  intellectual  powers.  We 
say,  our  actions  ought  to  be  such;  first,  because  we  possess  these 
po  wers — second,  because  we  are  instinctively  impelled  to  desire  and 
will  our  own  happiness  or  gratification — and  third,  because  we  are 
accountable  to  our  Creator  and  Benefactor  for  the  use  we  make  of  our 
powers  for  our  own  profit  and  his  good  pleasure,  which  is  the  happi¬ 
ness  of  his  rational  creatures,  for  whose  sakes  he  has  created  all 
things. 

Again,  in  classifying  these  powers  in  relation  to  their  peculiar  and 
appropriate  objects,  we  denominate  them  sensitive,  intellectual,  and 
moral  ;  which  last  distinction  does  not  mean  a  new  class  of  powers, 
not  included  in  the  two  previous  classes;  but  only  those  of  thinking 
and  acting  with  respect  to  law,  and  of  the  law  itself  by  which  we  are 
to  be  governed.  These  are  the  powers  of  reasoning,  judging,  and 
believing.  Hence  faith  or  belief  is  not  the  proper  and  immediate 
effect  of  volition,  but  of  our  reason  and  judgment  duly  exercised 
upon  testimony.  We,  therefore,  cannot  believe  at  will,  or  by  virtue 
of  an  act  of  volition  without  evidence,  any  more  than  we  can,  by  an 
act  of.  our  will,  see  without  light — nevertheless  it  would  be  absurd  to 
affirm  that  we  see  by  necessity;  that  our  sight  or  perception  of  ob¬ 
jects,  in  no  case  depended  upon,  or  was  influenced  by  our  will.  The 
truth  is,  that  although  we  can  neither  believe  nor  see  what,  or  when 
we  please,  yet  both  our  believing  and  seeing  are,  in  many  very  im- 
portant  cases,  dependent  upon  our  volition. 

VOL.  II.  16* 


DEBATE, 


Then,  it  may  be  asked,  What  is  it  that  determines  our  will  to  in¬ 
vestigate?  Answer,  Duty,  curiosity,  or  interest.  But,  whatever 
may  be  the  motive,  still  it  is  evident  that  being  excited  to  will  to 
investigate,  our  will  has  a  proper  and  rational  influence  upon  our 
belief,  just  as  it  has  upon  our  power  of  seeing,  or  upon  our  sight. 

Upon  the  whole,  to  suppose  that  a  rational  creature  acts  without 
motive,  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  it  acts  irrationally,  or  without 
reason.  And  to  assert  that  because  it  acts  rationally  it  acts  necessa¬ 
rily,  and  therefore  is  neither  praise  nor  blame-worthy,  is  contrary 
to  reason  itself;  for  every  man’s  reason  condemns  him  when  he  acts 
irrationally,  and  approves  or  acquits  him  when  he  acts  rationally.— 
Therefore  Mr.  Owen’s  sixth  law  is  manifestly  erroneous,  being  in 
direct  contradiction  to  a  fundamental  law  of  rational  nature. 

Again,  what  is  natural  must  be  right;  if  not,  what  is  the  standard 
of  right?  or,  if  nature  be  wrong,  who  or  what  shall  correct  it,  seeing 
it  produces  all  things  as  they  are?  Shall  the  effect  correct  the  cause? 
or  shall  the  cause,  that  is,  nature ,  correct  itself,  and  therefore  be 
wiser  and  better  than  itself?  Therefore,  if  things  be  as  nature  pro¬ 
duced  them,  are  they  not  as  they  ought  to  be?  But,  if  not,  who 
can  better  them,  seeing  that  every  thing  is  the  effect  of  nature,  and 
that  the  effect  cannot  correct  or  rectify  the  cause  ? 

But,  if  it  be  supposed  that  things  are  in  a  disordered  and  preter¬ 
natural  state,  how  came  they  into  such  a  state?  For,  seeing  the 
creature  has  no  influence  either  upon  its  constitution  or  circumstan¬ 
ces,  according  to  law  1,  2,  how  could  it  change  for  the  worse?  Or, 
being  deteriorated  in  its  nature  and  circumstances,  having  no  power 
over  them,  how  can  it  change  for  the  better;  having  no  independent, 
inherent,  self  determining  power? 

Nature,  then,  being  equally  the  author  both  of  our  nature  and  cir¬ 
cumstances,  who  can  change  either  of  them,  but  the  author?  But, 
are  we  naturally  constituted  capable  of  improving  both  our  nature 
and  circumstances?  How  can  this  be,  if  we  came  into  existence,  at 
first,  in  an  adult  state?  For,  then,  we  were  the  creatures  of  circum¬ 
stances;  and,  as  every  thing  must  necessarily  act  as  it  is;  that  is, 
according  to  its  nature  and  circumstances,  therefore,  we  could  never 
better  our  conditions,  being  limited  by  our  nature  and  circumstances. 
But,  if  there  be  a  principle  in  our  nature,  by  which  we  can  rise  supe¬ 
rior  to  our  nature  and  circumstances;  (and  such  there  must  be,  if  we 
can  ameliorate  our  condition  in  both  these  respects,  as  Mr.  Owen’s 
system  pretends;)  then  surely  his  display  of  the  fundamental  laws  of 
our  nature  are  essentially  deficient,  inasmuch  as  they  no  where  de- 
velope  this  principle. 

Having  now  laid  my  objections  fairly  before  Mr.  Owen,  and  that 
he  may  be  induced  not  to  pass  them  by  as  formerly,  1  will  sit  down 
that  he  may  attack  and  remove  my  objections  if  he  can. 

Mr.  Owen  rises. 

My  friends — Mr.  Campbell  very  naturally  wishes  that  I  should , 
fallow  his  lead  in  this  discussion  :  thatis,  that  I  should  reply  to  his 


DEBATE, 


metaphysical  argument,  and  leave  these  facts,  which  can  alone  throw 
any  real  light  upon  the  subject,  and  which  he  ought  to  have  prepared 
himself  to  refute,  and  thus  involve  myself  in  a  debate  which  would 
only  darken  knowledge  and  confound  your  understandings.  Now  all 
this  is  perfectly  natural  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Campbell.  But  I  wish  to 
set  rnyself  right  with  this  assembly  before  we  separate,  in  consequence 
of  some  of  Mr.  Campbell’s  observations  upon  ray  supposed  opinion  on 
the  subject  of  Deity.  I  have  never  denied  the  existence  of  a  Deity. 
I  distinctly  and  most  pointedly  gave  my  reasons  for  wdiat  I  believe  on 
this  subject.  1  stated  what  I  believe  to  be  the  whole  amount  of  our 
knowledge  in  regard  to  those  things  which  are  called  Divine ;  but  I 
will  not  affirm  or  deny  that  for  which  we  have  not  sufficient  facts  to 
enable  us  to  form  correct  or  rational  ideas. 

Now,  my  friends,  you  may  be  sure  that,  in  a  discussion  of  this 
character,  the  last  expedient  an  opponent  can  resort  to,  is  an  attempt 
to  ridicule  his  antagonist’s  argument.  To  this  dernier  resort  my 
friend,  Mr.  Campbell,  has  been  driven.  But  the  shafts  of  Mr.  Camp¬ 
bell’s  ridicule  have  been  very  harmless :  they  struck  pointless,  and 
without  the  least  effect  on  the  mark  at  which  they  were  aimed;  and 
why? — Because  the  casket  was  too  well  tempered,  and  too  highly 
polished  to  be  penetrable  by  such  feeble  missiles.  But  if  ridicule 
were  to  be  recognized  as  a  fair  weapon  in  religious  controversial 
warfare,  only  consider  the  game  that  lies  before  me,  only  imagine 
for  a  moment  how  the  whole  Christian  scheme  could  be  cut  up  and 
rendered  almost  too  ridiculous  for  ridicule  itself.  I  have,  however, 
too  much  regard  for  your  feelings,  and  for  the  importance  of  the  sub¬ 
ject  under  discussion,  to  pursue  this  course.  On  my  side  of  the 
question  I  defy  ridicule;  for,  as  you  perceive,  none  can  be  successfully 
made  to  bear  upon  even  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  nature,  on 
the  accuracy  or  truth  of  which,  the  real  merits  of  this  discussion 
will  be  ultimately  discovered  to  rest.  And  this  is  the  true  cause  why 
they  have  so  grievously  nonplussed  Mr.  Campbell.  But  could  f  so 
far  forget  the  magnitude  of  the  cause  I  have  undertaken  to  advocate, 
as  to  resort  for  arguments  to  ridicule,  and  thereby  unnecessarily 
wound  your  feelings,  every  one  knows  how  easy  it  would  be  to  use 
this  weapon  to  expose  the  pretensions  of  any,  and  of  all  religion. — 
But  this  is  a  proceeding  to  which  I  have  no  inclination  to  resort, 
when  the  improvement  of  the  human  race,  in  the  reformation  of  its 
character  and  general  practice,  is  the  subject  before  me.  My  object 
here,  upon  the  present  occasion,  is  not  to  obtain  a  personal  victory 
over  any  man  or  any  portion  of  my  fellows;  to  me  such  a  victory 
would  be  of  the  least  possible  estimation.  But  it  is  to  promulgate 
truth  for  its  own  value,  and  for  the  incalculable  practical  benefits 
that  must  accrue  to  the  race  of  man  from  its  developement.  This  is 
a  consideration  with  me  beyond  all  others.  This,  my  friends,  is  my 
only  object.  Were  you  to  give  me  your  whole  state — nay,  the  whole 
United  States,  I  would  consider  the  gift  as  valueless,  compared  with 
the  discovery  of  one  truth  of  such  a  character  as  will  penetrate  the 
understanding  of  all  men;  arrest  their  present  irrational  career,  and 


DEBATE. 


1SB 

s 

induoe  them  to  adopt  a  practice  which  shall  make  themselves  and  their 
posterity  happy. 

Mr.  Campbell  has  given  you  his  views  and  reasonings  upon  this 
sixth  law  of  our  nature,  but  they  amount  to  nothing.  He  did  not 
take  up  the  position  which  is  here  laid  down.  This  position  is — 
that  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  he  must  believe  according 
to  the  strongest  impression  that  is  made  upon  his  feelings  and  other 
faculties,  while  his  belief  in  no  case  depends  upon  his  will.  This 
is  a  clear  and  distinct  position,  and  leaves  no  room  for  a  metaphysical 
retreat. 

Mr.  Campbell  rose  and  said — There  is  no  metaphysical  subterfuge 
in  me.  I  contend  that  I  have  met  the  position  fairly.  The  clause  i 
objected  to  is  this — ‘‘that  belief  in  no  case  depends  upon  will.” 

Mr.  Owen. — Well,  gentlemen,  I  will  bring  this  matter  to  a  speedy 
issue.  If  Mr.  Campbell  can  adduce  a  single  instance  wherein  his 
belief  depends  upon  his  will,  I  will  give  up  the  whole  question. 

[Here  Mr.  Owen  waited  some  time  for  Mr.  CampbelVs  reply.  Mr. 
Campbell  coulel  not  then  make  any.] 

My  friends,  there  is  no  power  that  can  coerce  a  man  to  believe  con¬ 
trary  to  the  convictions  upon  his  mind.  The  change  can  be  effected 
only  by  producing  evidence  that  shall  appear  to  him  still  stronger; 
and  then,  often  against  his  will,  he  is  obliged  to  change  his  belief. 
The  cause  of  truth  is  thus  gained. 

We  will,  however,  proceed  to  the  seventh  law  of  our  nature,  viz. 
“That  each  individual  is  so  created,  that  he  must  like  that  which  is 
pleasant  to  him,  or  that  which  produces  agreeable  sensations  on  his 
individual  organization;  and  he  must  dislike  that  which  creates  in 
him  unpleasant  or  disagreeable  sensations;  while  he  cannot  discover, 
previous  to  experience,  what  those  sensations  shall  be.” 

I  have  placed  upon  record  the  very  important  consequences  of  this 
law  of  our  nature.  It  wdl  have  a  weighty  influence  on  the  future 
destinies  of  man;  it  will  change  all  the  present  family  relations  of 
life;  it  will  create  a  new  order  of  existence,  as  much  superior  to  the 
present,  as  light  is  to  darkness.  But  I  will  now  trespass  no  longer  on 
your  patience,  except  to  remark,  that  Mr.  Campbell,  when  speaking  of 
this  very  law,  as  applicable  to  marriage,  gave  quite  a  different  color  to 
the  argument  from  what  he  was  justified  in  doing,  from  any  thing  I 
have  ever  written  or  said.  He  endeavored  to  make  it  appear,  no 
doubt  from  previous  misconceptions  in  his  mind,  that  I  intended  to 
encourage  prostitution,  as  it  is  now  understood  and  practised,  in  gene¬ 
ral  throughout  society. 

Why,  my  friends,  it  is  the  infraction  of  this  very  law  of  our  nature, 
that  has  produced  all  the  vices  and  evils  attendant  upon  prostitution. 
It  is  the  infraction  of  this  law  that  has  produced  a  vicious  and  most 
degrading  connexion  between  the  sexes  unavoidable  over  the  world. 

I  wish  to  withdraw  all  the  causes  which  render  prostitution  necessary 
and  unavoidable,  and  to  propose  the  means  by  which  a  society  may 
be  formed,  in  which  chastity  alone  shall  he  known.  Let  me  hear 
no  more,  therefore,  from  any  quarter,  of  the  vulgar  jargon  that  I  ad- 


DEBATE. 


189 


Vacate  this  law  of  our  nature  from  a  desire  to  increase  the  vice  and 
misery  which  the  infraction  of  this  lavr  has  made  every  where  to 
abound;  and  when  I  well  know  there  are  already  so  many  dreadful 
evils  created  by  prostitution,  as  threaten  to  overwhelm  the  health  and 
happiness  of  the  population  of  all  countries. 

No,  mv  friends,  1  would  not  have  travelled  to  and  fro,  sacrificing 
my  ease,  expending  mv  substance,  exposing  my  health  and  risking 
my  life,  were  it  not  with  the  intention  of  improving,  and  highly  im¬ 
proving  too,  the  whole  condition  of  man?  What  motive,  short  of 
this,  could  have  induced  me  to  adopt  the  course  which  I  have  so  long 
pursued,  or  to  persevere  in  that  course?  Therefore,  my  friends, 
listen  no  more  to  such  mistaken  notions  relative  to  my  views  and  in¬ 
tentions  on  this  most  important  subject.  Such  misrepresentations, 
derived  from  the  ignorant  multitude,  are  unworthy  of  repetition  by 
Mr.  Campbell ;  unworthy  of  the  cause  he  supports,  and  of  the  magni¬ 
tude  of  the  interests  which  we  have  met  to  discuss.  This  law  of  our 
nature,  when  it  shall  be  understood  and  properly  applied  to  practice, 
will  put  an  end  to  the  cause  which  renders  prostitution,  under  your 
present  errors,  unavoidable. 

The  eighth  law  of  our  nature  is:  “That  each  individual  is  so 
created  that  the  sensations  made  upon  his  organization,  although 
pleasant  and  delightful  at  their  commencement,  and  for  some  dura¬ 
tion,  generally  become,  when  continued  beyond  a  certain  period 
without  change,  disagreeable  and  painful.  And  when  a  too  rapid 
change  of  sensations  is  made  on  his  organization,  it  dissipates, 
weakens  and  otherwise  injures  his  physical,  intellectual  and  moral 
powers  and  enjoyments.” 

In  this  law  is  to  be  found  the  foundation  of  all  excellence  in  human 
conduct.  The  desire  of  happiness  is  a  principle  coeval  with  life  and 
the  most  powerful  feeling  to  stimulate  to  action  in  human  nature. 
And  by  this  law  and  the  one  immediately  succeeding  it  (the  ninth)  we 
shall  discover  that  temperance  in  the  enjoyment  and  exercise  of  all 
our  faculties,  according  to  their  different  degrees  of  strength,  is  that 
habit  by  which  alone  the  highest  point  of  happiness  is  to  be  attained. 

The  tenth  law  is,  that  the  individual  is  made  to  possess  and  acquire 
the  ii'orst  character,  when  his  organization  at  birth  has  been  com¬ 
pounded  of  the  most  inferior  propensities  and  faculties  of  our  com¬ 
mon  nature — and  when  so  organized,  he  has  been  placed  from  birth 
to  death  amidst  the  mogt  vicious  or  worst  circumstances. 

My  friends,  this  is  one  of  these  laws  that  will  instruct  you,  in  your 
new  art  as  fathers ,  as  soon  as  you  begin  to  undertake  the  task — it, 
will  show  you  what  you  have  to  do  for  your  infants,  your  children, 
and  your  youth.  It  will  show  you,  that  while  you  permit  them  to  be 
surrounded  with  vicious  circumstances,  they  must  receive  vitiating 
impressions  from  them ;  and  that  in  the  formation  of  the  characters  of 
your  children,  such  of  them  as  have  beon  so  unfortunate  as  to  receive 
a  vicious  organization  ought  to  be  the  objects  of  your  especial  compass 
sion  and  kindness;  and  that  they  have  a  just  and  rational  claim  upon 
you,  for  fourfold  more  care  and  attention  in  forming  them  in  the  most 


190 


DEBATE. 


perfect  mould,  that  such  of  your  children  as  have  been  blessed  with  a  | 
more  perfect  natural  organization  are  entitled  to  receive  at  your 
hands.  This  law,  my  friends,  lays  the  foundation  also  for  much  good 
feeling  and  genuine  charity.  In  fact  each  of  these  laws  speak  peace 
to  you  and  all  mankind — they  all  concur  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
charity  deeper  and  still  deeper  within  ns,  and  to  exterminate  every 
germ  of  unkind  feeling.  They  are,  indeed,  a  perfect  system  of  moral 
laws — and  all  of  them  being  derived  from  the  constitution  of  man,  as  j 
it  has  been  ascertained  to  be,  will,  when  once  understood,  recognized, 
and  adopted  by  society,  irresistibly  enforce  their  precepts  upon  the 
hearts  and  the  understandings,  and  direct  all  the  actions  of  man, 
Their  effect  will  be  as  certain  upon  the  individual,  as  are  the  effects 
of  physical  laws  in  the  progress  of  plants  from  the  seed  to  the  fruit, 
and  the  full  formed  treer;  or  in  any  other  branch  of  vital  economy. 
Now,  my  friends,  under  the  wholesome  and  beneficent  government  of 
these  laws,  you  will  not,  as  at  present,  have  to  grope  your  way  in 
perpetual  and  anxious  uncertainty.  When  you  begin  to  form  the 
character  of  a  human  being  you  may  calculate  upon  the  result,  with 
the  same  undoubting  confidence  which  the  mathematician  feels 
when  he  begins  to  calculate  upon  known  and  certain  data.  If  the 
work  be  correctly  perform od,  there  can  be  no  mistake  in  the  result. 

It  will  be  a  sort  of  moral  Rule  of  Three  calculation,  which  might 
perhaps  be  stated  thus:  As  the  organization  of  the  individual  is  to 
his  circumstances,  so  will  be  the  character  compounded  out  of  both. 

This  change  in  society  will  abrogate  two  thirds  of  our  present 
vocabulary — the  hacknied  phrases  arising  from  our  deceptive  notions 
of  free  tvill ,  will  be  exploded ;  they  convey  impressions  only  of  error 
to  the  mind — and  in  our  new  and  rational  state  of  existence,  not  a 
single  harsh  epithet,  or  unkind  or  censorious  expression,  in  which 
all  languages  now  abound,  will  receive  admission.  And  why? — 
Because  there  will  be  no  harsh,  malignant,  uncharitable  feelings  to  ; 
be  expressed.  Hatred  and  anger  will  be  unknown,  for  we  shall  have 
peace  within  us,  and  all  will  be  peace  around  us. 

We  come  now,  my  friends,  to  the  eleventh  law  of  our  nature, 
“That  the  individual  is  made  to  possess  and  acquire  a  medium  char¬ 
acter,  when  his  original  organization  has  been  created  superior,  and 
when  the  circumstances  which  surround  him  from  birth  to  death, - 
produce  continual  vicious  and  unfavorable  impressions.  Or,  when 
his  organization  has  been  formed  of  inferior  materials,  and  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  in  which  he  has  been  placed  from  birth  to  death,  are  of 
a  character  to  produce  superior  impressions  only.  Or,  when  there 
has  been  some  mixture  of  superior  and  inferior  qualities  in  the 
original  organization,  and  when  it  has  also  been  placed  through  life 
in  varied  circumstances  of  good  and  evil.  This  last  compound  has 
been  hitherto  the  common  lot  of  mankind.” 

My  friends,  this  eleventh  law  is  a  mirror  to  all  of  you.  You  have 
all  been  forced  to  acquire  this  medium  character.  You  are  none  of 
you  so  bad,  nor  any  of  you  so  good,  as  you  might  have  been  formed  . 
to  be.  And  why  are  all  of  you  now’,  as  well  as  all  Christendom,  and 


DEBATE. 


191 


Indeed  the  inhabitants  of  every  other  portion  of  the  globe,  only  of  a 
very  ordinary  medium  character?  It  is  because  of  the  universal 
first  impressions  forced  upon  mankind  in  favor  of  the  doctrines  of 
free  will?  These  impressions,  which  commenced  in  times  beyond 
our  knowledge,  and  have  always  been  the  fruitful  source  of  error 
in  the  thoughts,  feelings  and  actions  of  man,  originated  in  the  dark 
ages,  when  science  was  unknown,  when  men  knew  but  few  facts, 
and  those  few  imperfectly.  These  false  notions  were,  probably, 
received  into  the  human  mind  at  the  time  it  imbibed  its  undoubting 
belief  for  ages,  that  the  earth  was  flat  and  immoveable;  the  sun, 
planets  and  stars  all  being  formed  to  be  attendants  on  this  globe  for 
the  use  of  man. 

Time,  however,  advanced;  science  dawned  upon  the  world  in 
defiance  of  monkish  ignorance,  and  printing  was  discovered.  Facts 
began  to  be  investigated,  real  knowledge  in  consequence  to  be  intro¬ 
duced,  and  to  escape  by  little  and  little  among  the  multitude. 

Thus  commenced  an  opposition  to  religious  ignorance,  and  it  ad¬ 
vanced  against  the  efforts  of  the  Priesthood,  aided  even  by  the  inqui¬ 
sition.  Within  the  last  two  or  three  hundred  years,  knowledge  has 
been  disseminated  in  an  extraordinary  manner  by  the  art  of  printing. 
This  inestimable  art  has  preserved  to  us  so  many  important  facts* 
derived  from  the  experience  of  former  times,  that  they  serve  in  part 
to  counteract  the  vicious  circumstances  which  have  been  generated 
by  the  doctrine  of  free  will,  and  all  the  religious  notions  founded  on 
it.  It  is  the  knowledge  derived  from  recorded  experience,  and  the 
errors  generated  by  the  notion  of  free  will,  combatting  and  counter¬ 
acting  each  pther,  that  has  placed  you  in  your  present  medium  scale 
of  character. 

It  is  the  religions  over  the  earth,  emanating  directly  from  the  un¬ 
substantial  notions  derived  from  the  doctrines  of  free  will,  and  their 
necessary  consequences  in  forming  the  feelings,  thoughts  and  actions 
of  men,  that  has  formed  the  present  medium  character  of  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  the  civilized  world. 

And  so  long  as  these  free  will  notions  can  be  taught  and  received 
in  opposition  to  the  daily  increasing  lights  of  experience,  showing 
how  the  character  of  every  individual  is  formed  for  him,  you  win 
remain  in  your  present  medium  condition,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
world  will  receive  the  same  inferior  character  that  those  errors  have 
hitherto  impressed  upon  them.  But  I  must  proceed  to  the  12th  and 
last  revealed  law.of  our  nature;  revealed  by  facts  alike  to  all  nations 
and  people,  namely:  “That  the  individual  is  made  the  most  superior 
of  his  species,  when  his  original  organization  has  been  compounded 
of  the  best  proportions,  of  the  best  ingredients  of  which  human 
nature  is  formed,  and  when  the  circumstances  which  surround  him 
from  his  birth  to  death,  are  of  a  character  to  produce  only  superior 
impressions,  or  in  other  words,  when  the  circumstances  or  laws, 
institutions  and  customs  in  which  he  is  placed,  are  all  in  unison  with 
his  nature.” 

My  friends,  if  in  any  past  times  as  much  had  been  done  for  human 


192 


DEBATE. 


nature,  as  you  have  witnessed  this  day,  in  the  free  and  open  discus? 
sion  in  which  we  have  been  engaged,  we  should  not  now  have  to 
lament  the  ignorance  in  which  we  have  all  been  kept  by  the  accu¬ 
mulation  of  vicious  circumstances,  by  which  we  and  all  mankind 
have  been  surrounded  from  birth  ;  but  upon  this  part  of  the  subject  it 
is  now  too  late  to  enter  into  detail.  Take,  however,  into  your  con¬ 
sideration,  for  a  moment,  the  importance  of  the  three  last  laws,  and 
more  particularly  of  this  12th  law.  In  this  you  will  discover  the 
^certain,  the  infallible  process  by  which  the  most  is  to  be  made  of 
human  nature  that  can  be  made  of  it,  by  men  of  one  generation 
acting  upon  the  children  of  the  rising  generation. 

We  cannot,  as  I  have  explained  to  you,  make  an  immediate  change 
upon  the  existing  organization  of  the  infants  of  our  race ;  though  I 
have  no  doubt  that  the  time  will  come,  when  very  great  improve¬ 
ments  will  be  made  in  the  organization  at  birth.  In  the  present  state 
of  ignorance,  and  consequent  prejudice,  in  which  we  are  upon  this 
subject,  we  must  turn  our  attention  only  to  those  circumstances  upon 
which  the  knowledge  of  the  influence  of  circumstances  will  enable 
us  to  act.  It  has  been  well  observed  by  one  of  our  learned  modera¬ 
tors,  upon  another  occasion,  in  writing  upon  my  views,  that  he  did 
not  well  understand  how  human  nature  could  be  the  creature  of  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and  yet  have  the  power  to  direct  them.  It  was  an  in¬ 
telligent  view  of  the  subject.  The  difficulty  is  to  be  explained,  and 
overcome  like  all  other  difficulties  when  they  occur,  by  proceeding 
in  our  investigations  until  the  whole  truth  is  discovered.  By  this 
process  it  becomes  evident,  that  until  we  ascertain  the  fact  that  we 
are  the  creatures  of  circumstances,  we  are  without  the  knowledge 
requisite  to  give  us  power  to  remove,  replace,  re-arrange,  and  control 
them.  And  as  soon  as  the  knowledge  of  this  fact  is  fully  developed, 
it  becomes  itself  a  new  circumstance,  by  which  the  existing  adults 
may  do  more  for  the  rising  generations,  than  has  been  yet  done  for 
man  through  all  past  ages.  This,  my  friends,  is  therefore  the  first, 
pre-eminently  the  first  of  sciences;  it  is  one  of  the  very  highest  order 
that  the  human  mind  can  conceive.  It  is  that  science,  by  which,  in 
due  time,  the  men  of  one  generation  shall  be  enabled  so  far  to  im¬ 
prove  the  original  organization  at  birth;  the  disposition,  habits, 
manners,  thoughts,  feelings,  and  conduct,  after  birth,  of  the  succeed¬ 
ing  generation,  that  the  former  shall  become  to  the  latter  as  creators. 
For  they  will  be,  through' this  new  knowledge,  enabled  to  give  to  the 
new  man  such  superior  faculties,  thoughts,  feelings,  and  dispositions, 
that  it  will  appear  to  be  a  re-creation;  a  regeneration;  anew  birth; 
a  new  life;  a  resurrection  from  the  corruptions  and  abominations  of 
the  present,  irrational  existence,  into  a  state  of  peace,  knowledge  and 
joy  unspeakable!  It  is  therefore  a  science  so  deeply  interesting  to 
all,  that  all,  without  delay,  should  be  carefully  taught  it  from  the 
first  dawning  of  their  reason.  And  it  is  moreover  a  science  so  con- 
genial  to  all  the  principles  of  nature,  and  the  facts  which  exist  around 
us,  and  through  all  nature,  that  little  children  may  very  easily  and 
very  early  be  instructed  in  it. 


DEBATE. 


193 


l  perceive  my  hour  is  about  to  expire,  and  it  is  come  when  I  have 
just  entered  upon  the  most  interesting  part  of  the  discussion  ;  but  I 
submit  to  the  wishes  and  convenience  of  others,  and  therefore,  after 
I  sit  down,  I  shall  not  trespass  on  your  time,  unless  it  be  for  the 
sake  of  some  explanation. 

But  I  cannot  take  leave  of  you  without  expressing  a  strong  sense 
of  obligation  to  those  gentlemen,  who  compose  the  Committee,  for 
making  the  preliminary  arrangements  for  this  discussion;  also  to 
those  gentlemen  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to  attend  to  all  the  sub¬ 
sequent  arrangements,  and  especially  to  the  Trustees  of  this  build¬ 
ing,  who  with  great  urbanity,  after  one  church  was  refused  to  the 
Committee  who  applied  for  it,  conceded  to  them  the  use  of  this  for  our 
purpose.  And  I  am  much  indebted  to  all  who  have  attended  here 
during  the  discussion,  for  the  extreme  good  order  which  has  prevailed, 
and  the  remarkable  good  temper  with  which  you  have  received  those 
strong,  and,  in  many  cases,  highly  exciting  truths  to  Christians, 
which  I  deem  it  my  duty,  with  reference  to  future  consequences,  to 
place  before  you,  I  do  not  believe  that  on  this  account  I  can  ever 
forget  Cincinnati.  It  is  true,  I  once  prophesied  her  depopulation., 
not  because  I  considered  her  any  worse  than  other  populous  places, 
or  a  second  Sodom  and  Gromorrah,  for  your  ponduct  on  this  occasion, 
proves  the  reverse.  I  was,  it  seems,  mistaken,  as  to  the  precise  time ; 
having  been  misled  at  that  period  by  the  enthusiasm  expressed  by 
so  many  of  its  inhabitants  in  favor  of  principles  which,  to  my  pecu¬ 
niary  loss,  I  afterwards  discovered  they  so  little  understood.  I  was 
so  well  aware  then,  as  I  am  now,  that  the  inhabitants  of  a  new  and 
uneducated  country,  as  this  was  at  that  time,  were  of  necessity  far 
more  powerfully,  influenced  by  immediate  impressions,  that  by  ex¬ 
tended  and  deep  reflections.  As  surely,  however,  as  these  twelve 
fundamental  laws  are  derived  from  facts  which  change  not,  so  sure¬ 
ly  will  the  dispersion  of  the  inhabitants  of  all  large  cities  take  place. 
You  will  through  this  new  knowledge  discover,  ere  long,  that  a  large, 
city  is  a  collection  of  many  injuries  and  vicious  circumstances;  too 
unfavorable  to  the  highest  happiness  that  human  nature  is  capable  of 
attaining,  to  be  much  longer  allowed  to  remain.  You  cannot,  under 
any  ^arrangement,  in  populous  cities,  enjoy,  in  any  perfection,  the 
many  important  advantages,  which  are  inseparable  from  the  country, 
properly  cultivated  and  well  laid  out  for  convenience,  beauty  and 
pleasure,  and  todiave  at  the  same  time,  a  full  share  of  the  best  soci¬ 
ety.  These  essential  requisitions  to  the  enjoyment  of  life,  cannot 
be  obtained  by  a  single  human  being  within  a  large  city,  or  in  a 
single  family,  or  among  a  few  families  in  the  country,  while  it  is 
practicable  to  form  an  association  of  such  numbers  and  character, 
as  when  properly  arranged  and  constituted,  will  possess  and  enjoy 
all  the  advantages  of  city  and  country,  without  any  of  the  numerous 
inconveniencies,  disadvantages  or  evils  of  either.  It  was  a  mistake 
of  my  friend,  Mr.  C.  for  whom  after  all  our  hard  and  sharp  wordy 
battles*  i  am  obliged  to  have  the  kindest  feelings  on  account  of  his 
honesty  and  liberality,  to  suppose  that  my  ideas  of  a  social  svsteni 

VOL,  II*  *  If 


104 


DEBATE, 


were  derived  from  the  Shaking  Quakers,  Moravians,  or  any  other 
•existing  prototype.  My  ideas  upon  this  subject  proceeded  from  a 
different  soufee.  At  the  time  the  embryo  of  these  ideas  first  pre¬ 
sented  itself  to  my  mind,  I  was  unconscious  that  there  was  a  single 
community  living  wholly  upon  public  property,  in  existence.  The 
first  mature  thoughts  upon  this  subject  were  suggested  to  me  by  a. 
profound  consideration  of  the  laws  of  our  nature,  and  the  effects  which 
they  were  calculated  to  produce  in  practice,  with  the  actual  condition 
of  mankind;  I  perceived  that  man  existed  in  all  conditions  from  a  state 
single  and  detrimental  solitude  through  all  stages  of  increasing 
numbers,  up  to  a  congregated  mass,  as  in  the  capital  of  China,  of 
two  millions  of  human  beings  of  all  ages;  but  I  did  not  then  know 
that  there  was  a  number  between  these  extremes,  which,  under  proper 
management,  would  give  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness  that  man 
could  enjoy.  The  discovery  of  this  happy  number  and  arrangement* 
is  the  first  problem  to  be  demonstrated  in  the  science  of  political 
economy;  and  until  these  points  shall  be  established  upon  rational 
principles,  and  derived  from  facts  and  experience,  little  of  the  science 
of  political  economy,  as  a  science,  can  be  known.  These  points  are 
the  data  on  which  alone  the  science  can  take  its  rise,  and  without  a 
knowledge  of  which  no  such  science  can  be  formed.  The  difficulty 
which  presented  itself  to  me  at  the  outset  of  studying  political  econ¬ 
omy,  was  to  discover  these  data.  Books  written  by  speculative  men 
in  their  closets,  I  soon  ascertained  could  give  me  no  information 
upon  the  subject  1  had  afterwards  an  opportunity  of  .observing  the 
effects  of  a  gradual  increasing  population,  from  a  few  families  until 
they  amounted  to  about  twenty-five  hundred  souls,  and  then  I  dis¬ 
covered  that  the  true  minimum  and  maximum  had  been  passed.  It 
was  thus  I  was  enabled  by  experience  to  ascertain  what  was  the 
extent  of  numbers,  between  which,  a  population  could  be  arranged 
and  congregated  together,  to  give  to  each  individual  the  greatest 
amount  of  advantages  with  the  fewest  inconveniencies.  I  am  now 
convinced  from  this  experience  and  from  a  very  extensive  and  care¬ 
ful  investigation  of  the  business  and  concerns  of  human  life,  taking 
also  into  consideration  the  ascertained  fixed  laws  of  human  nature* 
that  the  best  medium  number,  ranges  between  eight  hundred  and 
twelve  hundred,  and  t/iat  all  associations  of  men*  when  they  become 
rational,  will  be  composed  of  congregations  never  descending  below 
five  hundred,  nor  ascending  above  two  thousand. 

These  were  the  facts,  principles  and  considerations  whence  my 
ideas  of  the  social  communities  originated,  and  these  are  the  causes 
which  have  impelled  me  so  strongly  to  advocate  them  upon  former 
as  well  as  upoa  the  present  occasion— -they  were  not,  therefore* 
derived  from  any  of  the  prototypes  or  contracted  views  and  sources 
whence  Mr.  C.  apprehends  them  to  have  originated.  And  it  is  from 
these  sources,  such  as  I  have  now  explained  them,  that  I  predicated 
the  depopulation  of  Cincinnati,  that  I  still  confidently  anticipate  a  . 
change  in  society  from  large  and  populous,  cities,  and  single  families, . 
to  such  associations,  as  will  give  to  each  individual  the  greatest 
advantages,  with  the  fewest  inconveniencies. 


DEBATE. 


195 


I  shall  merely  say,  in  conclusion,  that  the  social  system,  as  it  ex¬ 
ists  in  my  mind,  is  an  arrangement  of  society,  founded  on  the  most 
opposite  principles,  except  in  unity  of  labour  and  property,  to  the 
Shakers,  Moravians,  and  ol*d  Ilarmonites,  that  can  well  be  imagined. 
These  are  all  founded  on  the  ignorance  and  subjugation  of  the  mass 
under  a  few  intelligent  privileged  leaders — but  which,  nevertheless, 
produce  much  comfort,  peace  and  quiet  happiness  among  that  mass. 
They  still,  however,  retain  several  of  the  practical  errors,  emanat¬ 
ing  from  free-will  doctrines,  and  frequently  suffer  changes  and 
evils  in  consequence;  and  while  those  errors  are  retained,  evils  will 
continual!)7  occur,  and  there  will  be  no  stability  among  them.  The 
social  system  which  I  contemplate,  is  founded  upon  other  principles, 
so  different  in  character,  that  each  child,  will  receive  from  infancy 
to  maturity  the  best  training,  education,  a'nd  instruction,  that  can  be 
given  to  it.  There  will  be  no  inequality  of  lWik  or  condition,  except 
what  age  and  experience  necessarily  produce;  and  these  of  course 
in  due  time,  all  will  equally  enjoy.  And  the  code  of  laws,  founded 
on  the  lawrs  of  our  nature,  w  ill,  under  the  administration,  explained 
in  the  second  part  of  this  work,  equally  direct  and  govern  all,  from 
the  youngest  to  the  most  advanced  in  age  and  privileges  attendant 
thereon . 

Time  does  not  permit  me  to  add  more.  I  therefore  take  my 
leave  with  the  best  feelings  towards  you  all,  wishing  you  health, 
continued  prosperity,  and  the  benefit  of  these  anticipated  improve¬ 
ments  for  your  children.* 

Mr.  Campb»ll  rises. 

Mr.  Owen,  in  his  last  address,  has  given  in  his  own  experience, 
a  refutation  of  his  whole  system.  lie  has  affirmed,  that  the  circum¬ 
stances  which  surrounded  him  did  not  first  originate  the  idea  of  the 
social  system.  If  so,  then  circumstances  have  not  an  absolute 
control  over  men.  If  Mr.  Owen,  in  defiance  of  the  powder  of  circum¬ 
stances,  did,  out  of  the  rubbish  of  six  thousand  years,  dig  up  th^ 
twelve  gems,  and  originate  the  social  system,  why  may  not  millions 
of  as  bright  geniuses  arise,  superior  to  the  circumstances  that  sur¬ 
round  them,  and  originate  new  ideas  and  discover  new  lawrs,  sub¬ 
versive  of  all  former  lights,  knowledge,  and  experience?  But  how 
Mr.  Owen  may  reconcile  what  he  now7  said  concerning  the  origina¬ 
tion  of  the  social  system,  and  that  spoken  on  a  former  occasion,  I 
pause  not  now  to  inquire. 

This  assembly  is  now  witness  that  I  sat  down,  that  Mr.  Owen 
might  defend  his  sixth  law,  if  he  could;  and  that  he  did  not  make  a 
single  effort.  ’Tis  true,  indeed,  he  called  upon  me  to  produce  some 
case,  as  an  example,  where  belief  depended  upon  volition.  He  said 
I  could,  not  give  any.  He  might,  with  a  regard  to  truth,  have  said, 

*Mr.  Owen’s  speeches,  delivered  on  Monday  and  Tuesday,  are  not  printed 
from  the  Stenographer's  Report,  but  from  Mr.  Owen’s  own  publication  of  them. 
As  they  are  somewhat  improved  in  his  publication,  I  preferred  giving  them  in 
the  best  possible  form.  This  will  explain  the  words  enclosed  in  brackets^ 


DEBATE, 


jOtS 

I  did  not  give  any ;  but  unless  he  knew  my  thoughts  I  cannot  see  on 
what  grounds  he  could  say,  I  could  not  give  any.  We  will,  however* 
try. 

There  was  one  Col.  Sharp,  of  Frankfort,  Kentucky,  that  was 
some  time  since  assassinated  by  one  Jeremiah  O,  Beauchamp.  For 
some  time  no  person  knew  who  the  perpetrator  of  this  foulest  of  deeds 
was.  No  person  as  yet  believed  that  Jeremiah  O.  Beauchamp  was 
the  assassin.  But  indignation,  duty,  interest,  and  curiosity,  put  all 
upon  the  inquiry.  Every  one  is  resolved,  determines,  or,  if  you 
please,  puts  forth  a  volition,  or  wills  to  search  for  evidences  to  pro¬ 
duce  faith.  Every  trace,  every  whisper,  and  every  circumstance, 
are  explored,  until  a  chain  of  evidence,  so  powerful,  and  so  minute, 
is  accumulated  as  authorizes  a  jury,  under  the  most  soletnn  sanc¬ 
tions  of  law  and  religion,  to  bring  in  a  verdict  of  guilty.  Every 
person,  here,  believed  that  Jeremiah  O.  Beauchamp  was  the  assassin. 
Now  the  question  is,  Had  not  the  volition  or  determination  of  many 
individuals ,  in  this  case,  some  infuence  upon  their  beliefs;  or,  in 
other  words,  did  not  the  obtaining  of  the  evidences,  necessary  to 
conviction,  depend  upon  the  volitions  of  those  concerned  in  tracing 
up  the  matter?  I  hope  Mr.  Owen  will  no  rrrore  assert  “That  our 
faith,  in  no  case ,  depends  upon  our  volitions.” 

But  am  I  not  warranted  in  saying,  that  Mr.  Owen  has  closed  this 
discussion  without  even  an  attempt  to  prove  four  of  his  positions? 
He  had  five  independent  positions.  Now  to  prove  these  fve,  required 
a  special  induction  of  reasons,  arguments,  and  proofs,  with  a  direct 
bearing  upon  each  of  them;  but  this  has  not  been  attempted.— 
He  relied  upon  the  repetition  of  his  twelve  laws,  and  upon  his  com¬ 
ments  upon  the  same  twelve,  to  prove  the  whole  five ;  as  if  identical 
propositions,  This  may  pass  for  logic,  among  sceptics;  but  cannot, 
among  Christians, 

But,  as  night  with  its  sable  wings,  is  fast  embracing  us,  I  must 
hasten.  I  had  intended  to  have  presented  you  with  a  correct  and 
concentrated  -view  of  the  whole  of  my  arguments;  but  this  would 
occupy  too  much  time,  I  can  only,  therefore,  wuth  any  regard  to 
your  patience,  and  circumstances,  just  state  the  principal  topics 
from  which  we  argued  the  Divine  authority  of  our  holy  religion. 

Finding,  as  I  soon  did,  after  our  commencement,  that  Mr.  Owen 
had  no  idea  of  adducing  any  logical  proof  of  his  propositions,  but 
that  he  was  about  to  indulge  in  a  latitude  of  declamation  on  his 
social  system,  and  other  matters  and  things  having  no  logical  con¬ 
nexion  with  the  points  at  issue,  and  after  various  fruitless  efforts, 
on  my  part,  and  on  that  of  the  Board  of  Moderators,  to  draw  his 
attention  to  the  real  merits  of  the  discussion.  I  proceeded  to  examine 
the  ancient  and  modern  systems  of  sceptiscism,  for  the  purpose  of 
proving  this  important  point;  that,  so  soon  as  men,  called  philoso¬ 
phers,  sages,  or  what  you  please,  rejected  revelation,  and  embarked  on 
board  of  their  own  reason^  they  were,  to  a  man,  shipwrecked.  Not 
one  of  them  ever  reached  a  safe  haven,  and  such  of  them  as  were 
not  wrecked  upon  some  latent  rock,  foundered  at  sea1-t  Nothing 


DEBATE. 


19? 


but  contradiction  among  themselves;  new  mysteries,  and  universal 
doubt  attended  their  progress.  And  in  fact,  the  fnost  irrational  and 
absurd  opinions  uniformly  forced  themselves  into  their  minds,  so 
soon  as  they  had  emptied  themselves  of  all  biblical  ideas. 

Mr.  Owen  told  us  that  we  must  have  a  separate  religion  for  each 
individual,  because  of  the  difference  in  human  organization,  not 
seeing,  that  upon  the  same  principles,  he  must  have  a  different  social 
system  for  each  individual,  and  that  no  two  sceptics  who  had  ever 
written,  agreed  upon  any  one  system  of  doubting.  Even  Mr.  Owen 
himself,  has  made  a  new  system,  or  at  least  has  new  modified  sev¬ 
eral  old  ones,  to  please  himself.  Thus  we  have  seen  the  intellec¬ 
tual  aberrations,  and  the  moral  tendencies  of  all  the  systems  of 
doubting.  As  I  presume  the  new  sects  in  Christendom,  will,  by 
their  rapid  increase  and  geometrical  progression,  soon  fritter  them¬ 
selves  down  to  nothing;  in  other  terms,  the  multiplication  of  isms, 
will  make  them  all  of  none  effect,  and  teach  all  Christians  the  ne¬ 
cessity  of  making  facts ,  and  not  opinions,  the  basis  of  all  church 
union;  so  the  impossibility  of  any  two  sceptics  projecting  any  thing 
like  a  system  in  which  they  can  agree,  has  made  it  a  forlorn  hope 
for  sceptics  ever  to  rise  higher  than  to  a  system  of  doubting. 


After  carrying  the  war  into  the  enemies  country  and  exploring 
the  weakness  of  his  fortresses,  and  the  poverty  of  his  resources,  our 
next  object  was  to  erect  an  impassable  wall  between  his  dominions 
and  ours,  by  showing,  philosophically ,  that  man  could  never  have 
invented  any  religion,  not  even  the  most  rude;  that  all  these  were 
mere  corruptions ,  not  inventions  of  the  ancient  nations.  That  in 
truth,  the  most  barbarous  superstitions  upon  the  earth,  have  in  them 
supernatural  ideas ,  which  no  mere  rla.an  ever  could  have  originated. 
In  one  sentence,  I  think,  we  may  say,  it  was  proved,  that  it  is 
as  far  beyond  our  intellectual  powers  to  originate  a  religion  of  any 
sort,  as  it  is  beyond  our  physical  powers  to  create  out  of  nothing  a 
stone,  or  a  tree.  Our  third  item,  or  distinct  chapter  of  arguments, 
was  the  establishment  of  the  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,  and  the 
certain  Divine  origin  of  the  Jews  religion,  proved  by  all  the  criteria 
of  Leslie  which  establish  the  truth  of  ancient  facts,  from  the  sym¬ 
bols  of  that  religion,  and  the  archives  of  all  the  ancient  nations  of 
the  world.  Our  Fourth  chapter  contained  the  historic  evidences  of 
the  Christian  religion;  our  fifth  the  prophetic  annunciations  of  both 
testaments;  the  sixth  the  genius  and  tendency  of  the  Christian 
religion;  and  the  seventh  the  social  system.  These  were  the  great 
chapters  of  this  discussion;  though  much  incommoded,  disturbed, 
arid  broken  in  upon,  by  the  obliquity  of  Mr.  Owen’s  course.  Still, 
I  hatter  myself,  when  the  whole  is  comprized  together  in  one  volume 
it  will  prove  at  least  that  no  Christian  has  any  reason  to  blush,  or 
be  ashamed  of  the  foundation  of  his  hope,  or  of  his  religion.  Nay, 
more;  that  the  Christian  religion  is  most  certainly  the  institution  of 
him  who  built  the  universe,  and  gave  to  man  his  dominion  over  the 
animal,  the  vegetable,  and  mineral  kingdoms.  That  it  is  as  clearly 


m.  ii* 


17 


I  OS  DEBATE, 

the  work  of  an  infinite  understanding  as  the  sun  is  the  work  of  an 
almighty  hand. 

Before  closing  this  my  last  address  to  you,  my  respected  auditors, 
I  beg  leave  to  read  you  two  extracts  from  my  Christian  Baptist, 
Vol.  5.  page  257.  These  remarks  though  written  a  year  ago,  seem 
to  me  every  way  suited  to  the  present  occasion.  The  first  is  titled 
the  Triumphs  of  Scepticism .  The  second  the  Triumphs  of  Christi¬ 
anity. 

THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  SCEPTICISM. 

When  scepticism  triumphs  in  any  heart,  the  hope  of  immortality  is 
banished.  It  crowns  the  tyrant  Death  forever  on  his  throne,  and 
seals  the  conquests  of  the  grave  over  the  whole  human  race.  It 
wraps  the  tomb  in  eternal  darkness,  and  suffers  not  one  particle  of 
the  remains  of  the  great,  the  wise,  and  the  good  of  all  ages,  to  see 
the  light  of  eternity;  but  consigns,  by  an  irreversible  doom,  all  that 
was  admired,  loved,  and  revered  in  man,  to  perpetual  annihilation.  It 
identifies  human  existence  with  the  vilest  reptile,  and  levels  man  to 
the  grade  of  the  meanest  weed,  whose  utility  is  yet  undiscovered, 
Man’s  origin  and  his  destiny  are  to  its  ken  alike  fortuitous,  unimpor¬ 
tant,  and  uninteresting.  Having  robbed  him  of  every  thing  which 
could  make  him  dear  to  himself  and  proud  of  his  existence,  it  murders 
all  his  hopes  of  future  being  and  future  bliss.  It  cuts  the  cable  and 
casts  away  the  golden  anchor;  it  sets  man  adrift  on  the  mighty,  un¬ 
fathomable,  and  unexplored  ocean  of  uncertainty,  to  become  the  sport 
of  the  wind  and  waves  of  animal  passion  and  appetite;  until,  at  last, 
in  some  tremendous  gust,  “he  sinks  to  everlasting  ruin.”  Say,  then, 
proud  reasoner,  of  what  utility  is  your  philosophy  ?  What  your  boast? 

You  boast  that  vou  have  made  man  ignorant  of  his  origin  and  a 
stranger  to  himself.  You  boast  that  you  have  deprived  him  of  any 
real  superiority  over  the  bee,  the  bat,  or  the  beaver;  that  you  have 
divested  him  of  the  highest  inducements  to  a  virtuous  life  by  taking 
away  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  hope  of  heaven.  You  boast 
that  you  have  made  Death  triumphant,  not  only  over  the  body,  but 
the  intellectual  dignity  of  man:  and  that  you  have  buried  bis  soul 
and  body  in  the  grave  of  an  eternal  sleep,  never  to  see  the  light  of 
life  again!  O  Scepticism!  is  this  thy  philosophy — is  this  thy  boasted 
victory  over  the  Bible!  And  for  this  extinguishment  of  light  and 
life  eternal,  what  dost  thou  teach  and  what  bestow!  Thou  teachest 
ns  to  live  according  to  our  appetites,  and  dost  promise  us  that  in  thy 
Millennium  man  shall  live  in  a  Paradise  of  colonies,  almost  as  indus 
trious,  as  independent,  and  as  social  as  the  bees.  Well  then  dost 
thou  preach  with  zeal,  and  exert  thy  energies;  for  thy  heaven  is 
worthy  of  thy  efforts,  and  the  purity^  of  thy  life  is  just  adapted  to  the 
high  hopes  of  eternal  annihilation! 

THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  CIIRISTl’ANITY. 

A  true  believer  and  practitioner  of  the  Christian  religion,  is  com¬ 
pletely  and  perfectly  divested  of  a  guilty  conscience,  and  the  conse¬ 
quent,  fear  of  death.  The  very  end  ami  intention  of  God’s  being 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  in  the  person  of  Jesus  our  Saviour,  was  to  do- 


DEBATE, 


190 


Iivrer  them,  “who,  through  fear  of  death,  were  all  their  lifetime  subject 
to  slavery,”  Jesus  lias  done  this.  He  has  abolished  death,  and  brought 
life  and  immortality*to  light.  He  has  given  strength  to  his  disciples 
to  vanquish  death,  and  make  them  triumph  over  the  grave;  so  that  a 
living  ora  dying  Christian  can  with  truth  say,  “O  Death,  where  now 
thy  sting!  6  Grave,  where  now  thy  victory!”  He  conquered  both, 
and  by  faith  in  him  we  conquer  both.  This  is  the  greatest  victory 
e  ver  was  obtained.  To  see  a  Christian  conquer  him  who  had  for  ages 
conquered  all,  is  the  sublimest  scene  ever  witnessed  by  human  eyes. 
And  this  may  be  seen  as  often  as  we  see  a  true  Christian  die.  I  know 
that  a  perverted  system  of  Christianity  inspires  its  votaries  with  the 
fear  of  death,  because  it  makes  doubts  and  fears  Christian  virtues. 
But  this  religion  is  not  of  God.  His  Son  died  that  we  might  not  fear 
to  die;  and  he  went  down  to  the  grave  to  show  us  the  path  up  to  life 
again,  and  thus  to  make  us  victorious  over  the  king  of  tyrants,  and 
fhe  tyrant  over  kings.  They  understand  not  his  religion,  who  are 
"not  triumphant  over  those  guilty  fears.  The  guilty  only  can  fear, 
and  the  guilty  are  not  acquainted  with  the  character,  mission,  and 
achievements  of  Jesus  our  Life.  No  one  taught  of  God  can  fear 
these  horrors  of  the  wicked.  Jesus  Christ  made  no  covenant  with 
Death;  he  signed  no  articles  of  capitulation  with  the  horrible  de¬ 
stroyer.  He  took  his  armor  away;  he  bound  him  in  an  invincible 
chain,  and  taught  him  only  to  open  the  door  of  immortality  to  all  his 
friends. 

A  Christian,  then,  must  triumph  and  always  rejoice.  Our  gloomy 
systems  say,  Rejoice  not  always,  but  afflict  your  souls:  whereas  the 
Apostles  say,  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always ;  and  again  we  say,  Rejoice, 
The  gospel  as  defined  by  the  angels  of  God,  is,  glad  tidings  of 
great  joy;  and  who  can  believe  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  and 
not  rejoice?  Deists,  Atheists,  and  the  whole  host  of  Sceptics  may 
doubt,  for  this  is  their  whole  system;  the  wicked,  the  guilty,  and  the 
vile  may  fear,  for  this  is  the  natural  issue  of  their  lives;  but  how  a 
a  Christian,  knowing  the  Lord,  believing  the  promises,  and  confiding 
in  the  achievements  of  the  Saviour,  can  doubt  or  fear  as  respects 
death  or  the  grave,  is  inconceivable*  Thanks  be  to  God  who  gives 
us  the  victory! 

Some  persons  may  doubt  whether  they  are  Christians;  and  some 
may  fear  the  pain  of  dying  as  they  would  the  toothache,  or  a  dislo¬ 
cated  joint;  but  that  a  Christian  should  fear  either  death  or  the  grave, 
is  out  of  character  altogether.  For  this  is  the  very  drift,  scope,  and 
end  of  his  religion.  They  who  are  under  the  influence  of  such  fears 
and  doubts,  have  much  reason  to  fear  and  doubt  whether  ever  they 
have  known  or  believed  the  truth,  the  gospel  of  salvation.  But  a 
Christian  in  fact,  or  one  who  deserves  the  name,  is  made  to  rejoice 
and  triumph  in  the  prospects  of  death  and  the  grave.  And  wh\  ? 
Because  his  Lord  has  gone  before  him — because  his  rest,  his  home, 
his  eternal  friends  and  associates,  his  heaven,  his  God,  all  his  joys  are 
beyond  the  grave.  Not  to  know  this,  is  to  be  ignorant  of  the  favor  of 
God;  not  to  believe  this,  is  to  doubt  the  philanthropy  of  God;  not  to 


300 


DEBATE. 


rejoice  in  this,  is  to  reject  the  gospel,  and  to  judge  ourselves  unworthy 
of  eternal  life.  But  the  Christian  religion  is  not  to  be  reproached 
because  of  the  ignorance  or  unbelief  of  those  who  profess  it.  All 
rivers  do  not  more  naturally  run  down  the  declivities  and  wind  their 
courses  to  the  ocean,  than  the  Christian  religion  leads  its  followers  to 
the  sure,  and  certain,  and  triumphant  hopes  of  immortality. 

Before  we  dismiss  this  assembly  I  beg  leave  to  express  my  sensi¬ 
bility,  my  admiration  of  the  marked  and  courteous  attention  which 
has  been  paid  by  this  community  to  this  discussion.  I  must  again 
repeat  that  I  have  never  seen  any  assembly  convened  upon  any 
occasion  which  has  all  through  exhibited  the  same  good  order,  the 
same  complaisant  behaviour,  and  the  same  unremitted  attention. 
I  feel  indebted  to,  and  will  ever  feel  a  high  respect  for,  the  citizens  of 
this  city,  for  the  favorable  circumstances  which  they  have  created 
for  this  debate,  and  especially  to  the  gentlemen  who  have  so  politely 
and  so  patiently  presided  over  this  meeting. 

But  1  should  be  wanting  to  you,  my  friends,  and  the  cause 
which  I  plead,  if  I  should  dismiss  you  without  making  to  you  a  very 
important  proposition.  You  know  that  this  discussion  is  matter  for 
the  press.  You  know  that  every  encomium  which  has  been  pro¬ 
nounced  upon  your  exemplary  behaviour  will  go  with  the  Report  of 
this  discussion.  You  will  remember,  too,  that  many  indignities  have 
been  offered  to  your  faith,  to  your  religion,  and  that  these  reproaches 
and  indignities  have  been  only  heard  with  pity  and  not  marked  with 
the  least  resentment  on  your  part.  Now  I  must  tell  you  that  a  prob¬ 
lem  will  arise  in  the  minds  of  those  living  five  hundred  or  a  thousand 
miles  distant  who  may  read  this  discussion,  whether  it  was  owing  to 
a  perfect  apathy  or  indifference  on  your  part ,  as  to  any  interest  you 
felt  in  the  Christian  religion ,  that  you  bore  all  these  insults  without 
seeming  to  hear  them .  In  fine,  the  question  will  be,  whether  it  was 
owing  to  the  stoical  indifference  of  fatalism,  to  the  prevalence  of 
in -fidelity;  or ,  to  the  meekness  and  forbearance  vjhich  Christianity 
teaches ,  that  you  bore  all  these  indignities  without  a  single  expres¬ 
sion  of  disgust.  Now  I  desire  no  more  than  that  this  good  and 
Christian  like  deportment  may  be  credited  to  the  proper  account. — 
If  it  be  owing  to  your  concurrence  in  sentiment  with  Mr.  Owen,  let 
scepticism  have  the  honor  of  it.  But  if  owing  to  your  belief  in,  or 
regard  for  the  Christian  religion,  let  the  Christian  religion  have  the 
honor  of  it.  These  things  premised,  my  proposition  is  that  all  the 
persons  in  this  assembly  who  believe  in  the  Christian  religion  or  who 
feel  so  much  interest  in  it,  as  to  wish  to  see  it  pervade  the  world ,  will 
please  to  signify  it  by  standing  up.  [An  almost  universal  rising  up.] 

Here  Mr.  Campbell  says,  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  be  seated. 

Now  I  would  further  propose,  that  all  persons  doubtful  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  or  who  do  not  believe  it,  and  who  arc 
not  friendly  to  its  spread  and  prevalence  over  the  world,  will  please 
signify  it  by  rising  up.  [three  arise.] 


DEBATE. 


201 


Mr.  Owen  rise£. 

Gentlemen  moderators — It  has  just  occurred  to  me  that  I  had 
forgotten  to  tender  my  thanks  to  you  for  your  presence  and  superin¬ 
tendence  on  this  occasion,  which  I  now  beg  leave  to  do.  And  I  may 
add,  I  am  much  plaased  with  Mr.  Campbell’s  little  manoevre  of  the 
test,  because  I  discover  it  pleases  him  and  his  friends.  Truth 
requires  no  such  support.  [Candles  called  for.] 

Mr.  Campbell  rises. 

While  we  are  waiting  for  light,  I  will  move  that  the  thanks  of  this 
whole  assembly  be  presented  to  the  Board  of  Moderators,  and  put 
upon  record. — JSemine  contradicente. 

Adjournement  sine  die. 

CHARLES  HOWARD  SYMMES. 

Reporter . 


REVIEW  OF  MR.  OWEN’S  BOOK. 


BEFORE  publishing  the  appendix  stipulated  in  our  conditions,  I 
am,  from  the  circumstances  which  Mr.  Owen  has  thrown  around  me, 
obliged  to  notice  a  work  vaguely  denominated  on  the  outside,  “ Owen's 
View  of  Public  Discussion but  in  the  inside,  “Robert  Owen’s  Open¬ 
ing  Speech  and  his  Reply  to  the  Rev.  Alexander  Campbell  in  the  recent 
Public  Discussion  in  Cincinatti ,  to  prove  that  all  Religions  in  the 
world  are  erroneous ,  fycP  together  with  matters  and  things  pertain¬ 
ing  to  Mr.  Owen’s  tour  to  Mexico — “ sold  by  every  book-seller  in 
Europe  and  America .” 

Never  was  there  depicted  in  the  Face  of  any  sinner  the  ruling 
passion  of  his  soul  with  more  incontestible  plainness,  than  is  the  ruling 
spirit  of  this  little  book  in  its  title  page.  It  shows  that  the  author  is 
not  unacquainted  with  the  existing  deceptions  practised  in  old  society, 
nor  with  those  ingenious  arts  of  circumvention  which  are  the  crying 
sins  of  the  commercial  and  trading  world.  ’Tis  only  one  I  have 
stolen,  says  the  little  culprit  $,t  school,  when  detected  in  the  first 
buddings  of  his  roguish  passion,  ’tis  only  one ,  sir — yes,  but  two  or 
three  more  are  found  in  his  pocket.  So  the  title  says,  “Robert  Owen’s 
opening  speech but  before  we  have  got  half  through  the  book  we 
come  to  “the  Author’s  concluding  speech and  before  we  have  read  to 
the  end  of  this  concluding  speech ,  we  find  four  speeches,  one  spoken 
on  Monday  evening,  one  occupying  the  forenoon  of  Tuesday,  and 
one  or  two  in  the  afternoon :  then  we  come  to  one  called  the  “ conclu 
ding  address .”  So  while  Mr.  Owen’s  book  only  promises  to  give  the 
opening  speech ,  he  gives  that  and  all  the  speches  he  made  on  the  last 
two  days  of  the  debate.  It  also  promises  in  the  title  a  “Reply  to  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Campbell,”  in  addition  to  the  opening  speech.  But 
never  a  reply  is  found  in  it,  unless  we  call  his  concluding  speeches 
his  reply.  Instead  of  a  reply  to  my  arguments,  the  author  gives, 
after  his  “opening  speech,”  what  he  had  written  upon  his  “twelve 
divine  laws”  before  he  arrived  at  Cincinnati;  so  that  this  book  of  the 
opening  speech  contains  Mr.  Owen’s  social  system,  and  the  cream  of 
all  the  speeches  made  during  the  discussion.  A  modest,  blushing 
title  page  truly!  Bit  why  this  faltering  and  timidity  apparent  in  the 
title?  The  secret  is  here:  Mr.  Owen  sold  all  his  speeches  in  selling 
the  right  to  publish  the  Debate;  but,  under  the  influence  of  the  new 
circumstances  which  surrounded  him  after  the  discussion  closed,  he 
was,  by  that  unalterable  necessity  which  destroys  all  free  agency, 
all  religion,  morality,  an  d  good  faith,  compelled  a  second  time  to  sell 
those  very  speeches  which  he  had  sold.  Therefore,  the  title  page,  ex¬ 
hibiting  still  some  of  the  compunctions  growing  out  of  the  old  system 
of  society,  says,  “ His  only  one ” — the  opening  speech.  But,  perhaps, 
Mr.  Owen  thinks  that,  in  a  commercial  world,  it  is  all  just  and  right  to 
soil  an  article  first  in  the  wholesale  way,  and  then  to  sell  it  in  retail,- 


204 


REVIEW. 


He  first  sells  the  web,  and  then  cuts  off  a  few  coat  patterns  and  sells 
them  in  retail.  I  should  not  have  grudged  Mr.  Owen  one  coat  pattern 
for  himself  if  he  had  asked  me  for  it.  I  know  he  felt  his  nakedness, 
.and  did  not  like  to  appear  out  of  Cincinnati,  until  he  had  got  a  new 
suit  to  obtain  him  respect  among  his  disciples  abroad.  But,  really, 

1  demur  at  hi$  selling  so  many  pieces  off  the  same  web  for  which  I  paid 
so  dear. 

One  of  two  conclusions  we  are  compelled  to  adopt  on  reviewing 
this  “opening  speech”  book :  either  Mr.  Owen  intended  to  make  it  a 
lucrative  business ;  or  he  determined  to  save  himself  from  what  he  then 
knew,  felt,  and  anticipated  would  be,  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the 
appearance  of  the  Debate.  That  ^  was  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of 
the  publication  of  our  discussion,  there  cannot  remain  a  doubt  from 
the  contents  of  the  book  itself,  as  well  as  from  many  other  circum 
stances .  A  desire  to  discredit,  or  to  disparage  the  report  furnished  by 
Mr.  Symms,  is  very  apparent.  It  is  true,  indeed,  he  pretends  not  to 
give  any  of  my  speeches  or  arguments;  but  he  tells  his  readers  that 
I  am  about  to  give  a  “full  history  of  the  discussion”  Now,  as  1 
observed  to  Mr.  Owen  after  he  presented  me  with  a  copy  of  his  book 
on  his  return  from  Cincinnati,  the  history  of  a  battle  and  the  battle 
itself  are  two  very  different  things;  so  the  history  of  our  debate  and 
the  debate  itself  are  just  as  different  things.  Why,  then,  said  I,  did 
you  call  the  report  of  Mr.  Symms  only  a  “ history  of  the  discussion 
when  it  is  the  discussion  itself?  Injustice  to  Mr.  Owen,  I  must  pub¬ 
lish  his  reply :  “By  the  word  history ,”  said  he,  “I  mean  the  full  ac¬ 
count.  I  used  the  word  history  as  it  is  used  in  England.  I  find  many 
words  are  not  used  in  this  country  in  the  same  acceptation  which  they 
have  in  England.”  So,  then,  the  full  history  of  a  discussion  and  the 
discussion  itself  are  of  the  same  import  in  England ! 

But  again — “Independent,”  says  he,  “of  every  other  reason  for  the 
emission  in  this  book  of  the  mere  wordy  part  of  the  discussion,  be¬ 
tween  the  parties,  it  is  believed  that  the  facts  herein  stated,  and  the 
deductions  from  them,  and  their  application  to  practice,  will  render 
all  the  speculations,  on  the  subject  of  religion,  nugatory.”  In  good 
old  English,  this  means  that  Mr.  Owen’s  opening  speech  hook  gives  all 
his  arguments  except  the  wordy  part  of  them;  or  he  means  the  wordy 
part  is  all  mine.  Even  all  his  own  speeches,  except  “the  opening  one” 
are  doomed  to  the  character  of “vox  et  prcetcrea  nihil,”  sound  and  no¬ 
thing  else,  by  Mr.  Owen  himself.  Surely,  then,  this  is  a  high  enco¬ 
mium  on  Mr.  Owen’s  book.  Nothing  but  the  clean  wheat  in  it.  In 
mine  the  chaff  and  wheat  combined !  Now  I  cannot,  in  reason,  con¬ 
demn  Mr.  Owen  for  calling  the  majority  of  Ids  speeches,  the  “ mere 
wordy  part  or  pronouncing  any  opinion  of  them  which  he  pleases; 
butT  say  it  is  not  compatible  with  the  Christian  idea  of  justice  to  con¬ 
demn  without  a  hearing,  or  to  prejudge  for  others,  and  to  talk  thus  of 
my  speeches  to  disparage  them  before  they  appear. 

But  without  being  farther  tedious,  we  must  make  great  allowances  .  i 
for  Mr.  Owen.  He  is  almost  the  only  rational  man  in  the  midst  of  an 
insane  world.  Ileace  says  he,  “The  utmost  ingenuity  of  the  bureau 


REVIEW. 


20a 


mind,  (of  an  insane  world!)  has  been  exerted,  without  success, for  sev¬ 
eral  thousand  years,  to  convince  the  reasonable  part  of  mankind,  of  the 
truth  and  value  of  religion.”  No  reasonable  man  can  discover  any 
truth  or  value  in  religion!! 

Such  simpletons  only  as  Ferguson,  Euler,  Pascal,  Whiston,  Adams, 
Boyle,  Bacon,  Locke,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  and  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,* 
among  the  philosophers;  such  simpletons  only  as  Beattie,  Rob- 
ertson,  Hawkesworth,  Dr.  Johnson,  Steel,  and  Addison,  among  the 
moralists;  such  simpletons  only  as  Spencer,  Waller,  Cowley,  Prior, 
Gray,  Thomson,  Dr.  Young,  Milton,  and  Cowper,  among  the  poets  ; 
such  simpletons  only  as  Arbuthnot,  Cheyne,  Brown,  Boerhave,  Prin¬ 
gle,  Hartley,  Hervey,  Haller,  Mead,  Fothergill,  and  Rush,  among  the 
physicians ;  such  simpletons  only  as  Bentley,  Henry,  Pool,  Owen  of 
Cambridge,  Butler,  Michaelis,  Clark,  Bonner,  Campbell  of  Aberdeen, 
Berkley,  Sherlock,  Scott,  Cudworth,  Doddridge,  Lardner,  Pearson, 
Taylor,  Usher,  Watts,  Macknighf,  Moore,  Mead,  Vitringa,  Luther, 
Calvin,  Melancthon;  Zuinglius,  Erasmus,  Beza,  Claude,  Warburton, 
Leslie,  and  Wesley,  among  the  teachers  of  Christianity;  such  simple¬ 
tons  only  as  Sir  John  Barnum,  Lord  Harrington,  Lord  Cassel,  Hyde, 
Somers,  Littleton,  Barrington,  King,  Culler,  Pultney,  Soame  Jenyns, 
Charles  Thompson,  Sir  John  Mason,  Gustav  us  Adolphus^  George 
Washington,  among  statesmen;  such  simpletons  only  as  Judge  Hale, 
Mel  moth,  Pratt,  Hailes,  Forbes,  Jones,  Blackstone,  Lord  Russel,  Er- 
skine,  Seldon,  and  Grotius,  among  the  counsellors  and  judges — I  sa)’ 
only  such  simpletons  as  these,  and  m}rriads  of  equal  renown,  of  all 
ages,  are  so  unreasonable  as  to  seejany  truth  or  excellence  in  religion. 
But  such  rational  and  moral  men  as  Hobbes,  Servin,  V  oltaire,  Fran  ¬ 
cis  Newport,  Volney,  Thomas  Paine,  Gibbon,  Hume,  Rousseau,  Mira 
baud,  Chesterfield,  Altamont,  Emmerson,  and  my  friend  Robert  Owen  v 
such  distinguished  rationalists  as  these  have  seen,  and  can  see  no  truth 
nor  value  in  Religion. 

Mr.  Owen,  if  we  could  suppose  him  sincere  and  without  guile,  is 
one  of  the  most  pliant  and  yielding  of  mankind,  and  all  out  of  respect 
for  the  feelings  of  an  insane  world.  I  owe  him  much  for  preferring, 
m  every  instance,  to  gratify  my  feelings  to  his  own.  He  yielded  all  the 
preliminary  arrangements  to  my  wishes.  Yes,  indeed,  because  I 
would  insist  that  all  public  discussions  required  the  disputants  to  speak 

•Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  lately  deceased,  gave  the  following  testimony.  He 
was  the  greatest  natural  philosopher  of  this  age: — 

“I  envy  no  quality  of  the  mind  or  intellect  in  others;  no  genius,  power,  wit, 
or  fancy;  but  if  l  could  choose  what  would  be  most  delightful  to  me,  1  should 
prefer  a  firm  religious  belief  to  every  other  blessing;  for  it  makes  life  a  discipline 
of  goodness — breathes  new  hopes  when  all  earthly  hopes  vanish;  and  throws 
over  the  decay,  the  destruction  of  existence,  the  most  gorgeous  of  all  light; 
awakens  life  in  death,  and  from  corruption  and  decay  calls  up  beauty  and  divin¬ 
ity;  makes  an  instrument  of  torture  and  of  shame,  the  ladder  of  ascent  to  para¬ 
dise;  and  far  above  all  combinations  of  earthly  hopes,  calls  up  the  most  delight¬ 
ful  visions  of  palms  and  amaranths,  the  gardens  of  the  blest,  the  security  of  ever¬ 
lasting  joys,  where  the  sensualist  and  the  sceptic  only  view  gloom,  decay, 
annihilation,  and  despair!” 

VOL.  11. 


18 


206 


REVIEW. 


alternately  in  some  reasonable  periods,  and  not  that  one  should  speak 
all  and  the  other  listen,  or  that  one  should  read  a  written  treatise  for 
two  days,  and  the  other  reply  to  it  in  a  speech  of  two  days  more,  or 
not  at  all,  as  he  pleased — I  say,  because  I  would  have  it  a  debate,  af 
ter  he  had  challenged  the  world  for  a  debate,  and  would  not  consent 
to  Mr.  Owen’s  reading,  without  a  reply,  a  written  treatise  of  nearly 
200  pages  foolscap  folio,  until  he  should  have  worn  out  the  patience 
of  the  audience,  I  acted  without  reason ;  and  he,  out  of  condescen 
sion  to  my  weakness, “ yielded  to  my  wishes .”  just  as  a  philosopher 
would  to  a  child.  My  wishes  and  Mr.  Owen’s  reason  were,  in  this 
case,  only  antipodes.  But  the  insane  world  will  have  to  decide  who 
acted  most  rationally  in  this  case.  But  this  complaisant  yielding  to 
my  wishes  is  told  for  the  sake^of  finding  a  pretext  for  the  “Opening 
speech”  book — and  for  a  new  treatise  on  his  Utopian  projects  in  Mexi¬ 
co;  to  call  the  attention  of  the  public  from  the  Cincinnati  catastrophe; 
to  feed  the  hitherto  deluded  hopes  of  his  rational  free  inquiring  follow¬ 
ers — This  yielding  to  my  wishes  laid  the  foundation  of  Mr.  Owen’s  vi¬ 
olating  the  obligations  of  a  solemn  engagement.  I  did  not  before  know 
that  true  politeness  required  a  gentleman  to  violate  the  obligations  of 
justice  and  good  faith. 

But  we  shall  here  exhibit  Mr.  Owen’s  reasons  for  this  “Opening 
speech”  book — page  5. 

“When  Mr.  Alexander  Campbell  and  the  author  met,  after  their 
arrival  at  Cincinnati,  it  became  necessary  to  arrange  the  mode  of 
conducting  the  debate. 

“The  author  proposed  that,  he  should  state  the  facts  and  argu¬ 
ments  in  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  principles  which  he  had  undertaken 
to  establish  ;  that,  after  due  time  for  consideration,  Mr.  Campbell 
should  answer  this  statement  by  agreeing  or  dissenting,  according 
to  his  conviction;  and  that  the  author  should  reply  to  Mr.  Campbell’s 
objections,  if  any  were  made. 

“This  was  the  regular  and  natural  mode  of  proceeding;  but  Mr. 
Campbell  was  not  prepared  for  it,  and  said  it  was  contrary  to  the  plan 
adopted  in  his  former  debates.  He  had  been  accustomed  to  speak 
alternately,  every  thirty  minutes,  with  his  opponent,  and  he  very 
much  wished  to  be  allowed  to  pursue  the  same  course  in  the  present 
case. 

“The  author,  influenced  byr  the  same  principles  which  he  advo¬ 
cated  in  the  debate,  preferred  the  gratification  of  Mr.  Campbell’s 
feelings  to  his  own,  and  acceeded  to  his  wishes. 

“He  did  so  the  more  readily,  because  he  felt  confident  of  the  truth 
of  the  facts  and  deductions  which  he  intended  to  make  from  them., 
and  equally  so  that  Mr.  Campbell  had  to  defend  popular  notions, 
founded  solely  in  the  errors  of  his  education. 

“But  by  yielding  to  Mr.  Campbell’s  wishes,  the  necessity,  was 
created  for  this  publication,  that  the  public  might  have  a  connected 
view  of  the  author’s  reasons  for  rejecting  all  religions,  as  they  are 
now  taught  and  practised  by  the  world.” 


REVIEW. 


207 


-•This  work  contains  no  part  of  Mr.  Alexander  Campbell’s  argu¬ 
ments  in  opposition  to  the  author’s  statements,  or  in  favor  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

“These  will  be  given  at  large  in  the  work  which  Mr.  Campbell  is 
editing,  which  will  contain  a  full  history  of  the  discussion.  After 
the  utmost  ingenuity  of  the  human  mind  has  been  exerted,  without 
success,  for  several  thousand  years,  to  convince  the  reasonable  part 
of  mankind  of  the  truth  and  value  of  religion,  nothing  new  upon 
the  subject  can  be  expected  now,  or  at  any  subsequent  period.  It  is 
said,  without  success ,  for  if  it  had  been  otherwise,  the  late  public 
discussion  could  not  have  taken  place.” 

“But  independent  of -every  other  reason  for  the  omission  in  this 
work  of  the  mere  wordy  part  of  the  discussion  between  the  parties, 
it  is  believed  that  the  facts  herein  stated,  with  the  deductions  from 
them,  and  their  application  to  practice,  will  render  all  the  specula¬ 
tions  on  the  subject  of  religion  nugatory. 

“The  facts  stated  by  the  author  relative  to  human  nature,  and 
any  religious  speculations,  cannot  both  be  true.  One  must  be  in 
error,  for  they  are  in  direct  opposition  to  each  other.  The  facts 
relative  to  human  nature,  are  derived  from  the  strongest  of  all  evi¬ 
dences — the  immediate  cvidcncees  of  our  senses.  All  the  religions  of 
the  world  are  derived  from  the  weakest  of  all  evidences;  the  testimony 
of  ignorant  and  interested  men ,  through  the  darkest  and  most  bigoted 
ages  of  the  world.  The  former  will,  in  due  time,  force  their  invalu¬ 
able  truths  upon  the  human  race,  while  the  latter  cannot  be  received 
by  any  mind  not  previously  made  irrational  upon  the  subject  of 
religion.” 

This  constitutes  all  I  shall  review  of  the  “Opening  speech”  book,  as 
•every  thing,  until  we  come  to  Mr.  Owen’s  Appendix  to  the  debate,  is 
already  attended  to  in  the  regular  course  of  the  debate. 

We  have  already  expressed  our  views  of  Mr.  Owen’s  “ regular  and 
natural  order  of  proceeding — Only,  that  we  have  not  remarked, 
how  judicious  it  was  in  Mr.  Owen,  to  allow  me  “due  timef  perhaps, 
a  week,  for  considering  what  he  should  have  read  in  two  days ;  and 
to  think  that  the  community  had  nothing  else  to  do,  than  to  come  and 
depart  as  we  might  have  studied  and  written  out  answers  for  one 
another!  Insane  world  that  we  are,  to  think  for  ourselves  at  all ! 
How  much  better  to  let  a  few  rational  folks  like  Mr.  Owen  do  all 
the  thinking,  and  we,  the  insane,  mind  our  work.  After  deciding 
“the  regular  and  natural  mode  of  proceeding,”  my  friend  asserts 
that  “/  was  not  prepared  for  it .”  This  is  Mr.  Owen’s  conclusion — 
but  where  are  his  premises?  Or  is  this  an  intuitive  proposition?  I 
was  prepared  to  speak  alternately  thirty  minutes,  but  1  was  not  pre¬ 
pared  to  sit  and  hear  Mr.  Owen  read  for  two  days,  and  then  to  go 
and  study  out,  after  due  consideration ,  an  answer  for  it!!  I  was 
prepared  for  extemporaneous  half  hour  replies,  but  not  for  sitting, 
and  hearing,  then  writing!!  Wonderful  logic!  Yet,  Mr.  Owen,  under 
the  advantage  of  his  old  fashioned  materialism,  may  explain  this  by 
representing  me  as  a  peculiar  kind  of  machine ,  which  gives  out  so 


REVIEW. 


.308 

many  words  hall  hourly ;  and,  to  an  instant,  at  the  expiration  of  thirty 
minutes,  down  falls  the  gate.  So  that  I  am  not  prepared  for  any 
other  kind  of  speaking  but  half  hourly.  Yet  if  Mr.  Owen  had  trusted 
more  to  his  memory ,  and  a  little  less  to  his  fallacious  reason ,  he  would 
have  had  his  philosophy  of  me  corrected  by  one  fact;  viz.  that  I 
spoke  twelve  hours  without  any  reply  from  Mr.  Owen. — Just  after 
the  time  that  his  gate  fell  and  his  machinery  got  out  of  order. 

But  Mr.  Owen  acceeded  to  this  peculiarity  in  my  organization, 
because  he  “felt  confident  of  the  truth  of  the  facts  and  deductions 
which  he  intended  to  make  from  them;  and  equally  confident  that  I 
had  to  defend  popular  notions,  founded  solely  in  the  errors  of  my 
education.”  Profound  logic!  unanswerable  argument!  Mr.  Owen’s 
conscious  confidence  of  his  system,  and  his  consciousness  that  I  had 
to  defend  popular  notions ,  founded  solely  in  the  errors  of  my  edu¬ 
cation,  influenced  him  to  accede  to  any  thing.  I  did  not  before  know 
that  Mr.  Owen  viewed  all  the  popular  notions  as  founded  on  the 
errors  of  my  education.  B.ut  his  consciousness  of  truth  and  error 
is  about  as  good  an  argument  as  he  can  offer  for  the  one,  or  against 
the  other. 

Mr.  Owen  was  undoubtedly  shaken  in  the  late  debate,  notwith¬ 
standing  he  may  neither  be  conscious  of  it,  nor  would  his  vanity 
permit  him  to  acknowledge  it.  He  never  presumed  to  oppose  the 
Christianity  of  the  New  Testament,  as  I  exhibited  it  in  the  discussion. 
His  objections  and  his  system  were  built  upon  the  presumption  that 
sectarian  dogmas  and  practices  constituted  Christianity.  At  one 
time  Mr.  Owen  would  not  admit  that  there  was  any  difficulty  upon  his 
side  of  the  question,  but  that  all  difficulty  was  on  our  side.  After 
the  debate,  he  was  willing  to  admit  there  were  difficulties  on  both 
sides.  Before  the  debate,  he  wras  opposed  to  all  religions,  how¬ 
ever  taught.  But  nowyhe  only  pretends  to  oppose  them  uas  they  arc 
now  taught  and  practised  in  the  world”  In  his  cede  of  laws  for  the 
government  of  his  new  societies  he  had  no  provision  for  religion,  but 
now  he  is  willing  to  let  them  have  any  religion  they  please,  and 
only  stipulates  for  toleration.  These  to  me  are  good  omens.  And, 
when  Mr.  Owen  reads  deliberately  the  preceding  discussion,  I  am 
not  without  hopes  that  it  may  rfiake  deeper  inroads  upon  his  scepti- 
scism:  for,  I  discovered,  in  the  recent  discussion,  that  Mr.  Owen  is 
a  gentleman  of  such  peculiar  organization  that  his  second 
thought  is  better  than  his  first,  and  his  third  is  better  than  his 
second; — that  he  needs  reflection  which  I  suppose  his  kindness 
prompted  him  to  extend  so  liberally  to  me,  as  to  allow  me  two  whole 
days  to  listen  and  reflect. 

But  now  I  come  to  the  words  without  success,  which  he  has 
italicised  in  the  above  reasons.  All  the  efforts  of  all  minds,  ingeni¬ 
ous  and  learned,  for  several  thousand  years  directed  to  convince  the 
reasonable  part  of  mankind  of  the  truth  and  value  of  religion  have 
been  without  success.  Yes,  without  success ;  else  the  late  discussion 
could  not  have  taken  place.  This  is  the  most  sapient  logic:  a  perfect 
sample,  or  standard  measure,  of  the  height  and  depth  of  Mr.  Owen’s 


REVIEW. 


209 


mind.  Yes;  all  the  clothiers,  cordwainers,  house  builders,  bakers, 
with  all  the  mechanics  that  have  ever  lived,  have  labored  in  their 
respective  callings  without  success ,  else  there  would  have  been  no 
need  now  for  new  coats,  new  shoes,  new  houses,  and  fresh  loaves, 
<fcc.  &.c.  This  would  not  pass  for  good  logic  in  this  insane  world. 
Yet  it  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  good  logic  in  the  rational  world  of  these 
wise  philosophers.  Mr.  Owen  does  not  take  into  view  that  every 
age  has  produced  a  few  rational  men  like  himself,  who  supposed  that 
ali  mankind  had  for  thousands  of  years  been  fast  asleep,  in  the  em¬ 
braces  of  ignorant  and  impotent  priests,  who  like  him  have  claimed 
a  patent  right  for  reason,  logic,  and  good  sense.  These  few  rationals 
have  looked  upon  the  race  of'  mankind  as  mere  enthusiastic  block¬ 
heads.  Accordingly  these  wise  and  benevolent  sages  have  set  about 
reforming  mankind  from  the  errors  of  religion,  and  aimed  at  giving 
them  a  discharge  from  its  fears  and  its  hopes  as  alike  unworthy 
such  high  and  exalted  worms  of  the  dust.  But  so  completely  have 
they  labored  without  svcccss  that  their  opinions  have  never  spread 
over  a  whole  farm  much  less  over  a  province,  island,  or  city,  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth.  They  cannot  point  to  a  single  speck  upon  the 
surface  of  land  or  sea  and  say,  there  have  we  succeeded  in  establish¬ 
ing  our  irreligion,  or  our  scepticism.  Nay,  indeed,  so  irrational  is 
their  scheme,  that  no  people  on  earth,  the  most  rude  or  the  most 
accomplished,  can  be  found  prepared  to  adopt  it.  It  shocks  the 
common  sense  of  men,  and  it  requires  a  degree  of  hardness  and  in¬ 
sensibility  of  heart,  to  which  few  attain,  to  fit  a  man  for  denying  the 
existence  of  God  and  his  moral  government  over  mankind.  A  few 
such  characters  like  excrescences  upon  a  tree,  or  tumors  upon  a 
human  body,  may  exist  in  Christian  communities,  and  be  as  necessary 

as  shamble  flies  in  a  market  house;  but  they  could  never  exist  in  a 

•  «/ 

community  by  themselves.  Hence,  with  all  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Owen, 
and  all  the  remains  of  the  morals  of  the  old  society  to  help  him,  he 
was  unable  to  keep  together  the  sceptics  of  New  Harmony.  The 
sceptics  themselves,  who  made  it  their  asylum,  and  were  master 
builders  in  that  city,  have  fled,  a*d  sought  refuge  in  the  midst  of  the 
old  cities  of  the  world. 

To  say  that  Christianity  has  been  plead  without  success  is  just  as 
far  from  fact,  as  to  say  that  these  United  States  have,  without  success , 
attempted  to  form  a  government  of  their  own.  Christianity  vanquish¬ 
ed  the  superstitions  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  has  most  unquestion¬ 
ably  subdued  under  its  authority  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the 
earth;  and,  although  they  who  have  bowed  to  its  authority  and 
acknowledged  its  divine  origin,  have  corrupted  it,  and  have  not 
yielded  themselves  wholly  up  to  its  guidance,  yet  still,  their  subjec¬ 
tion  to  it  is  full  proof  of  its  paramount  authority  aud  rationality. 
Like  captured  cities,  they  have  been  compelled  to  submit  to  an 
authority  which  they  could  not  resist;  and  whether  or  not  they  like 
the  government  of  the  conqueror,  they  must  pay  tribute  and  bow  to 
his  supremacy.  This  is  true  of  Christianity  and  of  no  other  religion 
in  the  world;  because,  in  defiance  of  constant  persecution  and  pro- 
VOL.  11.  18* 


210 


REVIEW. 


scription,  by  its  own  evidences  alone,  it  took  possession  of  the  throne 
of  the  Cesars;  and,  without  a  sword  or  a  lancet,  it  first  conquered 
the  world.  And  now  in  our  own  country  where  there  is  nothing  to 
support  it  but  its  own  paramount  evidences  and  claims,  how  does  it 
swell  the  number  of  its  subjects;  and  that,  too,  in  defiance  of  the 
treachery  and  misdeeds  of  many  of  its  professed  friends.  Neither 
internal  feuds,  neither  the  attacks  of  open  enemies,  nor  the  treason 
and  unfaithfulness  of  false  friends,  can  impair  its  conquering  power. 
But  were  the  intestine  broils  and  animosities  and  bickerings  to  cease, 
what  would  its  progress  be?  Like  an  overflowing  river  it  would 
sweep  from  the  earth  every  vestige  of  scepticism,  and  in  a  few 
years  revolutionise  the  whole  human  race.  The  sun  rising  to-morow 
is  not  more  certain  to  my  mind  than  such  an  event. 

But  again — because  a  few  individuals,  who,  without  the  knowledge 
or  consent  of  their  cotemporaries,  call  themselves  “rational  and 
ingenious,”  wish  to  attract  the  attention  of  mankind  by  creating 
doubts — because,  I  say,  they  oppose  the  Lord  of  Christians,  and 
boast,  because  they  have  shut  their  eyes,  and  closed  their  ears,  that 
thev  are  not  conquered,  that  they  have  not  bowed  to  the  Governor  of 
the  Universe — does  it  follow  that  Christianity  has  therefore  been  plead 
without  success?  As  rationally  may  we  say,  that,  because  there  are 
some  republicans  in  England,  and  some  monarchists  in  the  United 
States,  the  cause  of  republicanism  has  been  plead  without  success 
on  this  continent,  and  that  of  monarchy  without  success  in  the  island 
of  Great  Britain. 

Every  age  has  produced  some  black  sheep ,  and  some  ring-streaked , 
speckled ,  and  spotted  goats .  So  there  have  been  some  idealists , 
like  the  Bishop  of  Clovne;  some  'materialists,  like  Epicurus  and  Mr. 
Owen;  some  deists ,  like  Thomas  Paine;  and  some  profane  wags , 
like  Voltaire,  who  laughed  while  they  lived,  and  trembled  when  they 
?iied.  But  as  well  might  the  black  sheep  disown  the  white,  or  the 
speckled  goat  the  whole  species,  as  these  idealists,  materialists, 
visionaries,  sceptics,  and  wits,  claim  reason  as  theirs,  or  arrogate 
the  name  of  pKilosophers  to  themselves. 

Mr.  Owen’s  ^reasonable  part  of  mankind,'1  and  his  “without  success,* 
are  expressions  of  equal  truth,  and  of  the  same  latitude  of  applica¬ 
tion.  If  reason  consists  in  making  men  mere  worms,  and  in  living 
oopfarmably  to  that  rank,  I  grant  then  are  they  the  most  reasonable 
oart  of  mankind,  who  never  think  of  their  origin  nor  of  their  end ;  but 
make  themselves  as  much  like  the  brutal  creation  as  possible — 
the  slaves  of  appetite,  of  lust,  of  passion,  or  of  instinct.  All  such, 
if  they  can  debase  themselves  thus,  and  eradicate  from  their  bosom 
every  trace  of  a  Divinity,  every  impression  of  a  Creator,  Ruler,  or 
Judge,  may  fancy  themselves  reasonable;  but  1  must  be  so  insane 
as  to  think  them  mere  deluded  dreamers,  talk  as  haughtily  ns  they 
may. 

But  I  come  next  to  notice  the  concentrated  light,  logic,  and  reason, 
of  my  friend  Mr.  Owen.  His  most  puissant  argument  is,  “His  facts 
relative  .to  human  nature  cannot  but  be  true” — and,  as  they  are  op- 


REVIEW, 


211 


posed  to  Revelation,  that  cannot  be  true.  This  has  been  repeatedly 
exploded,  as  we  think,  already;  but  Mr.  Owen  lays  it  down  anew  in 
his  reasons  for  this  new  book.  Now,  admitting  for  the  sake  of  argu¬ 
ment,  that  his  twelve  positions  were  all  facts  (which  every  philoso¬ 
pher,  grammarian,  and  logician  upon  earth  knows  they  are  not,)  and 
that  they  were  all  true;  (but  that  they  are  not  all  true  has  been  re¬ 
peatedly  shown:)  now,  I  say,  admit  them  all  to  be  true  facts,  it  yet 
remains  to  show  that  they  are,  one  and  ail,  contrary  to  the  Christian 
religionas  taught  in  the  New  Testament.  This  Mr.  Owen  never  has 
yet  attempted,  save  that  he  supposes  the  New  Testament  proceeds 
upon  the  free-will  principle ,  which,  by  the  way,  he  never  did  show. 
Now,  as  the  free-will  question  is  the  only  one  at  issue  in  the  twelve, 
and  as  that  is  not  a  question  which  can  be  decided  by  our  five  senses , 
how  comes  Mr.  Owen  to  say  that  these  twelve  facts  are  derived  from 
the  strongest  of  all  evidence — the  immediate  evidence  of  our  senses 2 
If  he  now  fails  to  prove  this,  he  fails  at  the  very  foundation.  Now  I 
appeal  to  the  thinking  world,  sceptics  and  all,  and  ask,  Who  of  you 
gentlemen,  will  say,  and  attempt  to  prove,  that,  by  our  five  senses  we 
know  that  our  will  has  no  power  over  our  belief?  And  again,  direct 
me  to  any  assertion  or  declaration  in  the  New  Testament  which 
asserts  whether  we  are  free  or  necessary  agents.  Unless  both  these 
are  exhibited,  we  must  continue  to  admire  the  daring  reason  of  the 
philosopher  who  declaims  without  argument,  and  reasons  without 
premises. 

His  “facts*’  concerning  human  nature  are  not  the  half  of  the  facts 
concerning  human  nature.  They  have  only  to  do  wTith  man  without  a 
spirit.  Now,  as  Mr.  Owen  repeatedly  acknowdedged,  he  does  not 
know  wdiether  man  has  a  spirit  or  has  not,  how  can  he  presume  to 
lay  down  any  number  of  facts,  and  predicate  upon  them  a  theory  of 
man,  and  frame  a  code  of  laws  for  him!  This  always  did,  and  yet 
does  appear,  a  most  extravagant  aberration  both  from  reason  and 
philosophy. 

ButasMr.  Owen  will  have  his  views  of  human  nature  built  entirely 
upon  uthc  strongest  of  all  evidence — the  evidence  of  our  senses f  so 
he  will  have  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  and, of  course,  Christianity, 
derived  from  the  weakest  of  all  evidence — the  testimony  of  men!  To 
degrade  this  testimony,  he  qualifies  it  the  testimony  of  ignorant  and 
interested  men ,  through  the  darkest  and  most  bigoted  ages  of  the 
world.  A  more  base  and  unfounded  calumny  never  was  printed! 
There  are  three  distinct  assertions  in  this  last  sentence  which  never 
can  be  proved: — i.  It  is  not  true  that  testimony  is  the  weakest  of  all 
evidences.  It  admits  of  many  degrees;  but  is  in  its  most  perfect 
character  always  capable  of  producing  the  highest  certainty.  Mil¬ 
lions  who  never  saw  France,  are  just  as  certain  that  there  is  such 
a  country,  as  that  they  see  or  hear.  I  am  as  certain  that  there  is  a 
city  called  Paris,  as  that  there  is  a  city  called  New  York;  though 
the  former  I  never  visited,  but  have  been  in  the  latter.  “The  evidence 
of  testimony,”  says  one,  “may  arise  to  such  a  height  as  to  be  per- 


212 


REVIEW. 


fectly  equivalent  to  sense  or  demonstration.”  Testimony,  I  affirm, 
is,  in  ten  thousand  instances,  capable  of  producing  a  greater  degree 
of  certainty  than  our  reason,  The  testimony  of  one  credible  witness 
will  frequently  discomfit  a  chain  of  syllogisms  many  yards  long. 
This  may  appear  a  vague  way  of  talking,  but  it  is  a  truth  that  testi¬ 
mony  is  incomparably  a  much  better  or  safer  guide  than  reason,  even 
in  the  most  ordinary  employments  of  this  life.  Take  the  husbandman, 
for  example,  and  ask  him  whether  he  is  certain,  writh  all  his  reasoq, 
that  such  is  a  good  plough,  a  good  mode  of  agriculture,  a  good  plan  of 
building,  &c.  and  after  reasoning  upon  all  the  premises,  to  his  utmost 
capacity,  one  credible  witness,  attesting  that  he  has  proved  his  con¬ 
clusions  to  be  fallacious,  will  upset  all  his  logic,  and  produce  more 
certainty  than  all  his  reasonings.  All  men  are  so  created  that  they 
can  be  assured  of  many  truths  upon  good  testimony ;  but  very  few  can 
have  the  same  degree  of  assurance  in  their  best  reasonings.  Man¬ 
kind,  in  general,  are  very  imperfect  reasoners — but  all  can  believe 
on  good  testimony.  Faith  is  infinitely  a  safer  guide  than  reason  to 
the  great  mass  of  mankind.  Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  see  all 
theorists  in  agriculture,  mechanic  arts,  and  in  the  common  business  of 
life,  disappointed.  So  soon  as  men  depart  from  tradition,  they  stand 
upon  unsafe  ground.  Hence  the  theorist  in  agriculture,  or  in  any  busi¬ 
ness,  nine  times  in  every  t&i,  miscarries.  And  what  is  the  theorist , 
but  the  man  guided  by  reason  ?  And  what  is  the  great  mass  of  copyists, 
but  believers?  And  so  it  comes  to  pass,  that,  to  the  great  aggregate  of 
the  human  family,  faith  is  a  much  more  certain  guide  than  reason, 
even  in  matters  of  daily  labor.  Few  of  the  great  reasoners  have 
made  useful  discoveries.  What  we  call  accident  has  thrown  the  most 
useful  inventions  in  the  way  of  those  who  have  not  been  reasoning 
in  pursuit  of  them.  So  distrustful  are  the  best  reasoners,  even  in  the 
common  mechanic  arts,  that  they  confide  doubtingly  in  all  their  con¬ 
clusions  until  proved  by  experiment.  Hence  experiment  is  appealed 
to  by  common  consent,  as  the  only  infallible  arbiter.  Now,  if,  in  the 
common  affairs  of  this  life,  faith  is  a  better  and  surer  guide  than 
reason,  incomparably  more  to  be  relied  on,  where  is  the  boast  of 
the  sceptic  and  the  triumphs  of  the  philosopher?  Often  have  I  seen 
the  mechanic  use  his  plummet  his  square,  his  straight  edge,  and  con¬ 
clude  that  all  was  just  correct.  But  when  he  attempted  to  put  his 
work  together,  his  tenants  would  not  suit  his  mortices,  nor  did  his 
uprights  stand  perpendicular.  Experiment  alone  corrected,  tested, 
and  confirmed  his  reasonings.  If,  I  say,  in  things  pertaining  to  this 
life,  reason  is  so  imperfect  a  guide,  how  can  we  claim  so  much  for  it 
in  reference;  to  the  next!  Those  men  who  magnify  reason  are  in 
general  the  least  to  be  trusted,  and  their  decisions  prove  that  reason 
is  very  far  from  producing  the  same  degree  of  certainty  which  com¬ 
monly  attends  our  faith  in  human  testimony.  I  only  conclude  from 
these  general  remarks,  that,  as  testimony  bestows  upon  us  the  largest 
portion  of  our  information,  so,  in  general,  it  affords  us  the  greatest 
degree  of  certainty,  and  stands  to  us  always  in  the  place  of  experi¬ 
ence,  when  experience  is  wanting. 


REVIEW, 


213 


How  deplorably  ignorant  the  human  family  would  have  been  if  left 
to  their  reason  as  the  only  source  of  information  in  things  natural 
and  supernatural,  God  has  not  left  us  without  witness  both  among 
philosophers  and  savages.  Mr.  Owen,  with  all  his  philosophy,  cannot 
explain  one  of  the  laws  of  nature,  nor  tell  us  whether  there  is  any 
spirit  or  spiritual  system  in  the  universe.  He  cannot,  in  truth,  tell  us 
what  man  is,  whence  he  came,  nor  whither  he  is  destined.  So  com¬ 
pletely  blind  is  philosophy !  The  sight  of  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Owen, 
the  knowledge  of  his  theory,  is  sufficient  to  bring  every  Christian  to 
his  knees,  and  to  cause  him  to  summon  all  his  faculties  to  praise  him 
who  has  commanded  light  to  arise  and  shine  upon  us.  When  I  see  a 
man  of  his  character  and  standing  rise  up  to  advocate  reason  and  to 
degrade  testimony,  my  fancy  presents  before  me  an  obstinate  blind 
man,  who  throws  away  his  staff,  and  refuses  the  hand  of  a  benevolent 
friend.  He  says  he  can  see,  and  appeals  to  those  as  blind  as  himself 
in  proof  of  it! 

Reason  can  judge  of  testimony,  and  this  is  its  province;  and  in 
the  absence  of  testimony  and  experience  it  is  our  sole  guide.  As 
such  we  do  not  disparage  it,  but  when  it  proudly  invades  the  domin¬ 
ions  of  testimony,  and  rejects  its  aids,  we  must  strip  it  of  its  fancied 
supremacy,  and  abase  it  by  a  recital  of  its  miscarriages.  Man  is  often 
imposed  on  by  false  testimony,  but  more  frequently  and  more  fatally, 
by  false  reasonings.  For  one  lie  that  is  credited,  there  are  ten  so¬ 
phisms  received  or  adopted ;  and  the  proportion  between  false  logic 
and  false  testimony  is,  at  least,  as  ten  to  one — at  least,  so  I  judge ;  and 
let  any  person  keep  an  account  of  this  sort  per  week,  and  if  in  the 
business  and  bustle  of  life,  he  is  not  ten  times  mocked  by  false  rea¬ 
soning  in  himself,  and  by  others,  for  once  he  is  imposed  on  by  false 
testimony,  I  will  agree  to  change  the  proportions.  But  I  think  that 
lam  under,  rather  than  above,  the  ratio. 

But  some  might  ask,  Is  not  the  testimony  of  others  as  little  to  be 
relied  upon  as  the  reasonings  of  the  great  mass  of  society,  because 
their  testimony  is  often  the  result  of  their  own  reasonings  ?  This  ob¬ 
jection,  in  the  form  of  a  query,  is  based  upon  a  mistake  of  the  nature 
of  testimony,  or  of  its  legitimate  jurisdiction.  Testimony  is  not 
the  report  of  the  conclusions  and  deductions  of  human  reason,  but  the 
recital  of  experience,  a  narration  of  things  heard ,  seen ,  or  felt.  It  has, 
then,  always  the  evidence  of  sense,  or  of  consciousness,  or  of  feeling, 
as  the  grounds  and  basis  of  its  assurance.  The  original  witness  says, 
I  saw,  I  heard ,  I  think ,  J  feel — not  I  reason ,  I  conclude ,  I  suppose ,  I  con¬ 
jecture,  &c.  Testimony,  therefore,  has  to  do  with  matters  subject  to 
the  evidences  of  sense  and  consciousness,  which  afford  the  greatest  of 
all  certainty.  I,  therefore,  I  think,  legitimately  conclude,  that  next  to 
the  evidence  ol  sense,  to  the  aggregate  of  the  human  race,  that  of  tes¬ 
timony  produces  the  greatest  certainty.  Mathematical  evidence  pro¬ 
duces  a  certainty  of  another  kind.  It  does  not  respect  the  subject 
before  us.  Facts  can  be  ascertained  only  three  ways:  1.  By  the  ev¬ 
idence  of  sense;  2.  By  testimony;  and  3.  By  reason.  They  stand 
in  the  order  of  the  certainty  which  they  produce;  and,  indeed,  it  must 


214 


REVIEW. 


always  be  remembered  that  testimony  of  the  first  order*  or  of  the  high* 
est.  character,  always  produces  certainty  equal  to  the  evidence  of 
sense,  or  even  mathematical  demonstration.  I  feel  all  the  certainty 
that  there  is  a  country  called  China,  or  a  quarter  of  the  globe  called 
Asia,  which  I  do  that  I  now  write  these  remarks.  So  much  with  regard 
to  Mr.  Owen’s  first  assertion. 

His  second,  we  call  a  downright  calunmv :  viz.  That  the  testimony 
on  which  Christians  rely  is  the  testimony  of  “ ignorant  and  interested 
men .”  Now  I  might  destroy  the  reputation  of  the  fairest  character 
diving,  or  blast  the  fame  of  the  greatest  man  that  ever  died,  if  my  as¬ 
sertion  that  he  was  a  knave,  an  idiot,  or  a  debauchee,  would  be  admit¬ 
ted  as  proof.  The  reputation  of  Mr.  Owen,  himself,  would  stand  upon 
a  very  slender  foundation,  indeed,  if  any  daring  spirit  might,  by  a 
single  assertion,  establish  him  to  be  any  thing  or  every  thing  his  envi¬ 
ous  or  malicious  heart  might  insinuate.  There  is  nothing  more  easy 
than  to  assert,  and  nothing  more  unmanly  than  to  calumniate  the  dead. 
If  some  of  the  original  witnesses  were  standing  before  Mr.  Owen,  they 

would  make  him  tremble  as  they  did  men  more  illustrious  than  he. 

•/ 

Greece  and  Rome  will  attest  “ the  ignorance ”  of  the  Heralds  of  the 
Cross.  Shame  on  Epicurus  and  Zeno,  if  an  ignorant  babbler  so  de¬ 
feated  them!  Shame  on  the  philosophy  and  eloquence  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  if  ignorant  and  hireling  witnesses  put  them  to  confusion! 
Shame  on  the  oracles,  religion,  and  priests  of  the  Pagan  magistrates,  if 
a  few  ignoramuses  put  them  all  to  silence !  Shame  on  all  the  litera¬ 
ry  splendors  of  the  Augustan  age,  if  a  set  of  such  contemptible  clowns, 
interested  as  they  were,  in  telling  lies,  robbed  it  of  its  glory,  eclipsed 
its  splendor,  and  turned  its  light  into  darkness!  Illiterate  as  they 
were,  most  of  them,  in  the  learning  of  the  world,  they  were  far  from 
ignorant  men;  and  as  to  being  interested  witnesses,  in  the  usual  ac¬ 
ceptation  of  that  term,  a  grosser  libel  never  was  penned ;  a  more 
unfounded  accusation  never  saw  the  light  of  day. 

This  is  the  logic  of  our  sage  sceptical  philosophers.  ’Tis  thus  they 
impose  on  the  credulity  of  mankind.  ’Tis  thus  they  attract  attention, 
and  on  these  grounds  they  claim  the  honor  of  being  our  instructers. 
The  preceding  discussion  shows  what  sort  of  witnesses  they  were 
who  attested  the  gospel  facts;  and  now  to  reiterate  this  calumny  when 
Mr  Owen  dared  not  to  impugn  the  character  of  one  of  them  on  the 
stage,  shows  the  reason  why  Christianity  has  been  plead,  u without 
success ,v  in  the  presence  of  such  judges,  of  such  hearers,  of  such 
reaonsers,  who  fear  not  to  assert  contrary  to  all  evidence,  and  who 
evince  so  perfect  a  destitution  of  that  moral  sense  which  alone  can  re¬ 
strain  the  tongue  of  calumny,  and  close  the  lips  of  slander.  To  call 
the  apostles  and  martyrs  of  Jesus  Christ,  interested  witnesses,  in  the 
common  acceptation  of  this  term,  is  to  make  them  the  basest  of  all 
men,  who,  in  the  name  of  God,  assert  the  most  injurious  lies,  and  spend 
theirlives  in  imposing  on  the  credulity  of  mankind.  To  assert  this, 
without  a  single  shadow  of  proof,  without  even  the  forms  of  demonstra¬ 
tion,  is,  1  hope,  peculiar  to  only  one  class  of  the  sceptics  of  the  present  • 
day. 


REVIEW, 


215 


To  oonsummate  this  climax  of  slander,  we  are,  in  the  third  place, 
told  that  “this  ignorant  and  interested  testimony”  originated  in,  and 
came  down  through,  “the  darkest  and  most  bigoted  ages  of  the  world. 
That  Mr.  Owen  has  primary,  if  not  exclusive,  respect  to  the  times 
when  the  testimony  was  published,  is  to  be  presumed;  because  it 
would  give  a  latitude  to  the  censure  which  would  equally  annul  the 
claims  of  every  scrap  of  literature  of  ancient  times.  Every  fragment 
of  Grecian  and  Roman  history,  eloquence,  poetry,  or  miscellaneous 
literature  has  come  down  to  us  through  these  “darkest  and  most 
bigoted  ages”  of  which  Mr.  Owen  speaks.  But  as  reasonably  and  as 
credibly  might  Mr.  Owen  assert  that  men  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write  were  the  authors  of  the  Illiadof  Homer,  the  JEneid  of  Virgil,  or  th.e 
Orations  of  Cicero,  as  that  either  “ignorant  and  interested  men”  were 
the  authors  of  the  Christian  scriptures,  or  that  Christianity  was  the 
offspring  of  the  “darkest  and  most  bigoted  ages.”  Some  thousand 
years  hence  it  may  be  said,  that  the  age  in  which  we  live  was  a  rude 
and  barbarous  age,  and  that  we  who  now  live  were  incompetent  judges- 
of  testimony — had  no  literature,  were  ignorant  and  bigoted  witnesses 
of  the  events,  political  and  religious,  of  these  times;  and  that  no  credit 
is  due  the  records  of  which  we  have  been  the  authors,  or  the  deposits. 
Any  thing  may  be  said  by  those  who  have  the  use  of  their  tongues ; 
and  any  thing  may  be  written,  even  as  incredible  as  that  Mr.  Owen’s 
book  is  i(sold  by  every  bookseller  in  Europe  and  America ,”  although 
he  has  not  more  than  one  for  every  score  of  them.  Persons  who  thus 
value  the  liberty  of  the  press,  are  those  who  incur  the  censures  of  pos¬ 
terity,  and  destroy  the  credibility  of  testimony  among  those  reasoners 
who  deduce  general  conclusions  from  particular  premises.  Thus 
some  traducer  of  testimony  may  hereafter  say,  that  all  the  writers  of 
the  year  1829  are  incredible;  for  one  Robert  Owen,  Esq.  the  greatest 
lover  of  truth  then  living,  published  1000  books  at  a  time  when  there 
was  more  than  20,000  booksellers  in  Europe  and  America,  and  yet  he 
published  on  the  title  page  of  his  book  that  it  was  “sold  by  all  the 
booksellers  in  Europe  and  America  1”  Now,  argues  he,  what  credit 
can  be  reposed  in  writers  or  speakers  of  an  age  in  which  the  greatest 
lover  of  truth  and  advocate  of  it  thus  writes. 

So  much  for  the  reasons  which  induced  Mr.  Owen  to  write  the  open- 
ing  speech  book .  I  now  proceed  to  lay  before  my  readers  the  Appem 
dix  which  Mr.  Owen  furnished  for  this  work.,  as  he  gave  it  in  the 
aforesaid  work. 


MR.  OWEN’S  APPENDIX. 


THE  discussion  between  Mr.  Campbell  and  myself  having  termi¬ 
nated,  and  time  for  reflection  having  elapsed,  it  may  be  useful  to 
state  to  the  public  my  impressions  respecting  its  utility  and  conse¬ 
quences. 

It  is  the  first  public  discussion  the  world  has  ever  permitted,  with 
any  degree  of  fairness,  to  take  place  between  the  orthodox  faith  of 
any  country  and  a  well  known,  open,  and  decided  opponent.  The 
credit  of  this  first  submission  to  truth  and  common  sense  is  due  to 
the  United  States  generally,  and  to  the  population  of  the  city  of  Cin¬ 
cinnati  in  particular.  No  audience  could  conduct  themselves  with 
more  order,  decorum,  and  fairness  than  was  exhibited  on  this  occa¬ 
sion.  It  is  true,  they  were  all  taken  by  surprize  at  its  termination, 
and,  in  fact,  deceived  by  Mr.  Campbell’s  manouvre,  to  express  that 
they  were  Christians,  or  not  unfavorable  to  Christianity.  It  was  to 
be  supposed,  that  no  one  present  would  like  to  express  a  contrary 
opinion  before  such  an  audience,  and  particularly  when  it  was  well 
known  that  the  prosperity  of  the  business  or  profession  of  most  of 
them  depended  upon  not  expressing  a  contrary  opinion.  With  the 
intelligent  part  of  the  audience,  this  movement,  therefore,  went  for 
nothing.  It  was  irregular  to  call  for  it;  and  I  am  sure,  after  a  little 
reflection,  Mr.  Campbell  became  conscious  of  its  inutility,  as  to  any 
opinion  relative  to  the  subject  djscussed,  and  regretted  that  it  was 
resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  creating  a  temporary  effect  on  the  pub¬ 
lic  mind.  It  was  not  even  to  think  of  any  personal  victory,  but  to 
discover  valuable  truths,  that  1  came  to  Cincinnati  to  hold  a  public 
discussion.  And,  I  trust,  by  that  discussion  truth  may  be  elicited, 
and  mankind  henefitted.  But  what  impression  has  the  discussion 
made  upon  the  audience,  upon  Mr.  Campbell,  and  myself?  It  has, 
I  believe,  induced  many  of  the  first  to  think  upon  religious  subjects, 
who,  until  then,  had  never  been  in  a  condition  to  think  upon  them 
for  themselves.  Many  were  confirmed  in  their  previous  belief,  and 
many  in  their  unbelief.  Mr.  A.  Campbell  will  himself  state,  in  the 
publication  which  he  is  editing,  what  impressions  have  been  made 
upon  his  mind,  as  I  shall  now  express  those  which  have  been  made 
upon  mine.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  one  happy  effect  has  been 
produced.  All  discovered,  that  by  the  constitution  of  human  nature, 
each  individual  is  compelled  to  believe,  and  to  feel  in  unison  with 
that  belief,  according  to  the  strongest  impressions  that  are  made 
upon  his  mind.  Many,  therefore,  now  feel  much  more  charity  for  the 
opinions  of  others,  when  honest!}"  expressed,  who  are  conscientiously 
obliged  to  differ  from  them,  than  they  could  do  before  this  debate 
commenced.  It  was  this  feeling  that  induced  Mr.  Campbell  and 
myself  to  express  our  sentiments  so  openly,  without  reserve  of  each 
other’s  defects  and  errors,  during  the  discussion;  and  yet  that  left, 
us,  at  its  termination,  bettor  friends,  because  more  known  to  each! 


APPKTvHIX, 


Ollier,  than  at  ns  commencement.  I  trust  tills  feeling,  from  this 
knowledge,  will  spread  wider  and  wider,  from  individual  to  individu¬ 
al,  from  sect  to  sect,  from  Christian  to  Mahometan,  from  these  to 
the  Jews  and  Hindoos,  and  to  all  tribes  and  people,  until  all  unchari¬ 
tableness  and  unkind  feelings  among  men,  seeing  that  they  are 
necessarily  compelled  to  feci  and  to  think  as  they  do,  shall  be  known 
no  more :  and  that  these  evil  circumstances  shall  be  gradually  replaced 
by  that  universal  charity,  and  kindness,  and  union,  and  desire  to 
promote  each  other’s  happiness,  which  are  sure  to  be  produced  in 
practice,  as  soon  as  the  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature  shall  be  ' 
sufficiently  developed  to  be  understood  in  their  full  extent  by  the  pop¬ 
ulation  of  the  world.  If  the  discussion  shall  be  found  to  hasten  the 
period  of  this  happy  change  in  men’s  minds,  and  in  their  outward 
circumstances,  it  will  accomplish  an  essential  part  of  the  object  which 
]  had  previously  anticipated. 

But  to  its  effect  upon  my  mind.  After  listening  to  Mr.  Campbell 
with  a  sincere  desire  to  be  convinced  of  error  in  my  views  of  human 
nature,  if  there  were  error  in  them,  1  felt,  at  the  termination  of  the 
disccussion,  more  confirmed  in  all  my  former  sentiments — if  it  were, 
possible  further  conviction  could  be  added  to  what  before  appeared  to 
me  self-evident  truths — than  when  the  debate  commenced.  Mr.  CM 
learned  defence  of  the  Christian  scheme,  after  nearly  a  year’s  appli¬ 
cation  to  prepare  himself  for  it,  had  the  effect  upon  my  mind,  to 
convince  me  that  it  had  only  the  common  -foundation  of  all  other 
religions  to  retst  upon ;  and  that  its  mysteries  and  miracles  were  of  a 
more  inferior  invention  than  many  others  which  Christians.,  from 
their  infancy,  were  taught  to  contemn  and  hold  in  derision.  Possi¬ 
bly  a  similar  result,  relative  to  my  opinions.,  was  produced  on  Mr,' 
Campbell’s  mind, 

A  natural  and  most  important  question  thence  arises.  IIow  is  it, 
that  these  conflicting  impressions  have  been  made  upon  two  minds, 
both  conscientiously  desirous  of  discovering  the  truth  ? 

Being  deeply  impressed  with  the  belief  that  an  investigation  of 
this  question,  to  its  source,  is  one,  at  this  peculiar  crisis  in  the  prog¬ 
ress  of  knowledge,  of  more  practical  utility  and  importance  to  man- 
kind,  than  perhaps  any  other  that  is  now.  before  the  public,  I  will 
endeavor  to  pursue  it  to  some  satisfactory  conclusion. 

Bv  comparing  Mr.  Campbell’s  ideas  with  mine,  as  they  rapidly 
flowed  from  him,  I  perceived  there  was  no  connecting  point  between 
cur  minds.  We  were  proceeding,  as  it  were,  in  parallel  lines  which 
could  never  meet.  His  associations  of  ideas  were  altogether  differ¬ 
ent  from  those  in  my  mind.  His  associations  had  been  formed  upon 
one  base;  mine  upon  another.  There  was,  therefore,  no  chance  of. 
one  convincing  the  other,  until  one  of  these  associations  could  be 
broken  up,  by  its  foundation  being  proved  to  be  a  fallacy.  Until  this 
could  be  done,  ws  saw  religion,  and  every  thing  connected  with  if, 
through  mediums  in  our  mind  so  essentially  different,  that  it.  might 
l  e  said,  that  what  appeared  to  one  white,  produced  a  conviction  on 
the. other,  that  it  was  any  other  color,  sometimes  even  black.  Iks* 
YOLc  1U  19 


APPENDIX. 


$18 

covering  early  in  the  debate,  that  this  was  the  true  state  of  our 
minds,  and  the  real  cause  of  the  different  convictions  with  which  we 
were  both  impressed, — I  perceived  it  would  be  a  loss  of  time,  and 
entirely  useless,  to  discuss  any  minor  points,  while  the  very  founda¬ 
tion  of  the  association  of  our  ideas  remained  unexamined  and 
untouched.  I  therefore  uniformly  declined  all  Mr.  Campbell’s  meta¬ 
physical  questions,  which  I  saw  had  no  real  bearing  on  the  important 
subjects  before  us;  and  wished  to  bring  him  to  discuss  first  or  fun¬ 
damental  principles,  that  we  might  from  these  proceed,  step  by  step, 
to  some  certain  and  beneficial  conclusions. 

Mr.  Campbell,  however,  avoided  this  last  mentioned  proceeding, 
as  tenaciously  as  I  did  the  former  ;  and,  therefore,  much  less  satisfac¬ 
tion  was  given  to  many  who  attended  the  meeting,  than  they  had 
anticipated.  Mr.  Campbell  and  I  must  now  endeavor,  by  our  cool 
and  deliberate  reflections,  to  remove  these  difficulties,  which  also 
exist  in  the  minds  of  millions,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  read 
the  reports  of  this  discussion,  and  of  the  public,  who  may  hear  these 
principles  canvassed  in  conversation,  or  read  them  in  other  publiea- 
lions.  To  me,  it  early  appeared  by  Mr.  CampbelPs  feelings,  lan¬ 
guage,  and  manner,  that  his  character  had  been  formed  lor  him. 
under  all  the  influences  derived  from  the  notions  of  man’s  entire  free 
agency,  which  had  been  made  upon  his  original  organization  from 
infancy  ;  while  I  knew  mine  had  been  formed  tor  me  by  a  conviction 
arising  from  facts,  and  deductions  from  them,  that  those  notions  could 
not  be  true,  and  that  the  feelings,  thoughts,  and  conduct,  were  form¬ 
ed  to  be  as  they  are,  by  circumstances  not  under  my  control.  And 
.  that  it  would  be  in  vain  for  me  to  discuss  with  Mr.  Campbell  the 
subjects  before  us,  under  the  expectation  of  producing  a  conviction 
on  qne  side  or  the  other,  until  it  shall  be  first  decided  whether  the 
character  of  man  is  formed  by  himself  according  to  the  notions 
taught  by  the  doctrines  of  free  will,  or  that  it,  is  formed  for  him  by  the 
cause  or  causes,  whatever  they  may  be,  which,  without  his  knowledge, 
produces  his  organization  at  birth,  by  the  persons  who  surround  him 
from  birth,  and  by  the  other  circumstances  in  which  he  is  placed. 
And  this  view  of  the  subject  brings  us,  at  once,  to  the  most  important 
consideration  that  can  engage  the  human  mind. 

Is  man,  as  first  impressions  lead  all  to  conclude,  a  free  agent,  and 
accountable  to  some  superior  intelligence  for  his  thoughts,  feelings 
and  conduct?  or  are  these  inevitably  formed  For  him  by  circumstan¬ 
ces  over  which  he  has  no  control?  This  is  the  real  question  of 
difference  between  Mr.  Campell,  and  all  other  religionists,  and 
myself.  It  is  the  question,  which  the  condition  of  mankind  and 
the  well  being  of  society  require,  at  this  juucture,  to  be  set  at  rest  for 
ever,  that  man  may  iplopt  a  fixed  and  unchanging  course.  For 
m  practice,  ignorance,  or  knowdedge — poverty  or  abundance  —the 
malignant  passions,  with  disunion  and  all  manner  of  strife  and  con¬ 
tention  as  heretofore,  or  charity,  union  and  peace — or  perpetual 
hopeless,  but  changing  misery,  or  permanent  happiness^  everlastingly 


APPENDIX. 


2W 

increasing  and  improving— depend  upon  its  right  decision.  It  is 
no  metaphysical  question.  It  is  the  most  important  practical  ques¬ 
tion,  that  can  be  presented,  now  or  at  any  future  period,  for  human 
consideration. 

And,  my  friends,  if  new  circumstances  can  now  be  created  or 
combined,  to  induce  the  leading  minds  in  the  different  countries 
of  the  world  to  investigate  this  question,  its  intricacies,  great  as  they 
are,  may  be  unravelled;  its  difficulties,  formidable  as  they  appear, 
,may  be  overcome;  and  the  human  mind  may  be  unchained,  freed 
from  its  thraldom,  and  set  at  liberty,  to  acquire,  without  one  fear 
for  futurity,  ail  knowledge,  and  enjoy  all  happiness  attainable  upon 
this  globe. 

To  the  threshhold  of  this  subject  we  have  approached  through 
the  late  public  discussion  in  this  city.  Let  us  now  try  to  enter  into 
the  sanctuary,  and  wrest  victory  from  the  ignorance,  superstition 
&nd  bigotry  of  all  the  ages  which  are  past. 

It  is  victory  the  most  worthy  to  contest  to  the  utmost  stretch  of 
the  human  faculties,  that  man  has  ever  yet  contended  for. 

Before  we  commence  this  encounter,  it  will  be  well  to  remove 
one  obstacle,  without  the  removal  of  which,  the  parties  cannot  enter 
fairly  upon  the  subject.  It  is  the  almost  universal  impression,  that 
the  doctrines  of  free  will  are  favorable — -nay,  absolutely  necessary 
to  virtue  and  to  happiness ;  while  those  who  teach  that  the  charac¬ 
ter  is  formed  for  each  individual,  as  necessarily  lead  to  vice  and  to 
misery. 

These  impressions  show  to  what  extent  man  is  formed  by  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  external  circumstances,  producing  early  impressions  before 
they  can  be  examined  by  reason,  and  corrected  by  experience. 

For  as  we  shall  proceed  in  our  investigations  upon  this  subject,  it 
will  be  discovered,  that  ignorance,  vice  and  misery,  and  free  will 
notions,  are  inseparably  Connected :  ignorance,  the  absence  of  know¬ 
ledge,  always  produces  the  notions  of  free  agency  in  man.  The 
necessary  consequence  of  the  irrationalizing  doctrines  of  free  agency’ 
is,  to  generate  malignant  passions,  disunion,  contention,  strife,  and 
all  kinds  of  vice  and  misery, — in  fact,  to  produce  what  may  justly  bs 
termed  “hell  upon  earth.” 

While  the  knowledge  derived  through  a  close  and  clear  train  cf 
reasoning,  that  the  character  of  man  is  formed  for  him,  will  so  en¬ 
lighten  the  understanding,  that  the  malignant  feelings  wilbnot  germi¬ 
nate- — the  inferior  pasvssions  will  have  no  pabulum  to  feed  them;  anger 
and  irritation  will  be  insane  movements;  contention  and  strife  will 
appear  as  they  are,  to  be  folly;  and  war,  too  inhuman  to  be  thought 
ot  without  horror.  And,  in  consequence  of  acquiring  this  knowledge 
of  ourselves,  all  motives  to  vice  will  cease;  while  in  their  place  will 
spring  up,  ol  necessity,  all  the  opposite  virtues.  It  is  true,  faith  and 
belief  in  any  notions  contrary  to  nature,  will  have  no  place  in  the 
human  mind;  for  they  will  be  detected  to  be  vices,  and  vices,  too,  of 
the  most  lamentable  description.  These  are  conclusions  which  fol¬ 
low  from  an  impartial  investigation  into  the  necessary  practical  re- 


0'hj 

/V  +*\J 


APPENDIX. 


salts  of  those  two  opposite  systems  for  the  foundation  of  the  human 
mind. 

It  becomes,  therefore,  unspeakably  more  to  be  desired,  that  it 
should  be  proved  that  the  character  of  man  is  formed  for  him,  by 
other  powers  than  his  own,  than  that  it  should  appear  that  his  charac¬ 
ter  is  formed  by  himself.  It  is  still  more  important,  when  we  reflect 
how  inferior  the  character  of  all  men  has  yet  been  formed'  under 
the  latter  notion.  There  is  not,  at  this  moment,  a  more  grievous  or 
degrading  error  in  the  human  mind,  than  that  which  leads  it  to  sup¬ 
pose  that  the  notions  of  free  agency  in  man  are  necessary  to  virtue 
and  happiness.  For  while  this  impression  continues,  no  effort  will 
be  evade  to  detect  its  fallacy.  So  far  from  this  error  being  favorable 
to  virtue,  it  is  itself  a  most  powerful  chain  to  keep  humanity  in 
bondage  to  evil  of  every  description,  and  to  induce  it  to  cling  to  that 
chain  as  its  greatest  good.  It  prevents  man  from  seeing  any  thing 
i:i  human  nature,  or  in  human  actions,  except  through  a  medium 
w  hich  falsifies  whatever  lie  attempts  to  examine.  It  renders  him, 
from  birth  to  death,  a  moral  coward, — so  weak  in  intellect,  that  he 
dares  not  examine  himself,  or  investigate  what  manner  of  feeing  he 
has  been  formed  to  be.  It  makes  him  much  more  base  and  irrational 
than  the  brutes,  by  compelling  him  to  become  ashamed  of  his  nature, 
which,  but  for  this  very  error,  would  be  discovered  to  possess  the 
germ  of  every  conceivable  excellence.  It  makas  him,  through  life, 
the  most  inconsistent  of  all  the  animal  creation.  He  follows  not  the 
wise  impulses  of  his  nature,  which  would  lead  to  excellence  in  con¬ 
duct  and  to  high  enjoyment ;  but  he  is  perpetually  occupied  with 
whims  and  fancies,  which,  having  no  foundation  in  nature,  keep  him 
a  wild,  fantastic,  visionary  enthusiast,  or  a  continued  self  tormentor.' 
It  contradicts  the  notion  that  he  is  now,  or  that  he  ever  has  been  a 
reasonable  creature.  He  knows  not  what  reason  is.  He  looks 
around  him,  out  of  his  own  circle  of  errors,  and  discovers,  that 
from  one  extremity  of  the  earth  to  the  other,  all  nations,  and  tribes, 
and  people,  are  acting  the  part  of  fools  or  madmen;  but  he  knows 
not,  that  the  cause  of  this  conduct  is  the  error  within  himself  and 
■all  of  his  race.  Man  is  thus  deceived  to  his  degradation  and  misery, 
and  he  dares  not  probe  the  evil  to  its  source. 

He  is  now  precisely  under  the  same  kind  of  moral  delusion,  that 
he  was  of  physical,  previous  to  the  discoveries  of  Copernicus  and 
Galileo.  His  senses,  from  the  beginning  of  his  knowledge,  im.- 
pre^sed  him  with  the  belief  that  the  sun  moved  round  the  earth-. 
Religion  taught  the  same  error.  When  facts  were  investigated,  and 
accurate  deductions  were  made  from  those  facts,  they  proved  that  the 
sun  was  stationary.  There  w'as,  therefore,  an  inconsistency  between 
the  uninvestigated  impressions  from  the  senses,  and  the  conclusions, 
to  which  those  facts  and  deductions  led  the  inquiring  mind.  Where 
was  the  error?— in  the  uninvestigated  belief  that  the  sun  moved  round 
the  earth,  or  in  facts  which  wait  for  examination,  and  remain  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever?  But  religion  had  taught  the 
physic?.!  error  through  many  previous  ages,  and  religion  is  infallible: 


APPENDIX, 


221 


therefore,  facts,  and  nature,  and  reason,  however  consistent  these 
may  be,  and  however  beneficial  the  practical  results  which  they 
disclose  may  be,  must  all  yield  to  the  control  of  this  engine  for 
destroying  the  superior  faculties  of  human  nature ;  and  the  discoverers 
must  retract  their  newly  acquired  knowledge,  or  be  sacrificed  at  the 
shrine  of  religion. 

So  in  this  our  day.  The  uninvestigated  notions  induce  men, 
through  early  impressions,  to  believe  that  they  possess  the  power  to 
think,  to  feel,  and  to  act  according  to  their  will ;  and,  therefore,  that 
these  powers  originate  with  their  will,  and  they  are,  in  consequence, 
responsible  for  their  degree  of  inferiority  and  superiority,  have  merit 
or  demerit,  deserve  praise  or  blame,  and  reward  or  punishment  here 
^  and  hereafter,  as  these  qualities  of  their  nature  may  be  estimated  by 
themselves  and  others.  The  religion  of  this  day,  and  of  past  ages, 
has  taught  this  doctrine.  It  forms  the  foundation  of  the  whole  su¬ 
perstructure  of  all  the  religions  that  have  ever  existed,  and  of  all  the 
divisions  and  subdivisions  of  it  which  are  at  this  day  spread  over  the 
earth.  And  although  facts  innumerable,  and  all  the  deductions  which 
the  most  accurate  reasoning  can  draw  from  those  facts,  and  the  whole 
process  of  human  life,  when  traced  step  by  step  to  its  source,  prove 
that  those  first  impressions  respecting  thought,  feeling  and  conduct, 
which  give  the  appearance  of  free  will  to  man,  are  as  fallacious  as 
his.  first  impressions  relative  to  the  motion  of  the  sun;  yet,  as  religion 
is  believed  to  be  as  infallible  today  as  it  has  always  been  in  the  esti¬ 
mation  of  its  devotees,  the  door  of  the  most  valuable  knowledge  is  to 
be  closed  for  ever  against  man’s  investigation.  He  must,  solely  to 
retain  all  the  irrational  mysteries,  miracles,  and  dogmas  generated  by 
the  most  ignorant  and  distorted  imaginations,  be  kept  the  ignorant, 
base,  irrational,  weak,  vicious,  inconsistent,  and  miserable  animal 
which  these  deceptive  impressions  have  ever  formed  him  to  be,  and 
which,  until  the  acquisition  of  real  knowledge  derived  from  facts  and 
experience,  shall  prevail  over  these  fallacies  of  the  mind,  he  must  ever 
continue  to  be,  to  the  utter  destitution  of  reason  and  common  sense. 

But,  say  the  supporters  of  these  mental  delusions,  do  we  not  feel 
A.  that  we  have  a  will,  free  to  think,  to  feel,  and  to  act  as  we  like?  not 
^  attending  to  the  facts  which,  independent  of  their  will,  compel  them 
to  think  and  feel,  and  consequently  to  act,  by  certain  laws  which 
create  the  will  itself,  and  force  it  to  the  decision  it  makes,  and  to  the 
actions  which  are  consequent  upon  its  determination. 

So  the  supporters  of  the  physical  delusions  of  old  said,  “Bo  we  not 
in  the  morning  see  the  sun  rising  in  the  East,  at  mid-day  in  the- 
zenith,  and  in  the  evening  set  in  the  West?  Will  you  cunning  men 
and  philosophers  persuade  us  out  of  our  senses?  Cannot  we  see  and 
understand  these  things  as  well  as  you  ?  We  see  and  feel,  and  there¬ 
fore  know,  that  the  earth  moves  not,  and  that  the  sun  ever  performs 
its  regular  task,  to  give  us  by  its  daily  motions  the  change  from  day  to 
•  night,  and  to  give  us  light  and  heat.  Do  not,  then,  attempt  to  deceive 
U3  by  your  pretensions  to  superior  knowledge,  and  endeavor  to  make 
•as  think,  contrary  to  the  palpable  evidence  of  our  senses,  that  all  our 


VOL. 


1  T 


19* 


222 


APPENDIX. 


forefathers  were  mistaken,  and  that  our  religion  has  taught  us  errors 
instead  of  truths.  No,  you  vile  atheists!  you  want  to  rob  us  of  all 
our  earthly  consolations,  and  to  lessen  our  belief  in  the  infallibility 
of  our  holy  religion  and  its  sacred  ministers.  Tempt  us  no  more  by 
specious  reasons  about  the  great  practical  benefits  of  real  knowledge 
derived  from  fixed  laws  of  nature:  we  know  nothing  about  them. 
And  if  you  continue  to  attempt  to  enlighten  us  upon  these  subjects, 
directly  opposed  to  our  senses  and  our  holy  religion  and  its  divine 
ministers,  we  will  punish  you  by  imprisonment  and  death.  Retract 
all  you  have  said,  or  suffer  the  consequences  of  your  scepticism  and 
blasphemous  doctrines.'”  And  Galileo,  to  save  his  life,  was  obliged  to 
retract  those  truths  upon  which  alone  the  glorious  science  of  astronomy 
is  known  to  men. 

But  what  is  this  science,  grand,  magnificent,  noble,  and  useful  as 
it  is,  compared  to  the  practical  results  to  be.  obtained  from  an  accu¬ 
rate  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the  formation  of  the  future  chu- 
racter  of  the  human  race?  The  former  has  given  man  an  insight 
into  the  movements  of  the  planets  within  the  sphere  of  the  sun’s 
attraction;  it  lias  enabled  him  to  calculate  times  and  seasons,  and 
thereby  to  obtain  much  useful  practical  knowledge;  and  it  has  given  a 
certain  portion  of  eternal  happiness  to  his  race,  which  can  be  experi¬ 
enced  only  when,  by  an  accurate  knowledge  of  some  new  facts,  the 
human  capacity  has  been  expanded  to  encompass  another  combina¬ 
tion,  complete  in  itself,  of  extended  causes  and  effects,  which  show 
forth  the  unchanging  consistency  in  all  the  works  of  nature,  and 
demonstrate  her  laws  to  be  everlasting. 

Great,  however  as  this  discovery  has  proved  to  man,  it  has  not  been 
competent  to  disturb  his  general  impressions  relative  to  his  long 
established  notions  of  his  own  free  will  and  conduct,  and  all  the 
demoralizing  consequences  attendant  upon  that  belief.  It  has  not 
enabled  him  to  perceive  this  hourly  increasing  scourge  of  his  race. 
It  has  not  given  him  sufficient  vigor  of  understanding,  and  strength 
of  moral  courage,  to  probe  the  true  cause  of  human  evil  to  its 
source.  But  a  knowledge  of  that  science  which  shall  direct  most  un¬ 
erringly  to  form  the  character  of  his  progeny  to  attain  all  excellence, 
physical,  mental,  and  moral,  will  effect  all  these  things,  and  much 
more.  It  will  secure  an  unchanging  and  untiring  progress  ip  the 
most  valuable  knowledge,  and  fix  the  happiness  of  the  human  race 
upon  a  rock,  from  whence  the  passions  and  vices  resulting  from  the 
notions  of  man’s  independent  free  agency,  will  assail  it  in  vain;  their 
strength  will  diminish,  until  it  shall  be  entirely  exhausted.. 

Now  this  science — the  overwhelming  practical  influence  of  which, 
cannot  he  estimated'  by  a  generation  trained  from  infancy  in  the 
reason-destroying  doctrines  of  free  will — is  of  such  immense  conse¬ 
quence  to  the  human  race,  that  there  is  no  other  subject  within  the 
present  range  of  man’s  knowledge,  that  can  be  compared  with  it. 
For  this  science  has  a  direct  reference  to  the  formation  of  man,  be¬ 
fore  the  gernl  commences  its  process  to  produce  a  living  organized 
being.  It  accompanies  him  from  that  moment  to  his  birth.  It  con 


APPENDIX, 


tinues  with  the  infant,  child,  adult,  and  old  man,  to  death,  without  u 
moment’s  intermission.  It  is  every  thing  to  each  individual,  and  to 
all  generations  of  mankind,  for  their  good  or  evil;  or  it,  is  of  no 
moment  to  man,  and  utterly  unworthy  the  consideration  of  a  being 
formed  with  powers  to  become  rational.  Which  is  it?  Who  is  to 
answer  this  question?  Those  who  have  not  yet  been  taught  to  begin 
•  to  think  about  it?  or  those  who,  from  discovering  the  importance  of 
right  knowledge  on  the  subject,  have  devoted  their  lives  to  ascertain 
the  facts  which  man  developes  from  his  birth,  and  who  have  quietly 
examined  and  re-examined  those  facts  by  extensive  and  long  continu¬ 
ed  experiments  upon  infants  and  children,  until  their  characters  were 
formed?  It  is  after  the  latter  mode  of  proceeding,  to  an  extent  of 
which,  in  reality,  few  are  aware,  that  I  give  a  matured  opinion  upon 
the  subject  of  my  fellow-beings. 

There  is  no  other  mode  of  acquiring  knowledge  deserving  the  at- 
tention  of  enlightened  minds,  than  by  an  accurate  observation  of 
all  the  facts  known,  connected  with  the  subject,  and  by  a  careful 
comparison  of  all  these  facts,  one  with  another,  until  the  subject 
under  consideration  can  be  exhibited  in  all  its  parts  in  unison  with 
each  other, — forming,  by  their  combination,  one  complete  whole, 
from  the  first  principles  on  which  it  is  founded,  to  its  unvarying  prac¬ 
tical  result. 

It  is  thus,  and  thus  only,  that  the  true  nature  of  man  is  to  be  demon 
strated,  and  that  it  can  be  ascertained  whether  he  is  a  bein^  of  inde¬ 
pendent  thoughts,  feelings,  and  actions ;  or  whether  he  is  like  the  other 
works  of  nature,  a  necessary  effect  produced  bp  all  the  preceding 
causes ,  which  have  called  him  into  existence,  and  formed  him  to  be 
what  he  is  without  his  knowledge,  will,  or  control. 

It  is  by  this  course  of  proceeding,  that  I  have  prepared  myself  for 
this  investigation.  It  is  through  innumerable  facts,  calmly  and  pa¬ 
tiently  examined  and  compared  continually  through  an  active  life  of 
extended  experience  of  nearly  the  duration  of  half  a  century. 

Then  the  question  is,  What  is  man,  and  how  is  he  formed  to  be  as 
we  find  him  physically,  mentally,  and  morally,  as  he  is  in  this  and 
every  other  country  at  this  day? 

The  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature,  given  twice  to  save 
reference  in  the  first  parts  of  this  work,  are  the  results  of  the  facts 
examined  and  compared  as  I  have  mentioned  above.  To  those  who 
have  investigated  the  subject  in  the  same  manner,  who  have  derived 
their  knowledge  more  from  observation  than  from  books,  and  who 
have  followed  up  their  observations  by  extensive  practice;  these  laws 
of  nature  will  be  understood,  and  their  direct  applicability  to  explain 
the  formation  of  the  human  character,  and  the  whole  existence  of  man 
from  birth  to  death, -and  with  the  general  business  of  society,  and  the 
government  of  nations,  will  be  duly  appreciated. 

As  the  germ  or  seed  of  man’s  existence,  like  the  germ  or  seed  of 
all  other  animals  and  plants,  is  not  of  man’s  contrivance,  and  as  the 
germ  possesses  the  essential  qualities  of  the  plant  or  animal,  and  as 
the  culture  of  this  germ  docs  not  depend  in  any  degree  upon  the  will 


m 


APPENDIX. 


of  the  individual,  no  mistake  can  be  more  gross,  than  to  attribute 
the  qualities  of  a  free  and  independent  notion  to  any  thing  thus 
created  and  framed.  When  a  child  comes  into  existence,  it  is  entirely 
at  the  mercy  of  the  persons  around  to  give  it  language,  ideas,  and 
any  drection  to  its  feelings  which  the  knowledge  and  habits  they  pos¬ 
sess  may  influence  them  to  exert  over  it.  And  it  must  receive  the 
impression,  which  all  external  objects,  natural  and  artificial,  make 
upon  its  senses. 

The  individual  knows  not  when  he  comes  into  existence,  his  own 
natural  qualities  in  number,  kind,  or  combination.  He  knows  nothing 
of  the  persons  who  surround  him  and  acquire  the  guidance  of  his  mind 
and  affections.  He  is  equally  ignorant  of  the  nature,  kind,  and 
qualities  of  all  the  natural  and  artificial  circumstances  within  the 
localities  of  his  birth  or  place  in  which  he  receives  his  early  training 
and  instruction,  and  from  which  all  his  first  impressions  are  received. 
And  the  thoughts,  feelings,  dispositions,  mind,  will,  and  conduct  of  all 
men,  are  a  compound  of  all  these  natural  and  artificutl  circumstan¬ 
ces  united.  As  an  individual  existence,  man,  in  his  own  person, 
has  no  more  to  do  in  the  formation  or  compounding  of  any  of  these 
ingredients  which  make  him  what  he  is,  than  the  bee,  the  dove,  the 
tiger,  or  the  elephant,  have  in  determining  what  qualities  shall 
belong  to  their  respective  natures — what  propensities,  dispositions,  or 
habits  they  shall  possess  and  retain  through  life.  Man  can  be  no 
more  responsible  for  his  nature,  or  the  strength,  or  weakness  of  his 
propensities,  or  intellectual  or  moral  faculties,  than  these  or  any  other 
animal.  And  to  hold  man  responsible  for  his  nature,  for  his  general 
or  individual  propensities,  faculties,  and  qualities,  or  for  the  direction 
which  his  predecessors  and  the  local  circumstances  in  which  he  is  . 
involved  may  give  to  them,  is  a  direct  act  of  insanity,  and  proves  that 
man  has  not  yet  been  formed,  by  his  nature  and  circumstances,  to 
become  a  rational  creature.  The  idea  of  merit  or  demerit,  of  praise 
and  biame,  or  of  reward  and  punishment,  to  a  being  thus  constituted 
by  nature,  and  thus  compelled  to  be  what  he  is,  proves  that  man  has 
every  thing  to  learn  respecting  himself  and  his  race,  and  that  he  is 
yet  ignorant  of  all  that  is  essential  to  his  improvement  and  happiness, 
lie  must  know  himself  before  he  can  enjoy  the  faculties  which  nature 
has  given  him. 

By  attending  solely  to  facts,  by  an  extensive  comparison  of  these, 
each  with  the  other,  by  the  imagination,  not  entering  into  any  of  our 
deductions  from  these  comparisons,  it  seems  possible  and  practicable, 
that  man  may  in  this  age  of  his  existence  acquire  sufficient  knowledge 
of  himself,  and  of  his  fellow  beings,  to  enable  him  to  train  and 
educate  his  immediate  descendants  in  such  a  manner,  that  they  may 
possess  the  dispositions,  manners,,  and  intelligence,  and  be  surround¬ 
ed  by  those  new  circumstances,  which  shall  give  them  the  means  and 
inclination  to  form  their  children  to  become  somewhat  consistent  an¬ 
imals  in  their  thoughts,  feelings,  and  conduct,  and  in  another  genera¬ 
tion  or  two,  to  become  reasonable  beings,  who  will  know  what  is 
necessary  for  their  chief  good  through  their  existence,  and  who  will 


APPENDIX,  <m 

fiH  always  in  conformity  to  that  knowledge,  and  thereby  secure  their 
own  perpetual  well  being,  and  -  the  happiness  of  their  race. 

It  is  the  individual’s  persuasion  of  his  independence  in  originating 
his  thoughts  or  ideas,  feelings  or  actions,  that  has  made  man,  up 
this  present  time,  the  most  inconsistent  and  fantastic  earthly  animal, 
and  consequently  the  least  reasonable  in  his  conduct  of  any  of  them. 
It  is  this  notion  that  makes  him  proud,  vain*  jealous,  malicious,. 
Covetous,-  sefish,  ambitious,  irritable,  angry,  uncharitable  and  religi¬ 
ous.  It  is  this  notion  that  renders  necessary  the  demoralizing  sys¬ 
tem  of  commerce,  for  a  money  profit,  of  law,  of  medicine,  of  war, 
and  of  preaching.  It  is  this  notion,  which  necessarily  pervades  the 
whole  character  of  man  from  infancy  to  death,  with  insincerity, 
deception  and  falsehood,  and  which  thus  engenders  among  the  whole 
race  of  mankind  every  conceivable  vice  and  crime,  and  subjects  them 
in  consequence  to  perpetual  disease  of  body  and  mind,  and  to’ every 
kind  of  physical  and  mental  suffering.  Not  any  one  of  these  nume¬ 
rous  evils  will  be  experienced  as  soon  as  measures  can  be  devised 
and  carried  into  practice,  to  enable  man  to  know  himself,  and  to 
become  a  rational,  in  place  of  an  irrational  creature. 

What  nation  or  tribe  or  people,  are  acting  like  sane  or  reasonable 
beings  in  the  estimation  of  any  nation,  tribe  or  people,  who  are 
without  their  localities?  None,  because  all  have  been  formed  to  be 
what  they  now  are  by  their  localities,  and  these  localities,  to  the 
extent  that  man  could  influence  them,  have  been  combined  and  ar¬ 
ranged  under  the  notion  of  man's  free  agency;  hence  the  inconsist¬ 
ency,  confiison  and  disorder)  in  all  the  artificial  arrangements  of  the 
human  race;  while  system,  order  and  beauty  pervade  all  the  other 
operations  of  nature.  It  is  a  question  of  deep  interest  to  all,  to 
ascertain  to  what  extent  man  can  be  made  to  become  conscious,  in 
the  present  generation,  of  the  removeable  evils  which  now  sorely 
afflict  him  on  every  side;  to  what  extent  he  can  be  excited  to  anni¬ 
hilate  their  cause  of  existence;  and  in  their  place  substitute  enjoy = 
ment  which  shall  contribute  to  promote  health — increase  good  spirits, 
and  in  their  retrospect  always  satisfy  the  mind,  and  therefore  extend 
its  gratification,  and  thus  multiply  the  pleasures  of  each  moment 
by  the  recollections  of  our  past  existence. 

All  this  is  now  in  progress  to  be  known,  and  one  day  enjoyed!, 
by  the  whole  huinan  race.  But  what  portion  of  it  shall  fall  to  the 
lot  of  the  present  generation,  will  depend  upon  the  extent  of  moral 
courage  that  can  be  elicited  to  plead  boldly  against  the  errors  of 
tree  will,  and  upon  the  well  directed,  active  exertions  of  those  who 
directly  perceive  the  cause  of  existing  evils,  the  only  mode  by  which 
they  can  be  removed,  and  also  upon  the  amount  of  resistance,  which 
they  may  experience  from  the  unavoidable  prejndices  which  have 
been  forced  upon  the  present  generation. 

For  some  thousands  of  years  past,  the  most  learned  and  acute 
minds,  have  been  more  or  less  occupied  in  attempts  to  unravel  the 
mysteries  of  human  notions,  on  the  subject  of  free  will  and  necessity ; 
and  they  have  at  length  discovered,  after  deluging  the  world  with 


226  ' 


APPENDIX. 


countless  volumes,  which  involve  rather  than  elucidate  the  mystery^, 
that  man  had  the  power  to  act  in  obedience  to  his  will  when  his 
will  was  formed;  but  as  the  will  was  formed  by  the  union  of  his 
thoughts  and  feelings,  and  as  his  thoughts  and  feelings  proceeded 
from  previous  circumstances,  over  which  he  had  no  control,  that  man 
appeared  to  be  a  free  agent,  but  that  he  was  not  so  in  reality ;  that 
instead  of  forming  his  own  character  and  determining  his  own  con¬ 
duct,  the  germ  of  his  existence,  his  entire  organization,  and  all  the 
circumstances  which  formed  him  to  be  what  he  is,  are  created  for  him 
without  his  knowledge  or  will,  until  he  has  been  so  far  formed  that 
when  he  appears  to  have  some  powers  of  independent  volition,  they 
always  proceed  from  the  combined  organic  and  external  circumstan¬ 
ces,  by  which  he  has  been  previously  and  unavoidably  influenced. 
These  are  the  fair  deductions  to  be  made  from  this  mass  of  wrritings; 
but  the  authors  of  them,  who  were  all  literary  or  learned  men,  shut 
up  in  their  cloisters  or  closets,  never  conjectured  the  difference  that 
would  arise  in  the  thoughts,  feelings,  dispositions  and  general  conduct 
of  mankind,  between  being  trained  from  infancy  under  the  loose, 
uncertain  and  inconsistent  notions  of  free  will  and  independent  con¬ 
duct;  and  a  clear  understanding  of  the  laws  of  human  nature,  and  of 
the  circumstances  which  form  the  character  of  every  individual. 
They  were  not  practical  men  acting  extensively  in  the  varied  busi¬ 
ness  of  life,  and  therefore  as  literary  men,  they  knew  little  more 
Chan  literary  ideas,  and  few  things  more  unfit  men  for  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  mankind  than  literary  habits,  which  generally  give  th£ 
individuals  possessing  them  incorrect  notions  of  men,,  and  of  the 
practical  affairs  of  life.  These  habits  have  been  the  chief  cause,  why 
the  extreme  difference  that  the  doctrines  of  free  will  and  necessity 
are  calculated  to  effect  upon  the  dispositions,  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
conduct  of  every  individual  of  the  human  race,  has  been  overlooked; 
why  human  nature  has  been*  for  so  many  ages,  afflicted  with  every 
kind  of  evil  which  the  erroneous  notions  of  man!s  free  agency  are 
certain  to  create;  and  why  it  has  not  enjoyed  the  happiness  which 
the  doctrines  of  necessity,  or  of  the  true  cause  which  form  the 
character  of  every  individual  is  calculated  to  create. 

Were  these  results  known — were  they  ever  imagined  by  mankind, 
to  a  very  small  extent  of  their  real  importance,  no  one  would  rest 
satisfied  as  he  is,  whatever  may  be  his  occupation,  calling  or  profes¬ 
sion.  The  magnitude  of  the  prize  wTould  appear  to  be  such,  that  one 
and  all  would  exert  the  utmost  of  their  faculties  to  comprehend  the- 
subject,  gnd  bring  about  the  change.  Nothing  that  the  combined 
powers  of  men  could  accomplish,  would  be  left  undone,  to  remove 
their  misery  and  secure  their  happiness. 

How  little  do  men  of  all  ranks  and  conditions,  of  all  nations  and 
climes,  suspect,  that  the  power  is  within  their  reach,  if  they  had 
knowledge,  to  relieve  themselves  of  all  the  artificial  evils  known, — 
ignorance,  poverty,  vice,  passions,  strife,  and  every  kind  of  disunion, 
with  all  its  necessary  sufferings  attendant  upon  the  infringement  of 
the  laws  of  our  nature, — and  toliye  perpetually  in  a  society  in  which 


APPENDIX- 


r>o<7 

more  knowledge  would  be  acquired  in  one  year,  than  has  ever  yet 
been  attained  in  a  century,  and  in  which  improvements  would  be 
made  in  the  condition  of  all  classes ,  in  proportion  to  their  advance  in 
knowledge . 

No  man  has,  I  believe,  ever  yet  investigated  the  subject  of  free 
will  and  necessity,  so  early  in  life  as  myself;  or  so  clearly  ascertained, 
from  an  observation  of  facts,  and  from  practice,  the  science  of  the 
formation  of  character,  at  an  age  sufficiently  early  to  prevent  the 
influence  of  the  doctrines  of  free  will  from  forming  his  youthful 
habits  and  .associations  of  ideas.  This  singular  result  was  effected 
in  my  character  at  an  age  when  the  first  combinations  of  ideas  could 
be,  and  were,  unassociated  to  their  foundation.  And,  in  conse¬ 
quence,  an  entire  new  character  was  formed  for  me,  and  my  conduct 
and  progress  through  the  world  has  proceeded  entirely  on  that  foun¬ 
dation.  I,  therefore,  know  from  experience  the  dispositions  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  formation  of  character  will  implant,  the  habits  it 
will  form,  the  knowledge  it  will  give,  the  perseverance  in  the  attain¬ 
ment  of  an  object  to  secure  a  great  public  benefit  it  will  fix,  the  moral 
courage  it  will  create,  the  disinterestedness  it  will  produce,  the 
personal  sacrifices  it  will  render  delightful  to  make,  to  remove  the 
existing  evils,  and  insure  the  future  happiness  of  mankind;  to  remove 
the  veils,  by  destroying  the  errors  and  opposing  principles  and  prac¬ 
tice  derived  from  the  doctrines  of  free  will,  and  introducing,  in  their 
place,  truths  to  be  obtained  from  real  knowledge.  The  most  beautiful 
moral  harmony  will  then  exist  between  the  principles  and  practices 
of  the  human  race — between  the  looks,  words,  and  actions  of  every 
individual. 

If  this  knowledge  can  produce  these  results,  and  if  no  other 
knowledge  can  effect  a  similar  moral  change,  or  any  other  general 
and  permanent  beneficial  alteration  in  the  condition  of  mankind, — 
who  would  not  make  any  personal  sacrifice,  to  hasten  its  introduction 
and  universal  adoption  ? 

I  have  the  most  full  conviction,  from  the  coincidence  of  all  facts 
connected  with  the  subject,  that  this  knowledge  can  effect  this  change. 
I  know,  from  experience,  that  this  knowledge  itself  becomes  a  cir¬ 
cumstance  so  irresistibly  powerful  in  the  formation  of  the  thoughts, 
feelings,  mind,  and  conduct,  that  the  character,  of  each  individual 
will  be  made  by  it  superior  to  any  character  that  has  yet  been 
formed,  under  the  demoralizing  influences  of  the  fallacious  notion  of 
the  doctrines  of  free  will  and  free  agency. 

And  here  is  the  mystery  developed :  here  is  the  true  cause,  why 
Mr.  Campbell’s  learning  and  ingenuity  seemed  to  me  mere  wordy 
wanderings,  without  the  foundation  of  a  probable  or  possible  single 
fact,  upon  which  to  rest  his  incongruous,  imaginary  superstructure. 
On  the  contrary,  through  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  which  1  had 
examined^  re-examined,  compared,  and  fully  canvassed,  times  innu¬ 
merable,  with  the'  most  eminent  men  of  the  last  thirty  years,  I  could 
not,  however  muefi  I  wished  to  think  otherwise,  prevent  myself  feel¬ 
ing  the  baseless  fabric  of  the  whole  of  his  fanciful  vision.  It  also 


APPENDIX 


seemed  to  me  evident,  in  almost  every  sentence  he  uttered,  that  hk 
superior  natural  talents  had  been  overwhelmed  and  nearly  destroyed 
by  the  errors  of  his  early  instruction,  which  he  had  been  compelled 
to  imbibe.  And  it  was  to  me  no  less  evident,  that  when  he  spoke 
during  the  discussion,  he  was,  from  the  same  cause,  riveting  chains 
of  ignorance  and  folly  upon  those  who  by  their  previous  instruction 
had  been  prepared  for  such  doctrines.  Before  Mr.  Campbell,  senior, 
left  the  city,  several  new  converts  to  baptism,  chiefly,  I  believe, elderly 
ladies,  were  plunged  over  head  by  him  in  the  waters  of  the  canal 
and  of  the  Ohio.  The  parties  seriously  believed  that  such  a  washing 
was  to  open  the  way  to  heaven  for  them.  These  operations  were  on 
two  occasions — one  in  the  canal  basin,  and  the  other  in  the  Ohio 
river — quite  public  exhibitions.  Is  it  not  melancholy  to  see  some 
of  the  finest  faculties  of  human  nature  thus  deranged? 

I  had,  during  the  period  of  the  public  debate  with  his  son,  and  for 
nearly  a  fortnight  afterwards,  frequent  friendly,  open,  and  frank  pri¬ 
vate  discussions,  at  the  houses  of  our  friends  in  and  near  the  city, 
with  this  reverend  gentleman.  There  is  something  so  kind  and  evi¬ 
dently  sincere  in  his  manners,  that  I  had  great  pleasure  in  all  ray 
communications  with  him.  And  I  believe  we  each  expected  to  make 
some  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  other;  or,  if  not,  to  discover 
the  real  cause  -which  united  us  in  feeling,  and  divided  us  in  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  our  sentiments  on  the  subject  of  religion.  When  the  time 
of  separation  arrived,  however,  the  impression  left  on  my  mind  from 
the  whole  of  the  intercourse  between  us  was,  that  our  feelings  of 
good  will  and  friendship  for  each  ofher  had  increased;  but  that  not 
the  slightest  progress  had  been  made  in  the  conversion  of  either  party 
to  the  religious  or  irreligious  opinions  of  the  other. 

These  were  the  impressions  that  the  public  and  private  discus¬ 
sions  with  Mr.  Alexander  Campbell  and  his  father  left  upon  my 
mind.  I  could  not  but  lament  the  errors  of  their  early  instructions. 
I  have  no  doubt,  this  feeling  is  experienced  with  equal  sincerity  on 
their  parts,  relative  to  what  they  are  obliged  to  believe  my  obstinacy 
in  a  course  which  they  have  not  the  means  to  fathom.  While  their 
association  of  ideas  resting  upon,  and  proceeding  from,  the  notions 
of  free  agency  in  man,  and  developed  through  all  the  mazes  and  ex¬ 
travagancies  of  the  Christian  scheme,  remain  unbroken,  they  must 
conclude  that  I  am  either  insane,  or  influenced  by  some  superior 
agency  to  promote,  in  some  indirect  manner,  the  decrees  of  Almighty 
Power;  or  that,  unknown  to  myself,  I  am  an  instrument  to  hasten 
the  period  of  the  promised  millennium.  They  are  in  a  state  of  hourly 
perplexity;  their  minds  are  full  of  confused  associations  of  ideas, 
owing  to  the  direct  opposition  between  the  facts  around  them  and 
the  notions  they  have  imbibed  from  infancy.  They  can  only  con¬ 
jecture  these  matters  vaguely,  with  many  incongruities  continually 
presenting  themselves  in  every  step  of  their  progress.  Tt  is  utterl}r 
impossible  there  can  be  any  consistency  in  the  thoughts,  feelings,  or 
conduct  of  any  individual,  who  has  been  conscientiously  trained  in 
the  doctrines  of  free  agency,  and  any  of  the  numerous  religions 


APPENDIX, 


founded  upon  them.  •  While  this  mast  be  the  state  of  their  minds, 
there  can  be  no  hope  of  a  change  to  a  consistent  or  sane  state  of 
association  of  ideas— of  a  new  birth,  regeneration,  and  resurrection 
from  sin  and  misery.  They  must  be  convinced  of  the  original  or 
fundamental  errors  which  they  imbibed  unconsciously,  when  they 
were  infants  and  children,  and  which  are  the  germ  of  all  the  associa¬ 
tions  of  ideas  they  possess,  before  their  “minds  can  be  born  again.*’ 

To  admit  of  this  great  change  in  their  minds,  they  must  become  as 
little  children,  and  submit  their  instructions,  not  to  a  gospel  in  direct 
opposition  to  nature,  but  to  facts  and  reason,  which  are  always  con¬ 
sistent  with,  and  never  in  opposition  to  it. 

But  this  change  does  not  depend  upon  any  thing  that  shall  pro¬ 
ceed  from  Mr,  Alexander  Campbell  or  his  father,  as  free  agents. — 
Motives  must  be  first  placed  before  them  by  others,  sufficiently  pow¬ 
erful  to  create  in  their  minds  a  probability  of  doubt  that  they  may 
have  been  instructed,  like  the  thousands  of  millions  of  their  fellows 
who  have  gone  before  them,  in  popular  local  errors  from  infancy, — 
and  that,  like  them,  they  were  unable  to  detect  their  fallacies.  This 
is  the  most  difficult  task  to  perform  on  minds  deeply  read  in,  and  ten¬ 
aciously  adhering  to  popular  notions.  But  being  once  accomplished, 
and  a  right  direction  given  to  their  inquiries  and  investigations,  the 
change  in  sentiment,  although  perhaps  slow  at  first,  would  soon  be¬ 
come  rapid  and  extensive.  Whether  these  results  may  ever  be  produ¬ 
ced  on  these  gentlemen,  will  depend  upon  circumstances  over  which 
_  they  have  no  control, 

I  have  thus  developed  the  cause  why,  during  the  late  discussion, 
Mr.  Alexander  Campbell  and  I  made  no  impression  on  each  other’s 
mind.  We  pursued  each  his  own  chain  or  association  of  ideas,  as 
it  were  in  parallel  lines,  without  the  slightest  approximation.  As  was 
to  be  expected,  I  never  felt  the  weight  or  influence  of  one  of  those 
arguments,  which  Mr.  Campbell  called  philosophical;  by  which  I 
understand,  an  argument  derived  from,  and  consonant  with,  the 
known  laws  of  nature,  devoid  of  hypothesis  or  immagination.  There 
was,  there  could  be,  nothing  of  the  kind  delivered  by  him.  He  at, 
first,  and  after  a  slight  verbal  alteration  in  the  sixth,, adtimately  ad¬ 
mitted  the  truth  of  the  twelve  fundamental  laws  of  human  nature, 
on  which  I  rely  to  disprove  the  possibility  of  any  religion  in  the 
world  being  true.  And  admitting  these,  if  his  mind  had  not  been 
formed  on  the  irrational  notions  of  free  will,  and  its  endless  contra¬ 
dictions  to  itself  and  all  nature,  he  must  have  perceived  the  inutility 
of  any  further  discussion  on  this  subject.  For  any  one  of  the  first 
,seVen  fundamental  laws  being  admitted  and  understood,  all  notions 
of  any  free  agency  of  man  must  forever  cease. 

That  in  his  own  person  he  has  any  free  agency  in  forming  his  own 
character,  or  of  thinking,  feeling,  and  acting,  according  to*  ny  inde¬ 
pendent  powers  which  he  possesses  to  create  a  thought,  a  feeling,  ora 
will, becomes  too  absurd  to  dwell  upon.  What  human  being  ever 
originated  one  thought,  one  feeling,  or  a  single  volition  that  did  not 
proceed  immediately  from  his  organization,  united  with  the  influences 
yol.  1C  20 


230 


APPENDIX. 


which  external  circumstances  made  upon  that  organization?  And 
what  intelligent  mind,  does  not  know,  that  all  the  powers  and  quali¬ 
ties  of  that  organization,  and  all  external  circumstances,  were  brought 
into  existence  without  his  consent?  Seeing  the  discussion  take  this 
course,  and  knowing  it  was  to  be  put  upon  record,  to  await  the  ce’ib- 
erate  ordeal  of  public  scrutiny  and  investigation,  l  could  have  no  fear 
for  its  tinal  result,  and  therefore  I  yielded  all  minor  matters  to  Mr 
Campbell,  and  the  moderators,  who  were  unconscious,  as  it  seemed  to 
me,  of  the  real  state  to  which  the  discussion  had  arrived  early  in  the 
debate. 

It  w*as  well  they  did  not,  or  their  conscientious  fears  for  the  pop¬ 
ular  belief,  in  which  all  of  them  had  been  instructed,  might  have  in¬ 
duced  a  desire  that  some  other  course  should  he  taken.  As  it  was, 
the  public,  prejudiced  as  it  must  be,  will  indue  time,  when  the  first 
feelings  of  irritation  shall  subside,  become  the  best  judge  between  the 
two  systems,  and  truth  trill  ultimately  prevail. 

It  may  be  inquired,  why  I  have  used  such  exertions,  and  made  such 
personal  sacrifices,  to  destroy  the  influences  of  religion,  over  the  world, 
seeing  that  the  population  is  ignorant,  and  requires  some  supernatu¬ 
ral  fears  and  hopes  to  keep  it  under  government  ? 

I  reply,  because  I  discover  that  the  population  of  the  world  is  ipnor- 
cut,  and  that  these  superstitious  fears  keep  it  so,  and  therefore,  it  can¬ 
not  be  governed  but  through  supernatural  hopes  and  fears.  History 
informs  us,  that  the  governments  and  people,  in  former  times,  were 
too  inexperienced,  the  one  to  govern,  and  the  other  to  be  governed, 
except  through  the  hopes  and  fears  of  imaginary  supernatural  powers. 
And  it  is  these  powers  which  now  alone  prevent  the  governed  and 
governors  acquiring  that  knowledge  which  would  place  both  under 
circumstances  greatly  more  to  be  desired  than  those  which  now*  every 
where  exist.  The  population  of  the  world  is  capable  of  being  taught 
knowledge,  derived  from  facts  upon  and  around  the  earth,  all  cogni¬ 
sable  by  their  senses,  sufficient  to  induce  feelings  within  them,  that 
will  render  it  one  of  the  most  easy  and  delightful  tasks  to  govern  them 
— equally  easy  and  delightful  to  those  who  govern  and  those  w  ho  are 
governed.  The  religions  of  the  world  are  now  the  only  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  this  universal  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  human 
race.  It  is  a  clear  and  distinct  perception  of  this  know  ledge,  derived 
from  the  unchanging  laws  of  human  nature,  that  impel  mo  onw  ard, 
regardless  of  popular  notions  and  feelings,  to  prepare  the  way,  to  en 
able  those  who  govern  the  world,  to  effect  this  glorious  change,  in  the 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  character  and  condition,  of  the 
population  of  all  countries.  To  effect  it  w  ithout  opposition  from  any 
quarter;  in  peace, in  good  order,  and  with  kind  feelings,  which  shall 
thenceforth  continually  increase. 

It  may  he  further  asked,  what  information  have  I,  unknown  to  oth¬ 
ers,  to  enable  me  to  form  a  decisive  judgment  in  those  matters,  involv¬ 
ing  the  w*ell  being  of  all  people  and  nations.  1  answer,  that  which  has 
been  derived  from  a  mind  in  which  the  first  combinations  of  ideas, 
founded  on  the  notions  of  man's  free  agency,  were  very  easily  unasso- 


APPENDIX.  2^1 

dated  to  their  base  or  original  germ,  from  the  observation  of  facts; 
of  new  data,  by  which  new  associations  of  ideas  were  formed,  and 
which  enable  me  to  perceive,  that  the  character  or  qualities  of  all 
that  have  material  life,  was  given  to  it  by  the  la  ws  of  its  organization* 
That  the  whole  character  of  all  men  was  formed  for  them,  and  as  all 
their  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  qualities  ircre  formed  for  them,, 
they  were  not  and  could  not  he  rationally  supposed  to  be  accountable 
beings,  for  what  they  were  made.  That  with  this  knowledge,  if  it 
were  desirable  to  for  ha  the  character  of  the  population  of  the  world, 
individually  and  generally  to  be  superior  in  all  respects,  and  greatly 
mare  virtuous  and  happy  than  the  present  generation,  there  was  a 
lived  and  certain  mode  of  proceeding — a  science,  by  the  adoption  of 
which,  this  change  may  be  accomplished.  And  so  beneficially  may 
the  change  he  made  to  all,  that  n  >  indvidual,  whatever  may  be  his 
present  condition,  would  have  any  interest,  whatever  in  opposing  it 

Should  I  ho  further  questioned,  and  asked  what  application  1  have 
made  of  these  new  notions  or  principles,  f  answer,  that  I  have  folly 
proved  their  benefits  in  all  the  afiairs  of  life. 

That  I  applied  them  to  education,  to  production,  to  distribution,  to 
exercise,  amusement,  and  recreation,  and  to  government,  upon  a  mod¬ 
el  sufficiently  large  to  demonstrate  their  great  superiority,  for  all  the 
practical  purposes  of  life  over  the  wretched,  inconsistent,  and  oppo¬ 
sing  nations,  generated  by  the  belief,  engendered  without  thought  or 
reflection,  in  man’s  individual  free  agency  and  responsibility.  And 
the  beneficial  effects  of  these  general  practices,  were  for  years  before 
the  public.  They  succeeded  so  far  beyond  all  anticipations,  that  sev¬ 
eral  attempts,  under  the  old  nations  of  the  world,  were  made  to  imi¬ 
tate  them.  But  these  attempts  were  instituted  by  individuals  who 
knew  not  the  source  from  whence  they  originated  or  by  what  princi¬ 
ples  they  were,  for  a  long  period,  successfully  conducted.  Many 
were  at  a  loss  to  divine  by  what  secret  springs,  scf  much  happiness 
and  prosperity  were  produced,  and,  without  apparent  effort,  continued 
without  change. 

There  was  no  other  secret  in  my  practical  proceeding  at  New  Lan¬ 
ark  than  this.  Rational  infant  schools  were  instituted,  for  the  educa¬ 
tion  of  all  the  children  of  the  population,  as  one  family,  from  the  age 
of  eighteen  months.  Stores  were  established  to  supply  the  population 
with  the  best  food  and  clothes,  at  the  lowest  rates.  The  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  manufactories,  was  devised  for  the  comfort  of  the  people, 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  proprietors  and  conductors.  Exercises, 
amusements,  and  recreations,  were  conveniently  arranged,  for  the 
health  and  pleasure  of  the  children  and  adult  population — and  the  go¬ 
vernment  of  the  whole,  uniting  all  as  one  community  of  friends,  hav¬ 
ing  the  paramount  happiness  of  all  for  its  common  object.  The 
whole  of  the  practices  emanated  from  and  were  under  the  sole  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  principles  derived  from  the  knowledge  that  the  character 
of  man  is  formed  for  him — formed  through  the  constant  action  of  ex¬ 
ternal  circumstances  upon  the  peculiar  organization  of  each  individual. 


APPENDIX. 


433 

Little  does  the  world  know  that  all  that  is  truly  permanently  good 
m  practice  in  the  present  day,  has  emanated  from  the  same  know¬ 
ledge. 

Did  any  of  the  thousands  of  millions  of  the  individuals  who  have 
been  trained  in  the  selfish,  demoralizing,  and  ever  changing  notions 
of  man’s  free  agency  ever  think  of,  or  institute  a  rational  infant 

school  ? 

A  rational  infant  school  is  the  first  Step  requisite  to  the  formation 
of  a  virtuous  and  enlightened  population,  and  without  which,  a  popu- 
Jation  superior  in  dispositions,  habits,  and  knowledge,  will  never  be 

created. 

1  perceive,  with  such  feelings  of  compassion  as  such  knowledge 
will  always  produce,  the  attempts  to  attribute  the  discovery  and 
introduction  of  rational  infant  schools,  to  the  free  agency  system,  or 
to  religion;  to  Pestalozzi,  to  Mr.  Wilson  of  London,  or  to  any  one 
belonging  to  the  free  agency  system,  connected  with  Christianity : 
to  any  person  or  to  any  cause  in  preference  to  its  true  origin  A  To 
the  science  of  the  formation  of  the  human  character,  the  world  is  alone 
indebted  for  the  discovery,  introduction  and  successful  practice  of 
rational  infant  schools.  I  mean  successful,  considering  they  had  to 
make  their  way  in  opposition  to  all  the  popular  habits  and  notions 
universally  prevalent,  derived  from  the  notions  of  free  agency  and 
the  Christian  religion.!  So  far  is  it  from  being  true,  that  the  rational 
infant  schools  originated  with  the  Christian  religion,  or  any  profes¬ 
sing  Christian,  it  was  founded  upon  principles  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  all  religions.  It  proceeded  from  obser- 
\  ation  of  facts,  from  calm  reason,  and  from  a  real  knowledge  of  human 
nature  thus  derived.  It  was  established  to  demonstrate  to  the  world 
the  childish  folly  of  Christianity,  and  of  ail  other  religions  founded 
on  the  misconceived  notions  of  man’s  free  agency.  The  public  were 
invited  to  see  its  practical  effects  in  the  village  of  New  Lanark.  The 
invitation  was  accepted,  and  increasing  crowds  came  annually,  for 
many  years,  until  my  private  fortune  ceased  to  be  equal  to  the  expense 
of  the  daily  growing  curiosity  of  Europeans  and  Americans — of  the 
intelligent  travellers  from  these  two  continents,  who  naturally  wished 
to  learn  something  of  the  principles  and  practices  by  which  little 
children  were  formed  to  be  intelligent;  to  enjoy  themselves  without 
•acquiring  vicious  habits;  and  to  gratify  and  delight  their  teachers, 
their  parents,  and  strangers,  by  their  union,  kind  dispositions,  and 
comparatively  superior  manners  and  conduct.  Having,  there¬ 
fore,  satisfied  myself  of  the  great  practical  value  of  this  science, 
and  having  given  abundant  proof  to  the  world  of  its  immense  superi¬ 
ority  over  all  similar  proceedings  founded  on  the  notions  of  man’s  free 
agency,  and  having  the  attainment  of  much  higher  objects  than  the 
partial  improvement  and  happiness  of  a  population  of  two  or  three 
thousand  persons, — I  resigned  the  establishment  to  the  management 

*Sce  American  Journal  of  Education — Boston,  No.  37. 

j-For  which  opposition,  see  the  correspondence  between  the  Rev.  Mr 
Merries,  minister  of  the  parish  of  Lanark,  and  the  author. 


APPENDIX. 


233 

of  others,  who,  I  thought,  would  do  the  population  the  least  injury 
that  the  notions  of  man’s  free  agency  would  admit.  And  ultimately, 
not  liking  the  condition  to  which  large  manufacturing  establishments 
were  reduced,  by  competition  arising  from  the  general  ignorance  and 
folly  of  society,  I  disposed  of  all  my  pecuniary  interests  in  that  beau¬ 
tiful  arrangement  for  progressive  human  improvement.  I  shall 
never,  I  believe,  cease  to  feel  a  deep  interest  in  its  success,  and  in  the 
happiness  of  a  population-  the  juniors  of  which,  in  particular,  seemed 
to  me  as  members  of  my  own  family. 

The  second  attempt  to  form  a  rational  infant  school  originated  with 
friends,  Mr.  Brougham,  John  Smith,  M.  P.,  Henry  Hase,  cashier 
of  the  bank  of  England,  John  Walker  of  Arnos  Grove,  Southgate, 
one  of  my  partners  in  the  New  Lanark  establishment,  whose  unas¬ 
suming,  but  efficient  good  actions,  his  immediate  friends  only  knew 
how  to  appreciate  fully  and  justly.  These  gentlemen  united  with 
the  marquis  of  Lansdown,  Mr.  Zachariah  M’Cauley,  Mr.  James 
Mills,  of  the  India  house,  Mr.  Benjamin  Smith,  and  a  few  others,  who, 
from  their  repeated  personal  observations  upon  visits  at  the  infant 
school  at  New  Lanark,  or  the  testimony  of  those  who  had  minutely 
examined  the  effects  which  were  produced  there,  were  induced  to 
desire  an  extension  cf  these  benefits.  These  gentlemen  proposed  to 
raise  a  subscription  among  themselves  to  establish  a  similar  school 
in  London,  if  I  would  supply  them  with  a  master  from  New  Lanark ; 
to  which  I  very  readily  agreed.  The  subscription  was  raised,  and 
the  first  infant  school  in  England  was  erected  in  Westminster;  and 
I  sent  James  Buchanan  from  the  infant  school  at  New  Lanark  to 
superintend  it.  Buchanan  instructed  Mr.  Wilderspin  to  superintend 
the  third  infant  school,  which  was  established,  if  I  mistake  not,  in 
Quaker  street,  Spitalfields,  London.  And  of  this  third  school,  some 
years  after  its  establishment,  Mr.  Thomas  Wilson  became  the  liberal 
supporter,  and  active  and  zealous  patron.  His  brother,  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Wilson,  afterwards  erected  one  at  Welthamstrow,  a  few  miles 
from  London ;  and  in  a  year  or  two  subsequent  to  this  period,  or 
nearly  ten  years  after  the  original  school  was  opened  in  New  Lanark, 
they  began  to  spread  far  and  wide,  until  they  now  bid  fair  to  become, 
as  they  ought  to  be,  universal. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  giving  the  history  of  these  schools, 
because  they  are  the  first  practical  measure  the  world  has  witnessed, 
flowing  purely  from  a  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the  formation  of 
character;  and  because  the  ministers  and  members  of  various  religi¬ 
ous  sects  have  seized  upon  the  plan,  and  are  converting  that  which 
its  author  designed  as  a  first  step  to  train  man  to  become  a  reasonable 
being,  into  an  engine,  and  a  most  powerful  one,  too,  by  which  they 
may  utterly  destroy  all  semblances  to  rationality  in  the  human  mind. 
For  in  the  infant  schools  which  they  establish  and  superintend,  they 
teach  the  infant  to  speak  of  Deity,  its  attributes  and  its  will,  as  though 
their  instructers  had  an  accurate  knowledge,  and  as  if  nothing  was 
more  easy  than  for  these  children  to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge, 
of  these  hidden  mysteries,  which  it  has  not  yet  been  given  to  man  to 
VOL.  II.  20* 


APPENDIX, 


unveil  or  to  comprehend.  They  teach  these  little  innocents  to  bend 
their  faculties,  when  in  the  most  pliable  state,  to  their  yoke,  under 
which  all  the  natural  vigor  of  thought,  and  the  first  exertions  of  reason, 
are  destroyed  in  the  bud.  The  minds  of  these  poor  children  are  thus 
prepared  to  receive  ony  illusion,  however  opposed  it  may  be  to  all 
existing  facts,  and  to  the  best  permanent  interests  of  themselves  and 
of  mankind.  And  they  are  thus  admirably  prepared  to  become  the 
mental  slaves  and  tools  of  the  priesthood  of  any  wild  fancy  to  which 
they  may  give  the  present  popular  name  of  religion. 

But  such  was  not  the  intention  of  the  founder  of  these  schools.  He 
had  no  such  immoral  object  in  view ;  and  he  now  enters  his  most 
solemn  protest  against  these  schools  being  applied  in  future  for  any 
such  unhallowed,  demoralizing  and  enslaving  purposes. 

The  author  of  them  witnessed  the  innumerable  vicious  and  unfa¬ 
vorable  circumstances,  with  which  the  infants  of  the  working  classes 
were  hourly  surrounded  from  their  birth.  He  had  daily  before  him 
the  demoralizing  circumstances,  in  which  the  children  of  the  popula¬ 
tion  of  New  Lanark  were  involved.  He  saw  that  these  circumstan¬ 
ces  were  continually  making  the  most  unfavorable  impressions  upon 
the  dispositions  and  habits  of  the  children  and  parents,  between  whom 
there  was  an  unceasing  action  and  reaction,  having  a  most  injurious 
tendency.  He  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the  for¬ 
mation  of  the  human  character,  and  he  became  conscious  of  the  evil 
under  which  the  whole  population  suffered.  Being- thus  informed,  he 
was  influenced  to  apply  the  principles  of  the  science  to  practice,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  population.  He  commenced  by  devising  a  new  set 
of  circumstances  for  the  children  under  his  government,  calculated 
to  effect  as  great  a  beneficial  change  for  them,  as  the  circumstances 
in  which  he  was  himself  placed,  and  the  popular  prejudices  of  the 
district  would  permit. 

He  began  to  create  these  circumstances,  and,  in  consequence,  he 
lost  two-sets  of  rich  partners,  Who,  having  free  will  minds,  could  not 
divine  what  he  was  about;  and  from  the  last  set  he  experienced  all 
the  opposition  they  knew  how  to  unite  against  his  measures.  He 
persevered ;  and  with  a  new  set  of  partners,  whose  notions  were  half 
way  between  the  doctrines  of  free  agency  in  man,  and  the  knowledge 
of  the  science  of  the  formation  of  the  human,  character,  completed  the 
buildings  and  arrangements,  at  a  considerable  expense,  to  place  these 
children  under  circumstances  congenial  to  their  nature,  and  calculat¬ 
ed  to  create  a  new  and  superior  character  directly  in  the  infant  and 
elder  children,  and  indirectly  in  their  parents. 

The  new  institution  devised  and  erected  for  this  purpose,  wae 
opened  by  a  public  address  delivered  in  it  by  the  author,  on  the  first 
of  January,  1810.  This  address  was  delivered  to  about  twelve  hun¬ 
dred  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  neighborhood,  and  of  the  adult 
male  and  female  population  of  New  Lanark,  At  this  meeting,  he 
first  proposed  to  receive  infants  into  his  new  arrangements,  for  the 
purpose  of  forming  their  characters  upon  new  principles, — to  whiclv 
afterwards,  the  name  of  “new  system”  was  given.  In  this  address* 


APPENDIX, 


235 


he  stated,  previous  to  any  practice  upon  the  subject,  what'  would  be 
the  effect  of  the  new  circumstances  in  which  he  was  going  to  place 
the  children  and  their  parents;  and  in  less  than  eight  years  from  that 
period,  experience  fully  proved  that  statement  to  be  correct;  for  the 
results  far  exceeded  the  most  sanguine  anticipations  of  the  founder. 
By  this  experiment,  the  truth  of  the  science  of  the  formation  of  char¬ 
acter  was  again  confirmed  by  the  operations  of  a  single  individual, 
as  it  had  been,  ages  ago,  by  Lycurgus,  when  he  desired  to  form,  for 
the  Spartans,  a  new,  and  the  highest  military  character  the  world  had 
known.  The  experiment,  thus  tried  upon  a  great  variety  of  children, 
within  the  altered  circumstances  in  which  they  were  placed  in  this 
new  institution,  removed  all  doubt  from  the  mind  of  the  founder,  as 
to  the  power  which  one  generation  might  acquire  over  the  formation 
of  the  character  of  its  successors,  provided  that  generation  possessed 
an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  human  nature;  a  power,  indeed, 
many  millions  of  times  more  important,  for  the  great  object  of  human 
existence,  than  all  the  power  previously  acquired  by  man.  It  is  in 
consideration  of  its  overwhelming  magnitude,  in  the  whole  business- 
of  life — applicable,  with  equal  overwhelming  consequences,  to  each 
individual,,  and  to  the  aggregate  of  society — that  the  author  has 
entered  into  so  much  detail  of  this  experiment,  to  prove  the  ease  with 
which  any  government  might  now  introduce  this  practice,  to  form  tho 
character  of  its  population  upon  an  entire  new  and  greatly  improved 
model. 

Calm  reflection  upon  these  facts,  and  upon  those  innumerable  in¬ 
stances  which  may  be  adduced  from  the  whole  history  of  man,  will 
convince  all  ere  long,  that  there  is  no  truth  more  certain  than  that 
man  is  not  a  free  agent,  except  in  appearance  to  the  superficial  ob¬ 
server  and  reasoner.  That  his  character,  without  any  exception,  is 
always  formed  for  him,  by  circumstances  previous  and  subsequent 
to  his  birth,  over  which  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  have  any  control. 
That  in  those  instances  in  advanced  life,  in  which  a  sudden  and  great 
change  of  character  appears,  it  is,  without  one  exception,  the  result 
of  the  peculiar  faculties  of  the  original  organization  of  the  individual, 
as  it  is  acted  upon  by  all  the  previous  external  circumstances,  which, 
by  those  circumstances,  had  produced  the  past  character,  until  with 
the  new  impression  made  by  the  circumstances  which  immediately 
preceded  the  sudden  and  extensive  change  for  better  or  worse ;  and  for 
which  change,  the  individual  is  as  harmless  and  irresponsible,  as  for 
every  previous  alteration  in  his  character. 

And  this  invaluable  knowledge  will  now  open  to  the  governments 
and  people  of  all  nations,  the  means  of  relieving  themselves  from  all 
the  artificial  evils  of  life,  and  from  all  those  which,  heretofore,  mart y 
through  ignorance,  has  inflicted  upon  man. 

They  will  distinctly  perceive,  that  the  great  business  of  the  human 
race  will  be  to  educate  their  successors  aright .  That  having  acquired 
the  power,  through  this  new  science,  to  arrange  and  combine  superior 
circumstances,  they  will  create  them  in  conformity  with  those  dispo* 
sitions,  habits,  and  acquirements  in  theoretic  and  practical  knowledge^ 


2  SG 


APPENDIX. 


that  shall  insure,  at  all  times,  a  full  supply  of  the  best  the  earth* 
with  present  experience,  can  be  made  to  produce,  for  all ;  and  thereby 
insure  perpetual  progressive  improvements  and  happiness  to  all  the 
generations  to  come. 

These  are  the  matured  reflections  and  practical  suggestions  which 
the  public  discussion,  held  in  this  city  with  Mr.  Alexander  Campbell, 
have  produced  in  my  mind ;  and  1  await,  with  feelings  of  interest, 
a  similar  genuine  developement  of  the  calm  reflections  of  my  con¬ 
scientious  opponent.  For  above  all  things,  I  now,  as  upon  all  former 
occasions,  desire  that  truth  may  be  elicited,  and  immediately 
applied  to  practice  for  the  benefit  of  mankind., 


■ 


"P 


A.  CAMPBELL’S  APPENDIX. 

FROM  the  whole  scope  of  Mr.  Owen’s  discussion,  and  most  unequi¬ 
vocally  from  his  appendix,  it  appears  that  his  whole  scheme  of  things 
is  predicated  upon  one  fundamental  position.  This  position  is:  that 
man  is  not  a  free  AGENT.  That  no  man  forms  his  own  character , 
hut  that  every  man's  character  is  formed  for  him ,  is  one  of  his  conse¬ 
quences  from  this  position.  Another  is:  That  merit  and  demerit , 
praise  and  blame ,  reward  and  punishment ,  belong  not  to  man ,  nor ,  in 
truth*  to  any  being  in  the  universe*  Such  is  the  soul  or  life  of  his 
whole  system. 

He  declaimed  much  against  metaphysics  in  his  speeches  and  in  his 
writings — But  I  now  make  my  appeal  to  the  learned  world,  and  ask-: 
Is  there  in  the  whole  science  of  metaphysics  more  abstruse  specula¬ 
tions  or  questions  than  those  constituting  and  proceeding  from  the 
above  positions  ?  If  there  be  such  a  thing  as  the  quintessence  of  met¬ 
aphysics — I  say,  it  is  the  question  about  free  agency  in  all  its  sublima¬ 
ted  ramifications — But  this  only  by  the  way. 

Men  of  the  most  gigantic  talents  have  fatigued  themselves  in  wri¬ 
ting  octavos,  quartos,  and  folios,  upon  the  doctrines  of  liberty  and  ne¬ 
cessity — From  the  learned  folio  of  Peter  Sterry,  down  to  the  unan¬ 
swerable  octavo  of  President  Edwards,  there  has  been  written  a 
waggon  load  of  learned  lumber  on  this  very  question.  Before  a  pop¬ 
ular  assembly,  and  to  the  great  majority  of  readers,  the  plan  of  rcductio 
ad  absurdum  appears  to  us  the  shortest  way  of  settling  these  wordy 
disputes,-  and,  therefore,  we  generally  preferred  this  Eirgument  while 
on  the  stage  of  discussion,  whenever  Mr.  Owen  presented  these  met¬ 
aphysical  dogmas.  That  there  is  no  moral  difference  on  Mr.  Owen’s 
hypothesis  between  the  actions  of  a  machine  and  those  of  King  Solo¬ 
mon,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  and  the  Apostle  Paul ;  that  a  man,  a  fish,  an 
oyster,  a  tree,  a  watch,  are  equally  voluntary  agents,  alike  praisewor¬ 
thy,  blameworthy,  virtuous,  vicious,  good,  or  evil,  was  repeatedly 
shown  during  the  discussion  The  tree  that  cools  us  with  its  shade, 
that  refreshes  us  with  its  fruit,  and  that  kills  us  by  its  fall,  is  neither 
praiseworthy  nor  blameworthy.  So  the  patricide,  the  matricide,  the 
homicide,  and  the  philanthropic,  the  affectionate,  kind  and  benevolent 
son,  daughter,  brother,  neighbor,  are  alike  praiseworthy,  alike  blame¬ 
worthy — in  truth,  neither  to  be  praised  nor  blamed  at  all.  All  the 
feeling  which  Mr.  Owen  professes  to  have  for  such  evil  doers,  is  pity 
— he  may  pity  the  child  that  kills  his  father,  as  he  pities  the  widow 
which  the  wickedness  ofa  son  has  made.  He  pities,  too,  the  religious 
man  as  a  deluded  being — and,  indeed,  I  cannot  sec  why  he  may  not 
equally  pity  every  thing  that  exists,  and  be  as  much  grieved  for  the 
virtues  as  the  vices  of  men — I  think  his  metaphysics  which  place  the 
idiot,  the  madman,  the  philosopher,  and  the  sage,  upon  the  same  foot- 


238  APPENDIX. 

ing  with  each  other,  and  with  all  things  animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral, 
excludes  pity  altogether,  and  divests  man  of  all  feelings  as  well  as  of 
all  free  agency. 

Whenever  the  idea  of  merit  and  demerit  is  exiled  from  earth,  the 
idea  of  pity  must  follow  it.  No  body  pities  a  tree  because  the  wind 
has  torn  a  branch  from  it.  No  body  pities  the  lion  who  kills  himself 
in  pursuit  of  a  lamb,  nor  the  hawk  that  breaks  its  head  in  tlie  pursuit 
of  a  chicken*  We  pity  suffering  innocence — but  take  away  the  idea 
of  innocence  and  we  destroy  all  pity.  Destroy  merit  and  demerit, 
and  we  have  no  use  for  the  word  innocence;  and  then  we  can  have  no 
suffering  innocence,  and  so  no  pity. 

But  the  idea  of  a  philanthropist  is  just  as  itiadmissable  upon  Mr. 
Owen’s  principles  as  that  of  praise  or  blame.  Now,  Mr.  Owen  pro¬ 
fesses  to  be  a  philanthropist,  that  is,  a  lover  of  men.  But  is  love  a 
reasonable  or  an  unreasonable  thing  ?  If  reasonable,  Mr.  Owen  cannot, 
upon  his  own  principles,  be  truly  a  philanthropist.  For  what  reason 
Can  induce  him  to  soend  his  davs  in  benefiting  men  more  than  crows 
or  squirrels,  more  than  in  cultivating  hellebore  or  hemloclc?  A  lump 
of  animated  matter,  of  vegetable  matter,  whether  in  the  form  of  a  bi¬ 
ped,  a  quadruped,  or  a  tulip,  is  matter  still,  and  as  necessary  in  its 
figure,  properties,  and  powers  as  it  is  in  being  material.  There  is 
nothing  in  man,  upon  his  principles,  amiable  more  than  in  a  goose. 
The  goose  which  furnishes  this  quill,  and  on  whose  coat  I  slept  last 
night,  and  on  whose  carcase  1  feasted  last  Christmas,  was  a  benefac¬ 
tor  of  man,  and  a  philanthropist,  upon  Mr.  Owen’s  theory,  as  worthy 
of  praise  as  himself,  because  as  reasonable  and  as  unreasonable.  If 
the  size,  figure,  and  animal  qualities  of  man,  prompt  Mr.  Owen  to  be 
a  philanthropist,  he  ought  for  as  good  reasons,  to  devote  his  life  to 
the  care  of  horses  and  elephants.  If  longevity,  an  erect  position,  and 
a  peculiar  organization,  make  man  worthy  of  so  much  love  tfomhiniy 
the  goose  who  lives  longer,  the  tree  which  grows  taller,  and  the  croco¬ 
dile  which  is  as  curiously  organized  as  man,  equally  merit  his  labors 
of  love.  To  say  that  he  is  a  philanthropist  because  he  belongs  to  the 
race  of  men,  is  to  place  philanthropy  upon  the  same  foundation  with 
those  animal  affections  which  pervade  most  species  of  the  quadrupeds 
and  bipeds  for  their  owji.  This  is  an  unreasonable  philanthropy  and 
unworthy  of  the  name.  There  cannot  be  a  philosophic  philanthropist 
upon  any  principle  which  divests  man  of  merit  and  demerit,  of  praise 
and  blame,  of  reward  and  punishment;  upon  any  principle  which 
excludes  from  the  human  mind  the  idea  of  a  God  and  a  future  state. 
Men  who  deny  these  may  call  themselves  philanthropists,  they  mfiy 
labor  for  the  good  of  men,  but  they  are  no  more  philanthropists  than 
the  bee  which  makes  honey,  nor  the  sheep  which  yields  its  fleece. 
They  do  not  bestow  their  labors  nor  their  coats  on  man  through  a  love  of 
him.  Other  motives  prompt  their  actions.  So  Mr.  Owen  may  spend 
time,  money,  and  personal  toils,  on  what  appear  to  be  philanthropic 
objects ;  but  these  may  he  demonstrated  to  proceed  from  vanity,  by  a 
much  more  convincing  logic  than  can  he  employed  to  show  that  they 
proceed  from  the  love  of  man,  properly  so  called. 


APPENDIX. 


239 


For  my  part,  if  I  were  compelled  to  give  up  the  doctrine  of  immor¬ 
tality,  or  could  be  induced  to  think  that  man  differs  from  other  ani- 
mals,  merely  so  far  as  he  differs  from  them  in  the  organization  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  matter,  I  would  think  it  just  as  reason¬ 
able  and  philosophic  that  I  should  spend  my  life  in  raising  and  teach¬ 
ing  dogs  and  horses,  and  improving  their  condition,  as  in  training  men 
and  improving  their  circumstances. 

The  materialist,  or  philosophic  necessarian,  who  says  fliat  the 
earth  is  an  immense  prison,  and  the  laws  of  nature  so  many  jailors, 
and  all  mankind  prisoners  bound  in  chains  which  cannot  be  dissolved; 
or,  to  speak  without  a  figure,  who  says  that  the  actions  of  all  men 
are  as  unavoidable  as  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of  the  sea,  or  the  waxing 
and  waning  of  the  moon,  can  never  rationally  be  a  reformer.  For 
what  could  he  reform !  He  could  not  pretend  to  ref  >rm  nature ,  nor 
any  of  its  laws.  On  Mr.  Owen’s  principles  the  present  state  of  the 
world  is  perfectly  natural  and  unavoidable.  Nature  in  the  regular 
operation  of  cause  and  effect  has  issued  in  his  trinity  of  evils — Re¬ 
ligion,  matrimony,  and  private  property.  Now  if  nature  has  gone 
wrong,  and  man  without  free  agency  has  landed  in  religion,  matri¬ 
mony,  and  private  property,  how  unphilosophic  is  the  philosopher  of 
circumstances ,  who  would  preach  up  the  necessity  of  a  change  in 
society  when  he  cannot  change  necessity!! 

It  is  a  climax  in  the  eloquence  of  absurdity  which  Mr.  Owen  is 
aspiring  after.  He  preaches  that  all  things  are  just  as  they  must  be. 
The  uncontrolable  laws  of  nature  have  issued  in  the  present  system 
of  things;  and  yet  he  would  have  us  to  make  things  what  they  ought 
not  to  be;  that  is,  he  would  have  us  to  abolish  religion,  matrimony, 
and  private  property,  which  his  own  eternal  and  unchanging  laws  of 
nature,  in  their  necessary  and  uncontrolable  operations  have  origina¬ 
ted  and  established.  On  Mr.  Owen’s  theory  all  things  are  natural 
and  unavoidable.  It  is  mother  nature  working  by  her  own  laws,  and 
yet  he  would  make  us  all  matricides!!!  If  Mr.  Owen  is  not  stranded 
here,  there  is  not  a  shoal  in  the  universe. 

From  all  eternity,  according  to  Mr.  Owen’s  scheme,  the  particles 
of  matter  have  been  in  incessant  agitation,  working  themselves  up 
into  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  forms.  A  few  of  them  at  one 
time  produced  a  Nimrod,  a  Pharaoh,  a  Moses,  a  Cyrus,  a  Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar,  an  Alexander,  a  Julius  Cresar,  a  Buonaparte,  a  Paul,  a  Robert 
Owen,  and  a  few  such  manufacturers  of  human  character.  Not  one 
of  them  could  help  being  born,  nor  being  such  characters,  nor  pro¬ 
ducing  such  effects  on  society.  Blind  and  omnipotent  Nature  cast 
them  forth  as  she  does  so  much  lava  from  the  crater  of  a  volcano. 
She  tied  them  fast  in  adamantine  chains  of  inexorable  fate  and  gave 
them  no  more  liberty  to  act  than  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  has  to  emi¬ 
grate  to  New  Harmony.  Yet  strange,  surpassing  strange,  as  it  is, 
this  singular  piece  of  animated  matter  called  Robert  Owen,  which 
required  old  Nature  in  her  laboratory  six  thousand  years  to  produce, 
would  now  teach  us  to  rebel  and  become  seditious  against,  the  queen 
of  fate;  and  would  have  us  claim  and  take  the  liberty  from  nature  of 


240 


APPENDIX. 


forming  human  beings  to  our  own  mind,  and  of  changing  tlie  powers 
of  nature;  in  fact,  of  binding  her  fast  in  our  own  cords,  so  that  we 
shall  abolish  religion,  matrimony,  and  private  property;  put  the  old 
queen  Nature  into  jail  at  New  Harmony  and  never  let  her  out  upon  a 
parole  of  honor,  as  long  as  grass  grows  and  water  runs. 

Mr.  Owen  is,  without  knowing  it,  or  intending  it,  the  greatest 
advocate  of  free  agency  I  have  ever  known;  for  he  would  have  the 
present  generation  to  adopt  such  arrangements  and  so  to  new  modify 
the  circumstances  that  surround  them  as  to  prevent  the  goddess  Nature 
from  having  it  in  her  power  ever  to  make  another  religious  animal, 
another  wedding,  or  to  use  the  words  mine  or  thine.  And  yet  the 
chorus  of  his  new  music  is,  that  we  have  no  more  liberty  to  act  than 
Gibraltar  has  to  perch  itself  upon  the  cupola  of  the  State  House  of 
Ohio.  Such  a  philosopher  is  my  good  natured  friend  Robert  Owen. 

Questions  in  arithmetic  may  be  differently  stated,  and  give  the 
same  result.  Error  may  be  exposed  from  every  point  in  the  oompass, 
but  from  some  points  more  clearly  than  from  others.  We  shall  now 
make  the  mechanics  understand  the  sophistry  of  Mr.  Owen.  Suppose 
a  carpenter’s  square  or  rule  is  not  what  it  purports  to  be,  will  not  every 
measurement  which  he  makes  with  it  be  erroneous,  and  all  his  con¬ 
clusions  be  false?  But  how  shall  we  test  the  pretensions  of  a  square? 
We  may  compare  it  with  many  others,  but  they  may  all  be  incorrect. 
We  may  prove  it  by  geometry;  this  is  an  infallible  test;  but  there 
are  only  a  few  geometricians;  and  none  but  they  can  understand  the 
proof.  If  the  square  is  still  disputed,  how  will  its  pretensions  be 
settled  to  the  apprehensions  of  all  the  community  who  are  interested 
in  this  matter.  We  want  some  plain,  palpable,  common  sense  way  of 
deciding  this  matter.  What  shall  it  be?  This  way,  perhaps:  all  will 
agree  that  all  the  substances,  all  the  superficies  of  things  in  the  world 
are  not  perfect  squares,  or  straight-sided  figures.  All  will  agree  that 
there  are  some  uneven,  crooked,  or  irregular  figures,  surfaces,  or  sub¬ 
stances  in  the  world.  Now  if  any  instrument  purporting  to  be  a  square, 
or  straight  edge,  should  always  give  the  same  result,  represent  all 
things  alike,  make  every  superficies  a  perfect  square,  every  surface 
a  smooth  surface,  and  every  figure  a  straight  sided  figure;  all  would 
agree  that  such  a  rule  or  square  was  a  false  test,  too  flexible,  pliant,  or 
otherwise  defective.  Such  results  would  condemn  the  instrument  in 
the  estimation  of  every  human  being  who  could  think  at  all. 

Now  for  the  application.  Mr.  Owen  has  invented  a  measure, 
rule,  or  instrument,  for  deciding  the  qualities  of  human  actions.  This 
rule,  he  says ,  is  an  infallible  one.  We  compare  it  with  all  others; 
but  he  says  they  are  all  incorrect.  We,  then,  are  compelled  to  test  it 
by  the  abstract  science  of  mind ;  but  few  understand  this  science. 
What,  then,  shall  we  do?  The  community  must  have  some  common 
sense,  palpable  way  of  deciding  this  controversy.  We  shall  give  it 
to  them  in  the  similitude  before  us.  All  will  agree  that  all  actions 
are  not  alike  moral,  useful,  worthy  of  admiration,  of  gratitude,  and 
of  imitation;  in  a  word,  that  all  actions  are  not  alike  good  and  com 
mendable.  All  will  also  agree  that,  whatever  rule  makes  all  actions 


APPENDIX. 


Ml 

alike  good,  commendable,  worthy  of  admiration,  gratitude,  and  imita¬ 
tion,  is  a  false  rule.  So  far  the  analogy  is  -perfect  and  unexception¬ 
able.  Mr.  Owen’s  rule  makes  every  figure  a  perfect  square,  or  every 
action  alike  commendable,  and,  indeed,  alike  useful.  His  proof  is 
very  short,  and  very  simple  too.  It  is  this:  Nature  is  always  right. 
She  never  errs.  The  laws,  or  acts  of  Nature,  oblige  all  men  to  act 
as  they  do.  The  laws  of  Nature  are  all  necessary  laws.  The  laws 
of  Nature  brought  Mr.  Owen  half  round  the  globe  to  meet  me  on  the 
stage  of  debate  at  Cincinnati.  They  carried  me  down  the  Ohio. 
Necessity  Compelled  Mr.  Owen  to  plead  the  cause  of  Infidelity,  and 
me  to  plead  the  cause  of  Christianity.  We  both  obeyed  Nature,  and 
both  our  actions  are  perfect  squares,  are  perfectly  right,  equally' 
moral  and  commendable,  when  measured  by  the  same  rule- — that  is, 
by  Mr.  Owen’s  rule.  If  Mr.  Owen  had  made  a  hundred  infidels,  and 
I  a  hundred  Christians  by  our  debate,  it  would  have  been  equally 
commendable,  good,  and  useful.  Every  Christian  is  necessarily  so, 
and  every  infidel  is  necessarily  an  infidel.  Nature  cannot  go  wrong; 
therefore,  Mr.  Owen’s  rule  is  an  infallible  one.  If  she  produce  two 
effects  diametrically  opposite,  at  war  with  each  other,  it  is  all  right, 
and  moral,  and  useful,  and  good.  He  only  is  the  sinner  who  counter¬ 
acts  Nature.  But  Mr.  Owen’s  rule  makes  himself  and  me  equally 
sinners.  He  wishes  to  prevent  Nature  from  making  Christians  by 
throwing  circumstances  in  her  way.  She  laughs  at  him,  however, 
and  throws  his  circumstances  back  in  his  face;  asking  him,  Whc* 
made  circumstances  l i  But  he  has  not  discernment  to  feel  her  satire, 
or  her  irony.  He  laughs  too,  and  thinks  not  that  he  has  been  the 
cause  of  all  the  mirth.  He  think*  that  Nature  laughs  with  him,  not 
ert  him.  But  to  this  conclusion  the  rational  must  come— that  what 
soever  rule  gives  the  same  decision  of  two  cases  diametrically  opposite, 
must  be  as  fallacious  as  a  square  which  makes  a  .straight  liqe  and  a 
curve  equally  straight  lines. 

If  Mr.  Owen  has  any  moral  law  it  is  the  same  as  his  natural  law. 
He  uses  the  word  moral  as  he  does  the  word  duty,  and  the  word  con¬ 
science ,  in  a  sense  of  his  own.  Or,  rather,  he  makes  use  of  therm  as 
a  disguise,  as  we  shall  illustrate  more  fully  immediately.  Every 
action  is  natural  that  is  necessary,  and  consequently  every  action  is 
moral ;  or  Nature  is  immoral — that  is,  unnatural.  Hence  Mr.  Owen’s 
favorite  maxim,  uNo  praise ,  No  blame?  You  cannot  praise  smoke 
for  ascending  ;  nor  blame  water  for  descending.  These  are  as  natural 
as  gratitude  and  ingratitude.  His  artificial  law  of  utility  will  not 
help  out  his  moral  code,;  for  one  good  reason,  equal  to  a  thousand— 
evil  actions  are  as  useful  as  good  dues.  As  the  sickness  of  the  patient 
is  useful  to  the  physician,  so  the  drunkenness  of  the  sot  is  useful  to 
the  vintner,  and  the  injustice  of  the  villain  is  useful  to  the  lawyer  and 
the  court.  Hence,  as  his  predecessor,  Father  Hobbes,  says,  there  is  no 
moral  difference  between  virtue  and  vice.  No,  says  Mri  Owen,  for 
all  actions  are  ^either  to  be  praised  nor  blamed.  They  are  al!  natural 
or  necessary. 

VOL.  IIo  21 


242 


APPENDIX. 


Nature  cannot  err.  This  is  the  first  axiom  of  the  materialists.  If 
she  did  err,  what  child  of  her’s  could  reform  or  cure  her?  Can  an 
effect  ever  reform  its  own  cause  ?  This  would  be  equal  to  Mr,  Owen’s 
first  law — the  child  chooses  its  own  parent.  No,  says  Mr.  Owen,  in 
theory;  but,  in  practice,  he  will  have  effects  to  correct  their  causes. 
Men  must  change  their  circumstances.  Apples  must  improve  the 
♦  ;ees  on  which  they  grow;  or  they  must  plant  a  better  sort  of  fruit. 
This  is  the  dilemma  of  dilemmas,  of  which  Mr.  Owen  is  the  inventor, 
Men  must  change  their  ow  n  circumstances  and  nature,  or  they  must 
make  better  circumstances  and  a  better  nature  for  others.  If  this 
philosopher  will  only  follow  up  his  ow  n  circumstances  and  philosophy, 
they  will  reform  him.  Whenever  he  attempts  to  show  us  on  what 
rational  principles,  he  can  persuade  men  to  attempt  to  change  their 
circumstances,  he  will  be  constrained  to  admit  that  they  have  power 
over  circumstances;  and  this  taught,  he  makes  man  a  free  agent  in  the 
fullest  sense  that  Christians  contend  for. 

Some  persons  talk  of  free  agency  as  I  have  heard  some  declaimers 
talk  of  civil  liberty.  According  to  their  logic,  men  have  not  civil 
liberty  if  they  are  restrained  bylaw  at  all.  Because  William  Bedman 
had  not  the  liberty  of  entering  every  man’s  house,  of  plundering  his 
property,  of  taking  his  wife,  daughter,  goods  and  chattels,  he  told 
his  own  nation  when  he  returned  home,  that  John  Whiteman  had  no 
civil  liberty  at  all.  So  if  a  child  cannot  be  born  where  and  when 
he  pleases;  if  he  cannot  control  every  thing  according  to  his  own 
will,  the  philosophic  declaimer  upon  liberty  and  necessity  says,  Men 
have  no  liberty  of  action  whatsoever.  But,  in  direct  contradiction 
of  his  own  theory,  he  would  have  him  to  change  and  control  his  cir¬ 
cumstances,  and  thus  to  assume  a  power  tantamount,  if  not  para¬ 
mount,  to  nature! 

May  I  be  permitted  here  to  define  a  necessary ,  and  a  free  agent?— 
“A  necessary  agent,”  as  philosophers  say,  “is  one,  all  of  whose  actions 
are  so  determined 'by  the  causes  preceding  each  action,  that  not  one 
past  action  could  possibly  not  have  come  to  pass,  nor  have  been  other¬ 
wise  than  it  was :  nor  that  any  future  action  can  possibly  not  come  to 
pass,  or  be  otherwise  than  it  shall  be.”  “A  free  agent f  as  they  say, 
“is  one  who  is  able,  at  any  time,  under  the  causes  and  circumstances 
under  which  he  lives,  to  do  different  things;  or  he  is  one  who  is  not 
unavoidably  determined  in  every  point  of  time  by  the  circumstances 
he  is  in,  and  the  causes  he  is  under,  to  do  that  one  thing  he  does,  and 
not  possibly  to  do  any  other  thing.”  Such  are  the  wordy  definitions 
of  the  philosophers.  But  for  my  part,  I  am  no  admirer  of  such  defi¬ 
nitions.  I  .c'hpose  rather  to  call  man  a  rational  agent.  To  act  as  a 
rational  agent  is  quite  different  from  the  running  of  water,  the  blowing 
of  the  wind,  or  the  revolutions  of  a  mill  wheel.  It  is  to  act  sometimes 
above,  and  sometimes  according  to,  circumstances.  It  is  to  draw* 
motives  from  matter  and  mind,  from  heaven  and  earth,  from  the  past 
and  the  future,  as  well  as  from  the  present.  It  is  sometimes  to  go 
with  our  feelings,  and  sometimes  against  them.  It  is  to  act  conforma¬ 
bly  with  the  last  and  b e&t  dictate  of  our  understanding  upon  all  the 


APPENDIX. 


premises,  and  upon  all  their  bearings.  All  rational  beings  feel  con¬ 
scious,  and,  therefore,  act  upon  the  presumption  that  the  mind  is  a  self* 
moving  principle;  that  it  has  the  power  of  originating  its  own 
volitions.  To  oppose  this,  is  to  argue  against  our  own  feelings,  our 
own  consciousness;  and,  as  was  before  said,  the  mind’s  own  consci¬ 
ousness  is  the  best  and  the  only  infallible  evidence  of  its  own  powers. 
To  argue  against  our  own  consciousness,  is  the  same  as  to  argue 
against  our  own  feelings.  No  treatise  upon  feelings,  no  arguments, 
however  specious,  will  prove  to  a  man  that  he  has  not  the  toothache 
yrhen  he  feels  its  exquisite  twinges.  Consciousness  is  to  the  mind  what 
feeling  is  to  the  body — -it  is  as  credible  a  witness  of  what  passes  with¬ 
in,  as  our  feelings  are  of  what  passes  in  the  outward  frame. 

When  we  summon  witnesses  to  depose  to  the  character  of  a  man,  we 
do  not  summon  those  who  live  a  hundred  miles  from  him.  We  summon 
those  who  are  his  nearest  neighbors.  Now  were  we  to  try  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  Mr.  Human  Will  in  the  court  of  our  own  understanding,  what 
witness  would  be  the  most  credible?  Would  we  summon  Mr.  Exter¬ 
nal  Sensation,  or  Mr.  Internal  Consciousness!  We  may  interrogate 
Mr.  External  Sensation ,  and  he  will  declare  that  he  lives  so  far  off 
Mr.  Human  Will ,  that  he  does  not  know  much  about  him.  But  when 
Mr.  Internal  Consciousness  is  interrogated,  he  deposes  that  he  has 
known  Mr.  Human  Will  from  his  earliest  recollections,  and  that  he 
has  lived  always  under  the  same  roof  with  him,  been  his  most  intimate 
companion,  and  that  he  knows  positively  that  Mr.  Human  Will  is  not 
a  chained  prisoner,  but  has  the  liberty  of  going  and  coming  according 
as  suits  his  pleasure  and  convenience ;  that  he  is  a  very  rational  gentle¬ 
man,  and  is  governed  by  Mr.  Reason  only ;  that  although  he  has  been 
severely  attacked  by  the  Messrs.  Passions  and  Appetites  in  confeder- 
ation,  he  never  acts  without  calling  up  his  privy  counsellor,  Mr, 
Reason.  Sometimes  Mr.  Reason  decides  too  hastily;  but  always 
Mr.  Will  takes  the  course  which  he  chooses,  and  holds  himself  re¬ 
sponsible  to  no  authority  out  of  his  own  family.  With  regard  to  the 
testimony  of  Mr.  Internal  Consciousness ,  it  is  enough  to  say,  that  he 
has  never  been  known  to  utter  a  falsehood,  nor  to  be  deceived. 

We  may  learn  a  good  lesson  on  this  subject  from  our  own  creations. 
We  make  men  in  our  image,  as  exactly,  perhaps,  as  man  was  origin¬ 
ally  created  in  God’s  image.  When  we  make  a  governor,  or  a  magis¬ 
trate,  we  create  him  in  our  own  image.  We  give  him  a  certain  quan¬ 
tity  of  liberty,  because  weknowitis  necessary  from  our  own  experience 
that  he  should  have  a  certain  degree  of  liberty.  For  the  same  reason 
we  restrain  him  in  other  respects  by  law.  Now,  in  this  we  act  ration¬ 
ally,  because  from  our  own  experience;  and  thus  w^e  create  official 
men  in  our  own  image  after  our  own  likeness.  We  never  think  of 
making  a  governor  absolutely  free  and  irresponsible;  nor  do  we 
think  of  binding  him  unalterably  by  law,  so  that,  in  no  instance,  he 
may  be  left  to  act  from  his  own  judgment.  We  leave  some  things 
altogether  in  his  own  power.  And  thus  create  him  a  rational  agent. 

The  foundation  of  this  system  is  laid  in  the  human  constitution. 
Some  of  our  organs  are  put  under  the  control  of  our  volitions — ethers 


APPENDIX. 


244 

are  not.  I  can  move  my  eye,  my  hand,  my  foot,  by  an  act  of  tlie 
will;  but  I  cannot  move  my  heart,  my  liver,  or  my  lungs,  by  a  mere 
act  of  the  will.  One  class  of  of  our  animal  actions  flow  from  neces¬ 
sity;  another  class  from  our  volition.  Or,  in  other  words,  some  of 
our  animal  actions  are  voluntary,  and  some  are  involuntary.  The 
health,  comfort,  and  happiness  of  the  whole  man,  require  such  an 
economy  in  his  organization.  And  so  every  thing  within  us  and 
every  thing  without  us,  confirm  the  idea  that  man  is  so  organized,  so 
constituted,  as  to  be  a  rational  agent,  sometimes  to  act  from  the  mere 
self-determining  power  of  his  own  mind,  and  sometimes  from  the  in¬ 
fluences  of  circumstances;  always,  however,  under  the  dominion  of 
reason.  Suph  are  the  decisions  of  our  observation,  experience,  and 
cousteiousness.  Hence  proceed  that  approbation  and  disapprobation 
which  we  feel  with  regard  to  some  of  our  actions  on  reviewing  them. 
And  also  on  this  principle  proceeds  the  divine  government  over  the 
human  race,  as  the  scriptures  abundantly  testify. 

But  Mr.  Owen  talks  of  duty.  It  is  a  fhvorite  word  with  him.  He 
seems  to  feel  a  little  like  a  man,  though  he  reasons  against  almost 
every  thing  human,  which  accords  with  duty.  To  discharge  a  duty 
is  certainly  to  pay  a  debt.  Does  not  this  imply  responsibility,  or  obli¬ 
gation?  And  yet  he  preaches  that  all  responsibility  is  a  dream,  a 
notion,  an  error.  He  teaches  that  man  owes  no  obligation  to  Creator 
.nor  fellow-creature.  Duty,  then,  belongs  not  to  man.  If  Mr.  Owen 
feels  himself  in  duty  bound  to  do  any  thing  for  man,  he  proves  to 
himself  that  he  is  responsible,  and  tf>  he  blamed  if  he  discharge  pot 
his  duty.  But  on  the  principles  Mr.  Owen  advocates,  we  might  talk 
of  the  duties  of  insects,  trees,  and  brutes;  we  might  talk  of  the 
duties  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars — of  the  winds  and  rain — of  time 
and  sphee,  as  rationally  as  the  duties  of  men. 

The  term  conscience ,  with  him,  too,  of  frequent  occurrence,  means 
nothing  superior  to  instinct  in  brutes.  Conscience,  without  a  moral 
principle,  without  a  judge  who  takes  cognizance  of  the  heart,  is 
something  of  which  I  am  ignorant.  To  talk  of  the  conscience  of  a 
dog,  a  horse,  a  fly,  would  seem  an  abuse  of  speech  i  but  no  greater 
than  to  talk  of  the  conscience  of  a  man  who  is  all  flesh  and  blood,  and 
who  feels  himself  irresponsible  to  any  being  in  the  universe, 

1  would  advise  the  incorrigible  materialist  to  get  rid  of  all  our  terms 
expressive  of  moral  or  religious  feeling;  and  to  make  a  language 
adapted  to  beings  who  have  nothing  in  common  with  us  Christians, 
more  than  we  have  in  common  with  the  brutal  creation. 

It  will  be  admitted  that  it  is  sometimes  as  possible  to  discover  that  the 
language  of  a  speaker  does  not  correspond  with  the  feelings  of  his  heart ; 
as  it  is  to  discover  that  some  assertions  do  not  correspond  with  facts. 
Some  of  Mr.  Owen’s  assertions  in  his  appendix  are  of  this  charac 
ter.  Page  217. — “Mr.  Campbell’s  learned  defence  of  the  Christian 
scheme,  after  nearly  a  year’s  application  to  prepare  himself  for  it, 
had  the  effect  upon  my  mind  to  convince  me  that  it  had  only  the  com¬ 
mon  foundation  of  all  other  religions  to  rest  upon;  and  that  its  mys¬ 
teries  and  miracles  were  of  a  more  inferior  invention  than  many 


APPENDIX. 


245 


others,  which  Christians,  from  their  infancy,  were  taught  to  contemn 
and  hold  in  derision,  Possibly  a  similar  result,  relative  to  my  opin¬ 
ions,  was  produced  upon  Mr.  Campbell’s  mind.” 

Now  it  is  reasonable  and  necessary  that,  if  we  make  any  subtraction 
from  one  part  of  this  declaration,  we  should  subtract  equally  from 
the  other  part  of  it.  It  consists  of  two  parts.  The  first  respects  my 
preparation  for  the  debate;  the  second,  the  effect  which  the  debate 
had  upon  Mr.  Owen’s  mind.  Certainly  Mr.  Owen  is  as  credible  a 
witness  of  what  passes  within  his  mind,  as  he  is  of  things  without  it. 
The  former  does  always  depend  upon  one  witness,  but  not  so  the 
latter.  With  regard  to  the  “year's  preparation ”  part  of  the  declara¬ 
tion,  it  must  be  received  with  great  caution.  Instead  of  nearly  a 
year ,  it  was  only  about  nine  months ,  from  the  time  of  Mr.  Owen’s  call 
on  me,  and  our  engagement  to  meet  in  Cinctnati,  till  the  time  of  our 
meeting  there.  And  instead  of  nearly  a  year’s  preparation  for  the 
debate ,  during  these  nine  months  I  superintended  the  printing,  cor¬ 
recting,  binding  and  distribution  of  one  edition  of  a  new  translation 
of  the  New  Testament,  also  a  hymn  book ;  besides  the  writing  neces¬ 
sary  fbr  my  periodical  paper,  and  a  heavy  correspondence,  equal  at 
least  to  one  duodecimo  volume  per  annum.  All  this,  besides  my 
public  labors  as  a  teacher  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  all  my  domes¬ 
tic  and  agricultural  attentions.  This  much  subtracted  out  of  nine 
months, did  not  afford  me  more  than  one  day  per  week  for  preparations. 
Now  make  a  similar  subtraction  from  what  Mr.  Owen  says  about  his 
convictions  that  Christianity  has  only  the  common  foundation  of  all 
other  religions  to  rest  upon,  and  I  think  we  will  come  full  nigh  the 
truth. 

But  when  he  says  that  the  mysteries  and  miracles  of  Christianity 
are  of  a  more  inferior  invention  than  those  of  other  religions,  he  says 
what,  I  presume,  the  sceptics  as  a  body  do  not  believe;  and  I  think 
more  than  Mr.  Owen  himself  believes,  if  he  knew  his  own  mind. 
It  is  a  very  daring  calumny,  without  a  single  support  but  the  dictum 
of  Mr.  Owen.  Why  did  he  not,  either  in  the  debate  or  in  his  appen¬ 
dix,  expose  or  contrast  these  pretended  miracles  or  papistical  legends, 
(for  the  Koran  pretends  to  no  miracles,)  with  the  Christian  or  Jew¬ 
ish!?  Mr.  Owen  writes  as  if  men  could  believe  not  only  as  they 
please,  but  without  any  evidence.  Or  else  he  supposes  that,  as  Ac 
says  he  tells  nothing  but  the  truth,  mankind  will  from  necessity  be¬ 
lieve  him. 

In  the  same  page  Mr.  Owen  excuses  his  inability  to  disprove  a 
single  position  I  assumed  in  the  whole  discussion.  He  says — “I  per¬ 
ceived  it  would  be  a  loss  of  time,  and  entirely  useless,  to  discuss  any 
minor  points,  while  the  very  foundation  of  all  the  associations  of  our 
ideas  remained  unexamined  and  untouched.  I  therefore  uniformly 
declined  all  Mr.  Campbell’s  metaphysical  questions,  which  I  saw 
had  no  real  bearing  upon  the  important  subjects  before  us;  and  wished 
to  bring  him  to  discuss  first  or  fundamental  principles,  that  we  might 
from  these  proceed,  step  by  step,  to  some  certain  and  beneficial  con¬ 
clusion.” 

VOL.  IT. 


21* 


m 


APPENDIX. 


All  my  positions  then,  Mr,  Owen  being  judge,  are  minor  points, 
and  all  my  questions  are  metaphysical.  This  is  as  poor  a  “ come  off™ 
ns  I  have  ever  seen;  it  does  not  need  a  denial  nor  refutation  from  me. 
The  preceding  pages  do  it  ample  justice. 

Mr.  Owen  affirms  that  “a  Christian  population  is  always  from 
necessity  a  population  full  of  deception.”  I  suppose  it  was  owing 
to  the  unhappy  circumstance  of  Mr.  Owen  being  educated  in  such  a 
population  that  he  became  so  conversant,  so  unavoidably  conversant 
with  this  art. 

Mr.  Owen  will  always  have  the  better  of  me  in  nature,  composi¬ 
tion,  organization,  and  circumstances.  Hence,  when  my  circum¬ 
stances  forced  me  to  be  a  free  agent,  his  “convictions”  formed  his 
own  character.  Mr.  O words  convictions  formed  his  character;  but 
the  character  of  every  other  man  in  the  wo*-ld  was  formed  for  him ; 
so  at  least  he  avers — page  2  IS.  “To  me  it  early  appeared  by  Mr, 
Campbell’s  feelings,  language,,  and  manner,  that  his  character  has 
been  formed  for  him  under  all  the  influences  derived  from  the  no- 
lions  of  man’s  free  agency,  which  had  been  made  upon  his  original 
organization  from  infancy;  while  I  knew  mine  had  been  formed  for 
me  by  a  conviction  arising  from  facts,  and  deductions  from  them,  that 
those  notions  could  not  but  be  true,  and  that  the  feelings,  thoughts, 
and  conduct  were  formed  to  be  as  they  are,  by  circumstances  not 
under  my  control.” 

Mr.  Owen  was  active  in  forming  his  character  according  to  his 
convictions ;  but  I  am  passive  in  receiving  the  impressions  given  me; 
or  in  putting  on  the  character  formed  for  me.  I  cannot  but  complain 
that  Mr.  Owen  should  thus  form  his  own  character,  and  then  make 
himself  the  former  of  all  the  characters  in  the  world,  without  permit  ¬ 
ting  any  other  person  to  equal  honor  with  himself!! 

But  next  comes  the  powerful  struggle.  Mr.  Owen  resolves  on 
death  or  victory.  To  wrest  victory  from  ignorance,  superstition, 
and  bigotry,  he  is  resolved.  The  giant  Free  Agency  is  to  be  led  cap¬ 
tive  in  chains  to  the  dark  and  dreary  dungeon  of  Absolute  Necessity, 
where  Fate,  the  jailor,  is  to  lock  him  down  in  everlasting  chains. 
Mr.  Owen  only  got  to  the  threshold  of  the  temple,  or  rather  to  the 
threshold  of  the  fortress  of  this  Hero,  in  forty  years  thinking,  reading, 
writing,  and  debating.  But  now  comes  the  tug  of  war.  Hear  him 
put  on  his  armor.  See  him  gird  on  his  sword. — Page  219. 

“To  the  threshold  of  this  subject  we  have  approached  through  the 
late  public  discussion  in  this  city.  Let  us  now  try  to  enter  into  the 
sanctuary,  and  wrest  victory  from  the  ignorance,  superstition  and 
bigotry  of  all  the  ages  which  are  past.  It  is  a  victory  the  most 
worthy  to  contest,  to  the  utmost  stretch  of  the  human  faculties,,  that 
man  has  ever  yet  contended  for.” 

After  telling  us  the  pedigree  of  Free  Agency  and  her  offspring,  he 
brandishes  his  sword.  Free  Agency,  says  he,  thou  art  the  child  of 
Ignorance,  and  thy  offspring  is  Hell  upon  Earth.”  Whereas  he  intro  ¬ 
duces  Necessity  as  the  daughter  of  Reason  and  Knowledge,  and  hex 


APPENDIX,  24$ 

offspring  is  Earth  upon  Heaven  and  Hell!  We  shall  minute  down 
his  blows  at  free  agency : — 

First  Blow. — “The  idea,”  says  Mr.  Owen,  “that  a  man  can  volun¬ 
tarily  do  good  or  evil,  generates  malignant  passions,  disunion,  conten¬ 
tion,  strife,  and  all  kinds  of  vice  and  misery.”  This  is  good  logic. 
The  strength  of  the  argument  is  solely  in  the  boldness  of  the  assertion  . 
Free  agency  parries  this  blow  by  an  assertion  too.  She  asserts  that 
apathy,  or  immorality,  licentiousness,  and  every  vice,  are  the  natu¬ 
ral  offspring  of  material  necessity ;  and  that  all  virtue  and  goodness 
are  the  natural  fruits  of  free  agency.  Where  assertion  is  the  order  of 
the  day,  ’tis  lawful  to  assert  always  in  whole  numbers,  without  frae 
tions. 

Second  Blow , — The  idea  of  necessity,  or  that  every  man’s  charac¬ 
ter  is  formed  for  him,  is  that  which  enlightens  his  understanding, 
and  extirpates  all  bad  feelings.  But  says  the  giant,  free  agenc}y 
your  assertion  is  neutralized;  for  the  believer  in  necessity  can  have 
no  feelings  at  all,  benevolenfor  the  contrary.  Free  agency  cherishes 
all  good  feelings;  and  prepares  a  person  to  govern  or  repress  all  bad 
feelings,  if  such  should  manifest  themselves.  Have  these  two  blows 
drawn  one  drop  of  the  blood  of  this  giant?  If  a  man  is  as  passive  as 
a  tree,  or  as  this  sheet  of  paper  which  receives  every  letter  my  pen 
inscribes  upon  it,  he  can  have  no  motive  to  excite  benevolent  feelings ; 
nor,  indeed,  any  feelings  at  all.  AH  the  sages  in  the  world  could 
not  show,  why  any  man  is  to  be  rationally  loved,  or  why  gratitude, 
or  any  sort  of  good  feeling  should  exist  in  a  society  which  has  no 
more  free  agency  in  it  than  trees  or  stones. 

Third  Blow. — “Free  agency,”  says  the  philosopher,  deludes  a 
man  in  morals,  as  the  eyes  of  the  ignorant  swains  before  the  age  of 
Copernicus  and  Galileo  physically  deluded  them  about  the  notions 
of  the  sun  and  the  repose  of  the  earth.  This  blow  requires  no  par¬ 
rying,  it  does  not  reach  the  point  at  which  it  was  aimed. 

Fourth  Blow. — As  man  is  first  an  infant,  and  as  such  can  have 
no  miild  of  his  own;  as  any  language,  religion,  or  science,  may  1  e 
given  this  infant  without  any  act  of  its  own,  so  it  is  absurd  to  hold 
it  responsible  for  either  language,  science,  or  religion.  The  logic 
of  this  blow,  if  logic  be  in  it,  is  dethroned  by  asserting  that  man 
does  not  always  continue  an  infant;  and  what  is  true  of  the  infant 
is  not  true  of  the  man.  It  is  not  conclusive  to  aver,  that  because  the  ' 
egg  cannet  bite,  neither  can  the  serpent.  Because  a  child  cannot 
choose  the  country  in  which  it  shall  beborn,itwill  not  logically  follow 
that  the  man  can  never  expatriate  itself.  The  correctness  of  Mr, 
Owen’s  conclusion  as  it  is  equivalent  to,  so  it  may  be  tested  by,  the 
following  syllogism,  which  I  formed  on  Mr.  Owen's  model:  A 
child  born  in  Wales  can  never  migrate  to  the  United  States. 

Fifth  Blow. — Men  have  confounded  their  power  to  act  in  obedi¬ 
ence  to  their  will,  when  their  will  is  formed,  with  the  idea  of  liberty. 
But  has  man  the  power  to  form  his  will?  Aye  that  is  the  question 
which  is  to  discomfit  free  agency.  But  what  about  this  forming  of 


9AS 


APPENDIX. 


the  will?  Some  philosophers  talk  about  forming  man’s  will  as  if  ifc 
was  formed  or  manufactured  like  a  horse  shoe;  and  as  if  it  was  a 
piece,  or  parcel,  or  a  member  of  the  soul,  which  a  man  can  move  as 
he  can  his  hand  or  finger.  I  doubt  not  but  nine  tenths  of  all  the 
volumes  written  upon  the  human  will,  have  been  a  mere  logomachy 
arising  from  using  terms  without  ideas,  or  attaching  discordant  ideas 
to  the  same  terms.  To  talk  of  a  man’s  forming  his  will,  or  of  “hav¬ 
ing  his  will  formed  for  him,”  is  rather  too  much  in  the  style  of  mate¬ 
rialism.  I  do  not  know  but  in  the  progress  of  human  knowledge,  in 
a  few  years,  we  may  have  some  very  learned  dissertations  about 
growing  wills,  as  we  grow  grain  and  cattle.  Patents  may  yet  be 
granted  for  casting  wills  into  particular  moulds;  of  this  there  may 
be  some  certain  expectation,  if  the  new  science  of  bumpology  should  - 
gain  ground.  The  idea  has  been  already  suggested  of  having  caps 
of  steel  with  cells  of  taste,  patriotism,  and  wisdom,  to  cause  the  heads 
of  infants  to  put  forth  protuberances  of  proper  degrees  of  latitude 
and  longitude,  so  as  to  give  to  the  full  grown  man,  these  or  any 
other  prominent  traits  of  character  which  the  taste  or  exigencies  of 
society  may  require, 

Mr.  Owen  told  us  something  about  rational  faces,  and  angelic 
countenances,  which  are  to  grow  out  of  his  new  system  of  moulding 
men’s  wills.  All  this  he  promises  us  in  the  course  of  a  few  years. 
The  time  will  soon  come  when  men  will  have  so  much  skill  in 
surrounding  the  heads  and  faces  of  infants  with  such  propitious 
circumstances,  as  to  give  them  strong  rational  lineaments.  If  the 
materialists  ever  can  form  a  community,  attempts  may  be  made  on 
the  science  of  bumpology  to  give  one  and  the  same  will  to  every 
child  born  in  their  precincts.  Mr.  Gweil  seems  to  think  that  he  has 
some  extraordinary  sagacity  in  this  matter;  for,  he  says,  page  227 *, 
“No  man  has,  I  believe,  ever  yet  investigated  the  subject  of  free 
will  and  necessity,  so  early  in  life  as  myself;  or  so  clearly  ascertained, 
from  an  observation  of  facts,  and  from  practice,  the  science  of  the 
formation  of  character,  at  an  age  sufficiently  eajly  to  prevent  the 
influence  of  the  doctrines  of  free  will  from  forming  his  youthful  habits 
and  associations  of  ideas.”  This  new  doctrine  o  £  forming  wills  and 
associations  of  ideas ,  I  am  willing  to  give  entirely  to  my  friend  Mr. 
Owen.  In  his  own  judgment  he  is  eminently  qualified  for  such  an 
undertaking. 

The  science  of  forming  wills  may  yet  mean  no  more  than  the 
ancients  meant  by  forming  conclusions.  I  will ,  1  determine ,  and  I 
conclude ,  may,  after  all  Mr.  Owen’s  lucubrations,  mean  the  same 
thing.  The  unsophisticated  state  of  the  case,  the  plain  common 
sense  decision  of  the  whole  matter,  is  this :  when  we  begin  to  reason, 
it  is  for  the  sake  of  the  conclusion.  All  our  conclusions  make  new 
premises  for  other  conclusions,  and  just  as  effects  become  causes,  in 
long  concatenation,  so  does  one  set  of  conclusions  become  premises 
for  other  conclusions.  But  the  mystery  of  the  doctrines  of  liberty 
and  necessity  is  dissolved  and  dissipated  when  it  is  known  that  one 
set  is  called  determinations.  The  difference  is  this,  as  was  just  now 


APPENDIX. 


24$ 


said,  when  we  begin  to  reason,  it  is  for  the  sake  of  the  conclusion.  If 
the  conclusion  is  of  one  kind,  we  call  it  a  determination.;  if  of  another 
kind,  we  call  it  a  judgment.  If  it  be  a  conclusion  calling  us  to  ac¬ 
tion,  we  call  it  the  determination ;  but  if  it  do  not  call  us  to  action-, 
we  call  it  a  judgment.  For  example,  some  circumstance,  occasion, 
or  person  calls  up  to  my  reflections  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  I  reason 
upon  all  the  incidents  of  this  momentous  engagement,  and  arrive  at 
many  conclusions  concerning  the  various  rencounters  of  the  belli¬ 
gerents.  These  conclusions  not  having  any  bearing  upon  my  ac¬ 
tions,  nor  forming  any  inducements  to  action,  we  call  judgments.  But 
a  proposition  is  made  to  me  to  go  to  Washington,  or  to  stay  at  home. 
I  reason  upon  this  proposition,  and  finally  arrive  at  a  conclusion  to 
go.  This  conclusion  I  call  my  will,  or  determination.  AU  conclu¬ 
sions/ of  the  understanding  upon  abstract  or  remote  subjects,  not 
beaiing  upon  our  conduct,  we  call  judgments*  But  all  conclusions 
calling  for  our  energies,  we  call  determinations.  So  we  speak  and 
so  we  feel.  Hence  we  say,  it  is  my  judgment  that  he  ought  to  go, 
but  it  is  my  determination  to  go.  The  same  premises  and  arguments 
led  to  both  these  conclusions,  but  owing  to  the  aspect  of  those  conclu¬ 
sions  as  bearing  upon  myself,  the  former  I  call  a  judgment ,  the  latter 
a  determination.  The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  then  is,  that 
the  controversy  about  liberty  and  necessity  is  a  mere  war  of  word*;- 
that  we  might  as  reasonably  talk  about  free  thought,  free  reason,  or 
free  inquiry,  as  about  free  will.  We  might  as  reasonably  say  that 
thought  is  necessary,  that  liberty  is  necessary,  that  reason  is  neces-^ 
sary,  that  doing  good  is  necessary  and  unavoidable,  as  to  talk 
about  the  will,  determination,  or  judgment  being  necessary.  The 
whole  is  a  jargon  of  both  sense  and  nonsense;  of  meaning,  and  no 
meaning;  of  words  without  ideas,  and  ideas  without  words.  Man  is 
a  rational  being,  and  as  such  must  act ,  and  may  act  according  to  the 
best  comparisons  he  can  make.  And  whenever  he  ceases  to  reason 
before  he  acts,  or  will  not  act  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  under¬ 
standing,  he  then  ceases  to  act  as  a  man.  He  is  insane.  Whether 
the  insanity  be  constitutional,  or  superinduced  it  matters  not;  wheth¬ 
er  it  was  occasioned  by  a  blow,  a  fever,  strong  passions,  it  matters 
not,  he  is  insane  for  the  time  being. 

But  the  capital  mistake  of  the  whole  scheme  of  Mr.  Owen,  even  if 
he  had  killed  the  giant  free  agency,  as  he  attempted,  (so  much  to  his 
own  discomfiture,)  is  this :  He  builds  his  whole  castle  upon  the  ice. 
He  makes  all  happiness,  all  good  feeling,  all  intelligence  and  virtue, 
to  depend  upon  the  admission  of  the  doctrine  of  necessary  agency ;  and 
yet  his  brethren,  the  Mahometans,  have  held,  taught,  and  believed  this 
doctrine  for  twelve  centuries;  and  have  made  it  the  rallying  word,  or 
countersign,  in  all  their  bloody  wars.  Those  necessarian  Mahomet¬ 
ans  are  as  far  from  social  happiness  as  any  people  upon  the  face  o£ 
the  earth;  and  when  the  conduct,  passions,  and  feelings,  of  our  own 
acquaintance,  who  believe  most  certainly  that  every  thing  that  comes 
to  pass  is  as  fixed  and  as  unalterable  as  the  throne  of  the  universe,, 
are  examined,  it  will  appear  that  no  greater  vagary  or  figment  ever 


12dO  APPENDli. 

entered  the  human  imagination  than  thatjthere  is  any  change  for  the 
better,  to  be  effected  in  society,  by  a  universal  admission  of  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  necessity.  The  whole  history  of  the  necessarians  in  Turkey 
and  Christendom  is  appealed  to  in  proof  that  these  metaphysics,  are 
not  more  puissant  than  the  doctrine  of  free  agency,  in  improving  the 
morals,  or  in  augmenting  the  happiness'of  society.  To  say  that  they 
are  not  more  efficacious  is  saying  as  much  as  can  be  said  in  their  favor. 
Many  thousands  are  disposed  to  show  that  they  are  not  so  efficacious 
ns  the  metaphysics  of  free  agency.  But  no  person  has  ever  yet  found 
that  either  system,  or  any  system  of  pure  metaphysics,  has  contributed 
to  the  reformation  of  the  world,  or  to  the  increase  of  human  happiness  ; 
and  as  Mr.  Owen  has  made  all  his  system  rest  upon  this  one  point  as 
the  corner-stone,  he  has  showm  himself  to  be  as  little  «f  the  philosopher 
as  he  is  of  the  Christian,  For  whether  true  or  false,  ii  matters  not;  it 
is  not  adapted  to  human  nature.  Not  one  in  one  thousand  can  com¬ 
prehend  it;  and,  as  Mirabaud  said  about  atheism,  a  philosopher  will 
say  of  Owenism,  that  whatever  use  it  may  be  to  the  philosopher,  it 
can  be  of  none  to  the  common  mass  of  society. 

Mr.  Owen’s  whole  science  of  forming  human  character  is  shown  to 
foe  erroneous  in  principle,  and  inefficient  in  practice;  and  all  his  fine 
things  said  about  it,  are  but  mere  phantoms  of  an  over-heated,  imagi¬ 
nation.  Taking  if  as  a  whole,  it  is  the  most  perfect  visionary  scheme 
which  this  or  any  other  age  has  ever  been  called  upon  to  examine. 
Its  novelty  is  only  in  the  combination,  not  in  the  materials.  It  has, 
in  other  forms,  been  often  on  the  stage,  and  as  often  laughed  ofit  of 
countenance,  It  never  has  succeeded ;  it  never  can  succeed.  There 
must  be  some  truth,  like  cement,  in  every  system.  But  very  little 
practical,  and  no  new  truth,  can  be  found  in  this  one.  Ten  thou¬ 
sand  Christian  writers  have  dilated  upon  the  faults  and  failings  of  the, 
so  called,  Christian  world,  with  as  much  plainness  as  Mr.  Owen,  and 
with  much  more  force  than  he.  We  all  see,  and  feel,  and  labor 
against,  these  defects. 

Because  a  person  may  or  can  find  fault  with  any  state  of  society, 
or  any  system  of  operations,  it  is  neither  to  be  presumed  that  the  sys¬ 
tem  is  radically  wrong,  nor  that  he  can  reform  it.  A  person  may  find 
fault  with  every  thing  in  the  universe.  The  sun  has  its  specks,  the 
moon  changes  too  often,  and  the  stars  are  too  small.  But  who  can 
make  them  better?  Christianity  is  just  as  perfect  as  the  sun  in  th6 
natural  system.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Sun  of  Mercy.  He  is  to  the  mor¬ 
al  world  what  the  material  sun  is  to  the  natural — the  fountain  of  light 
and  life.  His  religion  is  just  adapted  to  man — to  the  whole  race  of 
men,  whether  Jew  or  Greek,  Barbarian,  bond  or  free,  male  or  female. 
None  can  find  a  flaw  in  it;  none  can  find  where  it  could  be  improved. 
It  has  progressed  for  two  thousand  years;  is  fast  progressing  still; 
and  will,  ere  long,  cover  the  whole  earth.  It  fears  no  opposition ;  the 
more  opposition,  if  well  managed,  the  better.  Gibbon  and  Hume  in¬ 
sidiously  attacked  it ;  Voltaire  and  the  French'  wits  laughed  at  it ;  rid¬ 
iculed  it;  Thomas  Paine  and  a  few  others  pretended  to  reason  against 
it;  the  m^erns  now  assert  and  declaim  against  it;  but,  like  the  sun, 


APPENDIX, 


251 


the  centre  of  our  system,  it  shines  still,  and  diffuses  its  light  ajad  com¬ 
fort  over  the  earth;  while  its  opponents,  one  by  one,  perish  in  their 
own  deceivings,  and  leave  behind  them  only  short-lived  memorials  of 
their  lolly, 

I  do  not  see  a  single  idea,  upon  reviewing  Mr.  Owen’s  appendix, 
which  merits  notice;  and  very  few,  whether  they  merit  it  or  not, 
which  have  not  been  already  examined  or  otherwise  attended  to  in 
ihe  preceding  pages.  But  in  conclusion  of  this  article  upong  his 
system,  I  will  add  a  few  well  written  remarks  from  the  pen  of  the 
Rev.  Timothy  Flint ,  in  his  Monthly  Review,  for  this  month,  (August.) 
These  remarks  are  a  part  of  a  review  of  the  “Opening  Speech”  book, 
by  Mr.  Flint,  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  presided  over  the  preceding 
discussion.  They  may  cover  some  of  our  omissions,  or  express  the 
same  ideas  in  another  dress: — 

“This  mischievous  belief  in  free  will,  is,  according  to  him,  the  Pan¬ 
demonium,  the  source  of  all  the  e  vils  and  miseries,  which  so  abound  in 
the  earth.  All  this  he  charges  to  the  account  of  Christianity — as 
though  that  system  originated  the  dispute  about  free  will,  when  not  a 
word,  we  believe,  is  said  about  the  doctrine,  from  the  commencement 
to  the  close  of  the  Bible,  except,  perhaps,  to  speak  of, the  dispute  as 
the  babbligg  of  some  philosophers,  who  know  not  what  they  speak, 
nor  whereof  they  affirm.  Nor  does  he  remember,  that  whole  schools 
of  Christian  believers,  and,  as  they  affirm,  the  great  body  of  Christians 
in  all  ages,  virtually  deny  the  system  of  free  will  still  more  strongly 
than  Mr.  Owen  himself. 

4<Man  being,  according  to  him,  a  passive  creature  of  circumstances, 
he  is  properly  under  no  accountability,  and  cannot  be  justly  subject 
to  a  law,  as  such.  No  praise  or  blame  ought  to  be  predicated  of  his 
conduct;  and,  of  course,  every  thing  in  the  present  order  of  society 
turning  upon  praise  and  blame,  reward  and  punishment,  as  their  grand 
hinge,  every  thing  is  therefore  radically  wrong.  To  alter  all  this, 
schools  of  infants  must  be  established,  and  every  human  being  must 
be  surrounded  from  his  birth  by  circumstances,  which  wall  as  neces* 
sarily  make  him  good  and  happy,  as  th(fy  have  heretofore  made  him 
wicked  and  miserable.  That,  he  is  able  to  do  this,  is  his  own  naked 
assertion.  That  he  has  done  it,  would  go  farther  to  produce  convict 
tion  than  a  thousand  volumes  of  arguments.  Ho  asserts  that  he  has, 
and  refers  to  his  grand  experiment  at  New  Lanark  in  proof.  We  are, 
after  all,  obliged  to  take  his  word  for  it;  and,  unhappily  for  the  sys¬ 
tem,  there  are  many,  who  have  seen  the  children  there,  w  ho  represent 
the  fact  diametrically  opposite. 

“It  is  most  ridiculously  absurd,  to  suppose  that  not  only  that  part  of 
the  character,  that  is  generally  held  to  be  influenced  by  reason,  can 
be  changed,  but  even  that  part,  which  is  deemed  matter  of  physical 
and  animal  endowment.  We  know  that  some  are  naturally  vicious, ~ 
and  others  naturally  amiable.  He  is  sure-  that  he  can  alter  all' 
this  by  the  moulding  power  of  his  system.  When  we  referred  him  to 
the  unchangeable  differences  of  the  lowrer  animals,  the  Cunning  and 
the  love  of  poultry  of  the  fox — the  natural  impulse  to  move  into  ithe 


252 


APPENDIX. 


•water  of  the  web-footed  animals,  &c — he  replies  by  a  sagacious  look 
and  an  intimation  that  animals  have  been  badly  reared,  and  may  be  in 
a  great  measure  trained  out  of  their  instincts.  But  when  cats  change 
nature  with  rabbits,  and  foxes  with  sloths,  when  barn  fowls  instinct¬ 
ively  swim,  and  ducks  avoid  the  water,  then  we  will  believe  that  any 
system  of  education,  however  early  and  efficient,  will  new-mould 
human  nature,  so  as  to  form  all  beings,  that  are  born  with  all  their 
differences  of  temperament,  so  that  they  can  live  together  in  love  and 
peace,  without  law  or  restraint. 

“It  is  necessary  to  take  but  a  small  and  bird's  eye  view  of  a  section 
of  this  grand  scheme,  that  is  thus  to  new-mould  the  world,  to  see  the 
folly  and  futility  of  it.  Men  are  to  be  thrown  together  over  the  whole 
earth  in  small  communities  of  not  less  than  three  hundred,  and  not 
more  than  two  thousand.  The  most  delightful  and  romantic  picture 
is  given  of  these  parallelogram  communities.  They  are  to  push  their 
gardens,  as  they  lengthen  their  cords,  till  community  touches  commu- 
?y  in  a  space  of  the  most  perfect  cultivation,  and  the  most  delightful 
scenic  landscape  gardening,  and  in  the  most  ample  abundance  of  “the 
best  of  every  thing  foi  human  nature.”  These  parallelograms  are  to 
be  refrigerated  in  summer  and  warmed  in  winter  to  the  requisite  tem¬ 
perature  for  the  different  habits  of  the  occupants.  An  idea  of  Mr. 
Owen’s,  somewhat  original,  as  far  as  we  know,  is  this,  that  much  of 
of  the  strong  liking  and  disliking,  the  loves  and  antipathies,  that  have 
been  differently  attempted  to  be  explained,  by  some  on  the  principle  of 
animal  magnetism,  are  reallyin  a  great  measure  caused  by  the  parties 
being  placed  in  a  temperature  conformable  or  not  conformable  to  their 
requisite  temperament  and  habit  of  body.  All  this  is  to  be  in  this 
way  mechanically  remedied;  and  love  and  good  feeling  to  receive 
infinite  physical  aid  by  housing  in  similar  temperatures,  males  and 
females  that  require  to  be  so  disposed  in  order  to  lijte  each  other. 
|t  is  absolutely  wonderful  and  refreshing  to  think  how  happy  the 
whole  world  is  thus  to  become  under  the  operation  of  these  sagacious 
contrivances. 

“There  is  to  be  no  legal  marriage  of  course ;  marriage  being  really 
the  union  of  the  opposite  sexes  from  liking  each  other.  It  can,  there¬ 
fore,  last  no  longer,  than  while  that  liking  lasts.  When  it  i$  gravely 
proposed  to  the  philosopher,  whether  he  does  not  think  there  will  be 
a  good  number  of  divorces  in  the  course  of  each  month,  he  answers, 
No;  that  he  deems,  that  the  parties  being  strongly  cemented  by 
similarity  of  temperament  and  temperature,  and  having  chosen  by 
the  principle  of  elective  attraction  in  full  operation,  will  cling  together 
like  pitch,  and  will  require  the  operation  of  force,  at  least  the  concus¬ 
sion  of  a  new  and  stronger  impulse  to  shake  them  apart. 

“In  the  present  order  of  society,  it  is  deemed  infinitely  important 
that  the  child  should  be  wise  enough  to  know  its  own  parents. — 
Whether  this  would  be  more  difficult  or  not,  or  a  better  test  of  the 
child’s  discernment,  under  the  social  system,  is  a  matter  of  no  im¬ 
portance,  since  all  children  are  part  of  the  common  stock  of  the  com¬ 
munity,  and  are  to  be  taken  from  the  actual  parents,  and  put  into  the 


APPENDIX. 


hands  of  these  numerous  godfathers  soon  after  their  birth.  Travelling, 
in  this  order  of  things,  is  to  be  infinitely  pleasant — as  in  fact  it  always 
has  been.  But  it  is  in  the  new  order  of  affairs  to  be  wholly  without 
expense — a  most  manifest  and  manifold  improvement.  In  short — for 
it  would  be  useless  to  prolong  the  detail,  the  universe  is  to  be  con¬ 
verted  into  on<e  grand  heaven  —every  body  is  to  become  rational, 
and  at  the  same  time  keenly  sensitive.  Every  contrivance  that  can 
be  imagined,  is  to  be  got  up  in  a  style  far  surpassing  the  most  luxu¬ 
rious  dreams  of  Mahomet’s  Paradise,  and  all  this  mighty  preluding — ■ 
all  this  machinery — all  this  scaffolding — all  this  wonderful  move¬ 
ment — all  this  renovation  of  man — all  this  hope  of  an  earthly  heaven, 
is  to  be  prepared  with  so  much  philosophy  for  two-legged  tadpoles, 
who  are  to  live  together  at  farthest  seventy  or  eighty  years;  to  be 
then  blasted  with  the  frost  of  eternal  annihilation — leaving  no  issue  of 
these  “thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity,”  but  maggots,  grub¬ 
worms,  cabbages,  and  weeds.  These  are  thy  Gods,  O  Israel ! 

“Some  affect  to  consider  this  atheism  of  Mr.  Gwen  as  harmless, 
and  without  probable  result.  We  do  not  so  consider  it.  Most  of  the 
former  atheists  have  been  men  of  violent  passions,  or  bad  character. 
Mr.  Owen  has  that  same  invincible  and  imperturbable  mildness,  which 
Christianity  ought  to  inspire  and  foster  and  so  seldom  does  produce. 
He  has  nothing  of  the  fierce  reasoning  and  windy  declamation  of 
former  atheists.  He  is  so  calm,  cool,  self-possessed,  and  apparently 
so  deep  in  his  convictions  of  the  truth  and  utility  of  his  doctrine,  that 
kis  positive  assertions  upon  the  subject,  have  very  different  influences 
from  the  flippant  and  angry  reasoningof  the  common  herd  of  atheists. 
He  talks,  too,  of  a  power  of  sufficient  energy  and  wisdom  to  have  pro¬ 
duced  this  visible  universe  with  its  unchanging  order.  But,  whether 
that  power  is  wise  and  good  in  the  abstract,  whether  it  be  intellectual 
and  self-moving,  or  the  brute  nature  and  the  blind  chance  of  the* 
ancients,  he  declares  there  are  no  data  or  facts  to  determine.  Hence 
this  power,  in  the  book  before  us,  and  in  his  conversations  upon  the 
subject,  he  uniformly  denominates  it9  and  when  asked  why  he  used 
that  term,  he  replied  that  it  was  done  of  design.  We  think  the  im¬ 
posing  and  philosophic  calmness,  the  mischievous  simplicity,  and  the 
undoubting  positiveness  of  his  system  calculated  to  exercise  a  very 
dangerous  influence  upon  the  numerous  minds,  inclined  by  tempera¬ 
ment  to  be  wrought  upon  by  such  a  combination. 

“There  can  be  no  doubt  that  man  is  constituted  by  his  Maker,  a 
religious  animal  by  the  unchanging  organization  of  his  physical  as 
well  as  moral  nature.,  as  much  so  as  web-footed  fowls  are  formed  for 
swimming  in  the  water.  Atheists,  therefore,  are  monsters  in  the 
rational  universe.  Instead  of  attributing  the  universal  propensity  of 
man  in  every  country,  clime,  and  age,  to  manifest  this  instinctive 
impulse  of  his  organization  in  some  form  of  homage  to  a  first  cause, 
they  usually  impute  it  to  such  a  limited  and  partial  cause  as  priest¬ 
craft.  Man  has  been  found  without  priests  or  altars;  but  we  affirm, 
no  where  on  our  globe  without  some  demonstration  of  the  sentiment 
of  a  divinity. 


Y0JLo  II 


22 


( 


254 


APPENDIX. 


“We  do  not  say  that  an  atheist  ought  to  be  persecuted,  or  in  any 
way  molested.  Neither  do  we  say  that  a  man  may  not  be  so  defec¬ 
tively  or  monstrously  constituted,  as  to  be  honest  in  his  convictions 
of  atheism.  But  we  do  say,  that  an  atheist  is  to  be  pitied,  deeply  and 
sincerely  pitied.  What,  rob  the  wide  system  of  nature  of  its  Maker? 
— rob  the  infinite  space  of  its  vivifying,  pervading,  cheering,  and 
and  if  we  may  so  say,  socializing  principle? — rob  the  firmament  of 
its  cerulean,  the  stars  of  their  lustre,  the  natural  universe  of  its  order 
and  design,  the  intellectual  universe  of  wisdom,  goodness,  and  mercy 
—our  beautiful  world  of  its  beauty — the  imagination  of  its  glorious 
forms,  the  heart  of  friendship  and  hope?  Suppose  God  absent  from 
his  universe,  and  what  have  we  left?  If  any  thing  in  our  opinion 
ought  to  inspire  indignation,  surely  it  ought  to  be,  to  hear  bipeds 
lecturing  us  to  assume  our  true  dignity,  by  attempting  to  dethrone 
God — forswear  consanguinity  with  another  existence,  and  a  higher 
order  of  beings — proving  our  dignity,  by  proving  that  we  are  worms, 
and  no  more,  and  that  they  are  really,  and  in  truth,  our  brother  and 
sister — exalting  us  to  our  rational  nature,  by  proving  to  us,  that  all 
we  can  hope  must  be  snatched  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave — 
that  our  consciousness  shall  there  terminate,  as  though  we  had  not 
been ;  that  all  thoughts,  hopes,  fears,  all  the  ardent  aspirations  of 
minds  cemented  by  the  ties  and  friendships  of  this  life  must  be  then 
and  there  for  ever  severed.  Such  is  the  dignity  and  rationality,  and 
better  hopes,  and  higher  thoughts,  and  more  intellectual  character,  to 
which  the  social  system  would  raise  us.  Such  are  the  motives  under 
which  the  future  Curtii  are  to  leap  down  the  gulf,  the  future  Washing¬ 
tons  to  become  emancipators,  and  the  future  Miltoids  to  sing.  Shall 
we  be  told,  that  these  are  the  poor  attempts  to  flay  the  Marsyas,  that 
had  been  flayed  already?  Shall  we  be  told,  that  no  one  thinks  of 
the  system,  except  in  ridicule,  that  the  very  self-same  great  men, 
whom  Mr.  Owen  counts  as  his  converts,  shrug  their  shoulders,  and 
ridicule  him  the  moment  he  has  passed  the  threshold?  All  this  may 
be.  But  the  man,  so  calm,  90  self-possesssd,  so  mild,  so  capable  of 
meeting  every  form  of  hatred,  ridicule,  contempt,  and  vilification, 
without  the  excitement  of  apparent  ill  will  or  disposition  to  vilify  and 
ridicule  in  retaliation,  is  not  a  man  -whose  influence  is  to  be  slighted. 
Look  at  the  extent  to  which  the  papers,  that  inculcate  these  senti¬ 
ments,  circulate.  ^Look  at  the  eagerness  to  read  this  very  book 
before  us,  and  see  if  the  doctrines  contained  in  it  are  harmless, 
carrying  their  own  refutation  with  them.  We  say  again,  let  us  be 
taught  by  an  enemy.  Let  us  be  led  by  his  bold  and  bitter  exposition 
of  the  facts,  as  we  have  them  in  the  book  before  us,  to  look  into  that 
miserable  war  of  bigotry,  and  denunciation,  which  the  thousand 
Christian  sects  are  waging  in  the  blindness  of  their  ignorance,  and 
the  positiveness,  pride,  and  cruelty  of  their  unsanctified  natures 
against  each  other,  reminding  us  of  the  horrible  and  murderous 
factions  in  the  holy  city,  while  the  strength  and  power  of  the  Roman 
legions  were  driving  their  battering  rams  against  the  tottering  walls 
without. 


APPENDIX.  255 

1  y\Ve  remark  a  curious  inconsistency  in  the  book  before  us,  and 
which  we  have  more  strongly  remarked  in  the  conversations  of  its 
author  upon  the  subject.  All  the  evils,  and  all  %c  miseries  of  that 
depraved  and  vicious  state  of  society,  which  we  have  too  much 
reason  to  admit,  exists  in  the  present  order  of  things,  he  attributes  to 
Christianity  an  1  the  free-will  systems,  and  sometimes  to  religion  in 
general — -giving  this  principle  an  efficiency  for  evil,  which,  unhappily, 
it  has  not  either  for  evil  or  good.  Perhaps  in  the  very  next  paragraph, 
or  conversation,  he  informs  you  that  the  present  system  of  religion  and 
society  is  worn  out;  that  ministers  are  every  where  ceasing  to  be  of 
any  account;  that  polite  and  well  informed  people  never  talk  religion; 
that  it  is  a  system  falling  of  itself,  and  of  its  own  age,  weakness  and 
imbecility.  One  or  the  other  of  these  views  of  things  must  be  false. 
Religion  cannot  be  the  main  spring  of  society,  the  omnipotent  mani- 
chean  principle  of  evil,  and  at  the  same  time  a  weak,  inefficient,  worn 
out  and  exploded  error. 

'‘There  is  at  least  originality  and  amusement  in  hearing  a  man  dis¬ 
cussing  with  apparent  and  philosophic  calmness,  and  conviction,  the 
possibility  of  so  training  children,  that  they  shall  have  no  irascibility, 
no  selfishness,  no  sense  o iincum  and  tuum;  no  ambition,  no  rivalry — - 
and  in  fact,  nothing  about  them,  physically  or  morally,  ugly  or  vici¬ 
ous.  According  to  him,  the  children  born  under  the  social  system, 
should  have  nothing  of  the  internal  or  external  structure  of  the  ex- 
isting  race,  but  merely  the  same  organs;  being  as  unlike  them  as 
as  angels  are  to  Yahoos-  All  tills  change  is  to  be  the  result  of  new 
circumstances  placed  about  them,  which  are  to  blot  out  all  bad  pas¬ 
sions,  erase  all  ambition  and  selfishness,  and  make  them  rational, 
handsome,  and  amiable  universally.  One  would  think  that  these 
dear,  beautiful,  and  angelic  worms,  thus  divested  of  all  internal  causes 
of  whirlwind  and  volcanic  explosion,  would  become  quietists — sing¬ 
ing  an  eternal  lullaby  on  their  beds  of  roses,  and  requiring  flappers  to, 
arouse  them  to  eat  and  drink  “the  best  of  everv  thing  for  human 
nature,*5  and  with  scarcely  enough  of  the  dreggy  influence  of  the 
old  system  in  them,  to  bethink  themselves  of  the  necessity  of  perpe¬ 
tuating  the  future  generations  of  these  happy  entities.  No  such  a  thing. 
While  the  dreamy  influence  of  the  social  system  is  upon  them,  instead 
of  reducing  them  to  slothful  quietists,  they  are  to  become  the  most 
vigorous,  warm-hearted,  Epicureans  imaginable.  They  are  only  to 
be  passive  and  querists  to  evil — but  ardent,  energetic,  and  ever 
active  to  good,  and  love,  and  happiness.  And  is  it  for  the  advocates 
of  this  system  to  charge  us,  while  we  give  these  views  of  their  doc¬ 
trine,  with  drawing  from  our  own  imagination,  and  distorting  or 
miscoloring  facts?  What  age  or  country  ever  invented  such  a  mon¬ 
strous  romance  as  the  social  system?  Mr.  Owen  declaims  against 
cultivating  the  imagination;  and  we  hold  the  history  of  the  Seven 
Sleepers,  Cinderilla,  or  any  tale  in  the  Arabian  Nights  to  be  mathe¬ 
matics,  and  sobriety  itself,  compared  with  Mr.  Owen’s  inhabitants  of 
his  parallelograms;  compared  with  the  beautiful  men  and  women,  who 
will  swear  constancy,  till  death,  without  legal  marriage  or  alimony, 


APPENDIX. 


256 

and  who  will  have  neither  lust  nor  inconstancy,  wTien  they  woo  and 
wed  after  the  fashion  of  the  vernal  robins  and  sparrows.  What  shall 
we  predicate  of  a  system  which  proposes  to  govern  the  world  by  a  code 
ofiaws,  which  can  be  comprised  in  about  a  hundred  lines?  (Vide 
pages  49^  50,  51,  52.) 

“Sure  enough,  there  is  no  imagination  in  burning  the  Alexandrian 
library  and  the  pandects  and  rescripts  and  the  tomes  of  common  law’, 
and  civil  law,  and  “crown  quest  law,”  and  the  five  hundred  folios  of 
the  abridgement  of  the  abridged  cases  and  reports,  of  the  codes  of  the 
Grecian  legislators,  and  the  Roman  legislators,  and  the  Lockes  and 
Montesquieus  even  in  our  present  congress:  like  them  of  the  Grecian 
fable,  sowing  dragon’s  teeth,  and  seeing  a  generation  forthwith 
springing  up  from  the  seed,  at  once  quietists,  and  as  active  as  flame, 
led  full  with  the  “best  of  every  thing  for  human  nature,”  and  having 
no  labor,  but  what  is  made  a  pleasure;  nothing,  in  fact  to  do,  but  to 
sing,  love,  dance,  and  promenade,  and  who  yet,  without  a  God,  with¬ 
out  religion,  restraint,  praise  or  blame,  reward  or  punishment,  can  be 
kept  in  the  most  harmonious  and  angelic  order,  by  a  code  of  laws  com¬ 
prised  by  Mr.  Philosopher  Owen,  in  a  hundred  lines!  Surely  there 
is  no  imagination,  no  poetry,  no  fiction,  no  loans  from  the  fancy  in  all 
this.  We  have  Mr,  Owen’s  word  for  it — that  all  this  can  be  done — is 
just  on  the  eve  of  being  done,  and  will  assuredly  be  done.  When  it  is 
done— and  there  is  actually  such  a  sight — “may  1  be  there  to  see.” 
But  till  that  time,  we  throw  back  the  charge  of  drawing  from  the 
imagination,  upon  the  founder  of  this  system.” 

Dismissing  this  branch  of  the  metaphysics  and  of  the  speculations 
of  Mr.  Owen,  1  have  something  to  say  to  the  “ materialists ”  upon 
other  parts  of  their  system.  These  gentlemen,  so  fond  of  matter , 
give  to  it  what  they  refuse  to  mind.  They  say  that  every  particle  ot 
matter  has  a  self-determining  power.  It  always  existed,  and  will 
always  exist.  Every  particle  of  matter  is  self-existent,  and  eternal. 
Their  philosophy  is  a  chain  of  causes  and  effects  reaching  back 
without  beginning,  and  lorvvard  without  end.  No  first  cause  and  no 
last  cause  in  their  system.  Yet  it  seems  to  come  to  this  dilemma  at 
last : — Nothing  caused  something ,  or  Something  caused  itself.  Some- 
thing  struck  rae,  but  something  moved  that  something;  and  so  Lack 
we  go  for  ten  thousand  somethings;  still  wre  find  need  of  something  to 
move  tjie  last  in  the  series,  else  it  moved  itself.  If  it  did  not  move 
itself,  then  something  or  nothing  moved  it.  The  latter  is  absurd. 
Something,  then,  moved  the  first  something — and  that  is  what  the 
Christians  call  God.  If  the  progression  of  cause  and  effect  was  finite, 
says  the  philosopher,  then  you  have  proved  the  point.  “But  we  never 
c  n  get  back  to  the  first  something  because  the  progression  is  infi¬ 
nite.’’  This  will  not.  help,  you,  gentlemen.  For  if  you  cannot  travel 
back  to  the  first  something,  you  may  rest  assured  the  first  something 
never  could  have  travelled  down  to  you.  If  the  first  link  of  your 
chain  is  at  an  infinite  distance  back,  so  that  you  corvid  never  travel 
back  to  it,  no  part  of  it  could  have  reached  down  to  you. 


APPENDIX. 


267 


To  suppose  that  any  thing  made  itself,  is  to  suppose  that  it  existed 
before  it  made  itself,  which  is  what  we  call  absurd:  for  if  it  existed 
before  it  made  itself,  it  could  net  give  itself  existence,  which  is  all 
that  is  implied  in  creating. 

[f  the  whole  universe  exists  by  a  necessary  self-existent  power, 
then  all  the  parts  of  it  possess  this  self-existent  power;  but  this  is 
contrary  to  all  our  experience;  for  not  one  creature  possesses  it — all, 
we  see,  are  dependent.  Neither  of  these  hypotheses  will  bear  the 
test.  We  shall,  then,  try  whether  the  universe  could  have  existed 
from  eternity  upon  other  principles. 

We  have  two  ideas  of  eternity:  the  one  is  an  eternity  composed  of 
successive  periods — the  other,  an  eternity  without  succession.  The 
latter  is  the  Christian  idea — the  former  is  the  materialist  idea.  Now 
as  their  eternity  of  successive  periods  is  the  only  idea  which  the 
material  universe  suggests,  then  it  follows,  that,  when  we  contem¬ 
plate  the  earth  at  any  one  period  of  its  existence,  it  had  then  some 
relation  to  past  periods;  that  is,  it  had  finished  so  many  periods  at 
that  time,  its  past  existence  is  now  completed.  If,  then,  at  any 
past  period, of  its  existence,  it  began  to  be  related  to  past  duration, 
that  period  wras  the  commencement  of  its  existence.  But  if  it  did 
not,  at  any  past  period,  stand  related  to  any  past  duration,  it  does 
not  now  ;  but  that  it  does  now  stand  related  to  past  duration,  must  be 
admitted ;  it  must  therefore  always  have  stood  in  such  a  relation,  which 
precludes  the  idea  of  its  being  eternal.  Those  who  are  fond  of  me¬ 
taphysics  may  try  themselves  upon  the  following  demonstration.  It 
will  prove,  at  least,  that  time  had  a  beginning.  And  w  hat  was  prior, 
the  niateri  ilists  will  have  to  tell,  I  give  you  a  condensed  view  of  the 
argument  of  the  schools,  from  the  pen  of  James  Duncan  of  Indiana, 
published  in  1826: — 

“Unbounded  space  and  eternity  are  ideas  so  analogous  to  each 
other,  that  any  thing  that  tends  to  illustrate  the  one,  equally  tends  to 
elucidate  the  other. 

“Both  are  infinite.  Unbounded  space  cannot  be  all  divided  into 
pir.s;  neither  can  eternity.  If  a  body  of  any  definite  extension 
were  to  occupy  a  part  of  unbounded  space,  unbounded  space  would 
bo  no  less;  and  if  any  definite  period  were  taken  out  of  eternity, 
et  unity  would  be  no  shorter.  If  two  bodies  were  placed  at  any 
supposed  distance  from  each  other,  the  distance  could  not  be  infinite-, 
because  they  would  admit  ©f  space  beyond  them,  and  also  would 
admit  of  being  brought  together,  both  of  which  would  be  impossible, 
if  they  were  infinitely  distant  from  each  other.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  twro  imaginary  points  in  eternity,  however  distant  from  each 
other  we  might  suppose  them  to  be,  they  would  admit  of  durati.  n 
beyond  them  and  might  be  brought  together;  therefore,  could  not 
have  been  infinitely  distant.  Unbounded  space  has  no  circumfer¬ 
ence,  nor  no  centre;  neither  has  eternity.  Unbounded  space  has 
no  zenith,  no  nadir;  that  is,  no  extreme  point  above,  no  extreme 
point  below;  so  eternity,  considered  and  abstracted  from  time,  has 
no  past  duration  nor  future. 

VOL.  II. 


22* 


APPENDIX. 


25S 

“It  would  imply  a  contradiction  to  say,  that  even  God  himself 
could  place  two  globes  in  unbounded  space  at  an  infinite  distance 
apart,  because,  if  they  were  fixed  in  a  space  at  all,  they  would  have 
space  beyond  them,  and  would  admit  of  being  brought  together,  which 
c  >uld  not  be,  if  their  distances  were  infinite.  If  it  were  possible  for 
two  globes  to  be  placed  at  an  infinite  distance  from  each  other,  it 
would  imply  a  contradiction  in  terms  to  say  they  could  be  brought 
together;  it  would  be  the  same  as  to  say  they  had  passed  through, 
and  ended  a  course  that  was  endless. 

“It  would  be  a  contradiction  in  terms  to  say,  a  ball  could  be 
placed  at  an  infinite  distance  from  our  earth,  because,  however  dis¬ 
tant  it  might  be  placed,  it  would  admit  of  space  beyond  it,  and  could 
be  ma.de  to  pass  over  the  whoM  intermediate  space  and  reach  our 
earth. 

“But  suppose  it  possible  for  a  ball  to  be  placed  at  an  infinite  dis¬ 
tance  from  our  earth,  and  in  motion  towards  the  earth  when  at  its 
.greatest  distance,  it  could  never  reach  the  earth,  because  the  distance 
is  supposed  to  be  endless;  that  which  is  endless  cannot  be  ended. 
If  it  were  placed  at  the  greatest  possible  distance  from  the  earth  at  the 
same  time  in  motion  towards  the  earth,  its  very  motion  towards  the 
earth  would  leave  space  behind  it,  which  suppose  its  distance  could 
not  be  infinite.  Its  most  early  motion  towards  the  earth  would 
shorten  the  distance;  but  infinite  distance  cannot  be  shortened. — 
If  its  motion  were  to  be  continued,  it  would  actually  reach  the  earth, 
so  that  the  distance  could  not  have  been  infinite.  Suppose  the  ball 
to  actually  reach  the  earth,  and  made  to  travel  back  the  whole  route 
it  had  passed,  in  coming  to  the  earth;  the  query  is,  Would  it  ever 
finish  its  retrograde  journey  ?  All  will  admit,  that  if  the  distance  was 
finite  it  might,  but  if  infinite,  it  would  be  impossible.  The  conclusion 
then,  from  these  premises  is,  that  no  created  being  could  be  made  to 
occupy  a  place  or  station  at  an  infinite  distance  from  our  earth,  and 
to  assert  such  a  thing,  would  be  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

“If  we  apply  these  principles  relative  to  unbounded  space  to  un¬ 
bounded  duration,  they  will  go  to  show  that  our  world  could  not  have 
existed  from  eternity. 

“If  it  had  been  possible  for  the  world  to  have  existed  from  eternity, 
it  would  not  have  passed  down  through  infinite  duration  to  the  pres¬ 
ent  time.  That  which  is  endless  cannot  be  ended.  But  whatever 
the  past  age  of  the  world  has  been,  it  is  now  measured,  and  the  entire 
round  of  its  past  existence  is  now  ended ;  therefore,  it  could  not  have 
existed  from  eternity. 

“Wherever  we  date  the  primitive  existence  of  the  world,  its 
most  early  existence,  and  its  successive  progress  in  duration  towards 
the  present  time,  must  have  been  coincident  and  jwst  as  early  as 
the  world  existed ;  duration  was  then  changing  from  the  present  to 
the  past  tense,  so  that  in  its  most  early  existence  it  was  related  to 
past  time,  therefore  ©ould  pot  have  existed  from  eternity. 


APPENDIX* 


259 


“The  very  first  moment  of  time  that  elapsed,  made  the  succeed¬ 
ing  time  shorter.  Duration  that  is  capable  of  being  shortened  cannot 
be  infinite.  This  supposes  the  world  has  had  a  beginning,  and  has 
not  stood  from  eternity  because,  in  its  earliest  existence,  it  was 
related  to  past  time,  and  the  period  between  that  and  the  present 
time,  was  capable  of  being  shortened,  was  actually  shortened  and  at 
length  came  to  an  end. 

“If  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  we  suppose  the  world  to  take  a 
retrograde'. journey  through  ail  the  past  period  of  its  duration,  all  will 
admit,  that  if  its  past  duration  had  been  from  eternity,  it  could  never 
finish  its  journey  back,  because,  the  length  is  supposed  to  be  infinite, 
But.  if  its  past  duration  were  finite,  it  might  without  implying  any 
inconsistency  travel  the  whole  of  it  again.  . 

“The  above  demonstration  concludes  with  absolute  certainty,  that 
the  world  has  not  existed  from  eternity,  but  must  have  been  created. 
The  collective  evidence  from  the  whole  may  be  comprised  in  two 
arguments.  Whatever  the  past  age  of  the  world  has  been,  its 
past  age  has  now  completely  transpired,  so  that  nothing  of  it  remains, 
therefore,  it  could  not  have  been  infinite.  If  the  world  was  made 
to  travel  back  the  entire  period  of  its  past  existence,  it  could  never 
finish  it  if  it  had  existed  from  all  eternity. 

“Orj.  We  can  have  some  idea  of  a  body  travelling  through  space, 
•and  returning,  but  we  can  have  none  of  a  body  passing  through 
duration,  and  returning. 

“A vs.  The  validity  of  this  objection,  as  it  may  relate  to  the  power 
of  God,  cannot  he  admitted,  but  should  it  be  persisted  in,  the  transi¬ 
tion  is  easy  in  this  case  from  the  past  time  to  the  future,*  eternity 
past  is  no  longer  than  eternity  future.  The  world  has  travelled,  and 
actually  finished  its  past  duration,  whether  finite  or  infinite.  If  the 
past  duration  of  the  world  is  said  to  be  from  eternity,  the  query  now 
is,  eould  the  world  ever  travel  entirely  through  an  eternal  future  du- 
lation,  so  that  it  might  in  truth  be  affirmed,  as  in  the  former  case, 
that  its  future  existence  is  entirely  finished?  Every  candid  person 
will  say  that  it  would  he  impossible.  As  then,  it  never  can  be  true 
to  affirm,  that  the  world  has  existed  to  eternity,  or  that  it  has  finished 
an  eternal  future  existence,  it  cannot  be  true  to  say,  it  has  existed 
from  eternity,  or  finished  an  eternal  past  existence. 

“If  the  above  premises  are  fair,  and  the  conclusion  just,  the  only 
and  last  refugeof  modern  atheists  is  not  only  destroyed,  but  entirely 
annihilated,  so  that  it  never  can  with  confidence  be  resumed.  If 
then,  this  last  fortress  is  demolished,  we  are  conscious  of  no  other  to 
which  they  can  have  recourse,  but  must  be  shut  up  to  believe  in  a 
God,  and  also  that  he  has  created  the  universe  of  nature.” 

Before  time  matter  was  then  asleep,  and  Who  awaked  it  is  the 
question.  If  there  be  an  active  principle  in  matter,  this  principle 
must  be  distinct  from  it,  and  then  the  next  question,  What  is  the 
active  principle — matter  or  spirit?  Here  the  materialist’s  candle 
goeth  out  again,  and  so  ends  his  philosophy. 


2  60 


appendix; 


Dr.  George  Campbell  of  Aberdeen,  obliged  the  sceptic  Ilume  to  be¬ 
lieve  in  miracles  in  spite  of  him.  And  we  call  upon  the  sceptics,  one 
and  all,  to  show  how  they  can  avoid  it.  We  shall,  therefore,  let  them 
hear  the  Doctor: — 

“Abstracting from  the  evidence  for  particular  facts,  we  have  irrefraga¬ 
ble  evidence ,  that  there  have  been  miracles  in  former  times;  of  suck 
events  as,  when  compared  with  the  present  constitution  of  the  world 
would,  by  Mr .  Hume ,  be  denominated  miraculous. 

aI  readily  concur  with  Mr.  Hume  in  maintaining,  that  when,  merely 
by  the  force  of  reason,  we  attempt  to  investigate  the  origin  of  worlds, 
we  get  beyond  our  sphere,  and  must  infallibly  bewilder  ourselves  in 
hypothesis  and  conjecture.  Reason  indeed  (which  vainly  boasts  her 
all-sufficiency  )  has  sometimes  pretended  to  carry  men  to  this  amazing 
height.  But  there  is  ground  to  suspect,  that,  in  such  instances,  the 
ascent  of  reason,  as  the  author  elegantly  expresses  it,  has  been  aided 
by  the  wings  of  imagination.  If  we  will  not  be  indebted  to  revela¬ 
tion,  for  our  knowledge  of  this  article,  we  must,  for  aught  I  can  per¬ 
ceive,  be  satisfied  to  live  in  ignorance.  There  is,  however,  one  ques¬ 
tion  distinct  from  the  former,  though  akin  to  it,  which,  even  from  the 
principles  of  reason,  v/e  may  with  great  probability  determine.  The 
question  I  mean  is,  whether  the  world  had  an  origin  or  not? 

“That  there  has  been  an  infinite,  eternal,  and  independent  series  of 
finite,  successive,  and  dependant  beings,  such  as  men,  and  consequent¬ 
ly  that  the  world  had  no  beginning,  appears  from  the  bare  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  thing,  extremely  incredible,  if  not  altogether  absurd.  The 
abstract  argument  used  on  this  head,  might  appear  too  metaphysical 
arid  refined;  I  shall  not  therefore  introduce  it;  but  shall  recur  to  to¬ 
pics  which  are  more  familiar,  and  which,  though  they  do  not  demon¬ 
strate,  that  it  is  absolutely  impossible  that  the  world  has  existed  from 
eternity,  clearly  evince  that  it  is  highly  improbable,  or  rather,  certainly 
false.  These  topics  [  shall  only  mention,  as  they  are  pretty  obvious, 
and  have  been  often  urged  with  great  energy  by  the  learned,  both 
ancient  and  modern.  Such  are  the  late  invention  of  letters,  and  of  all 
the  sciences  arid  arts  by  which  human  life  is  civilized;  the  known 
origin  of  most  nations,  states,  and  kingdoms;  and  the  first  peopling  of 
many  countries.  It  is  in  our  power  at  present  to  trace  the  history  of 
every  people,  backwards  to  times  of  the  greatest  barbarity  and  ignor¬ 
ance.  Europe,  though  not  the  largest  of  the  four  parts  into  which  the 
earth  is  divided,  is,  on  many  accounts,  the  most  considerable.  But 
what  a  different  face  does  Enrope  wear  at  present,  from  what  it  wore 
three  thousand  years  ago?  How  immense  the  odds  in  knowledge,  in 
arts,  in  policy,  in  every  thing?  How  easy  is  the  intercourse,  and 
how  extensive  the  acquaintance,  which  men  can  now  enjoy  with  all, 
evert  the  remotest  regions  of  the  globe,  compared  with  what  was,  or 
could  have  been,  enjoyed,  in  shut  time  of  darkness  and  simplicity?  A 
inan  differs  not  more  from  a  clidd,  than  file  human  race  now,  differs 
from  the  human  race  then.  Three  thousand  years  ago,  appear  indeed 
to  mark  a  very  distant  epoch ;  and  yet  it  is  but  us  yesterday,  compared 


APPENDIX. 


261 


with  eternity.  This,  when  duly  weighed,  every  thinking  person  will 
acknowledge  to  be  as  strong  moral  evidence  as  the  subject  can  admit, 
{and  that  I  imagine  is  very  strong)  that  the  world  had  a  beginning. 

“X  shall  make  a  supposition,  which  will  perhaps  appear  whimsical, 
but  which  will  tend  to  elucidate  the  argument  I  am  enforcing.  In 
antediluvian  times,  when  the  longevity  of  man  was  such  as  to  include 
some  centuries,  i  shali  suppose,  that  a  few  boys  had  been  imported  to 
a  desert  island,  and  there  left  together,  just  old  enough  to  make  shift 
to  sustain  themselves,  as  those  in  the  golden  age  are  fabled  to  have 
done,  on  acorns,  and  other  spontaneous  productions  of  the  soil.  I  shall 
suppose,  that  they  had  lived  there  for  some  hundreds  of  years,  had 
remembered  nothing  of  their  coining  into  the  island,  nor  of  any  other 
person  whatsoever — and  that  thus  they  had  never  had  access  to  know, 
or  hear,  of  either  birth  or  death.  I  shall  suppose  them  to  enter  into 
a  serious  disquisition  concerning  their  own  duration,  the  question 
having  been  stated.  Whether  they  had  existed  from  eternity,  or  had 
once  begun  to  be?  They  recur  to  memory,  but  memory  can  furnish 
them  nothing  certain  or  decisive.  If  it  must  be  allowed  that  it  con¬ 
tains  no  trace  of  beginning  of  existence,  it  must  be  allowed,  that  it 
reaches  not  beyond  a  few  centuries  at  most.  They  observe  besides, 
concerning  this  faculty,  that  the  further  back  it  goes,  it  becomes  the 
more  indistinct,  terminating  at  last  in  confusion  and  darkness.  Some 
things  however  they  distinctly  recollect,  and  are  assured  of.  They 
remember  they  were  once  of  much  lower  stature,  and  of  smaller  size; 
they  had  less  bodily  strength;  all  their  mental  faculties  were  weaker. 
They  know  that,  in  the  powers  both  of  body  and  of  mind,  they  have 
advanced,  by  imperceptible  degrees,  to  the  pitch  they  are  now  arrived 
at.  These  considerations,  especially  when  fortified  by  some  anala- 
gous  observations  they  might  have  made  on  the  growth  of  herbs  and 
trees,  would  have  shown  the  probability  to  be  entirely  on  the  side  of 
those  who  asserted,  that  their  existence  had  a  beginning;  and  though, 
on  account  of  the  narrow  sphere  of  their  knowledge  and  experience  , 
the  argument  could  not  have  appeared  to  them  in  all  its  strength,  we, 
from  our  long  acquaintance  with  nature,  even  abstracting  from  our 
knowledge  of  man  in  particular,  must  be  satisfied,  thal  it  would  have 
been  strictly  analogical  and  just.  Exactly  similar ,  the  very  same,  l 
should  rather  say,  is  the  argument  I  have  been  urging  for  the  origin 
of  the  species.  Make  but  a  few  alterations  in  the  phraseology — for 
memory,  substitute  history  and  tradition ;  for  hundreds  of  years,  say 
thousands;  for  the  powers  of  body  and  mind,  put  the  arts  and  sciences; 
and,  with  these,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  more  such  variations,  you  will 
find  the  argument  as  applicable  in  the  one  case,  as  in  the  other.  Now, 
if  it  be  granted,  that  the  human  species  must  have  had  a  beginning,  ir 
will  hardly  be  questioned,  that  every  other  animal  species,  or  even 


the 


Jim  verse, 


must  have  had  a  beginning. 


that 

“But  in  order  to  prove  the  proposition  laid  down  in  the  title  of  this 
section,  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  world  had  a  beginning. 
Admit  it  had  not,  and  observe  the  consequence.  Thus  much  must 
be  admitted  also,  that  not  barely  for  a  long  continued,  but  for  an  eter- 


262 


APPENDIX. 


J?al  succession  of  generations,  mankind  were  in  state  little  superior 
to  beasts;  that,  of  a  sudden,  there  came  a  most  astonishing  change 
upon  the  species;  that  they  exerted  talents  and  capacities,  of  which 
there -appeared  not  the  smallest  vestige,  during  the  eternity  preceding; 
that  they  acquired  such  knowledge  as  procured  them  a  kind  of  empire, 
not  only  over  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds,  but  even,  in  some  re¬ 
spects,  over  the  elements,  and  all  the  unwieldy  powers  of  matter;  that, 
in  consequence  of  this,  they  were  quickly  raised,  much  more  above 
the  state  they  had  been  formerly  and  eternally  in,  than  such  their 
former  and  eternal  state  was  above  that  of  the  brute  creation.  If  such 
a  revolution  in  nature,  such  a  thorough,  general,  and  sudden  change 
as  this,  would  not  be  denominated  miraculous,  it  is  not  in  my  power  to 
conceive  what  would.  1  could  not  esteem  it  a  greater  miracle,  hardly 
so  great,  that  any  species  of  beasts,  which  have  hitherto  been  doomed 
to  tread  the  earth,  should  now  get  wings,  and  float  about  in  the  air. 

“Nor  will  this  plea  be  subverted  by  that  trite  objection,  That  man¬ 
kind  may  have  been  as  much  enlightened,  perhaps  myriads  of  years 
ago,  asthey  are  at  present;  but  that  by  some  universal  calamity ,  such 
as  deluge  or  conflagration,  which,  after  the  rotation  of  many  centuries, 
the  earth  possibly  becomes  liable  to,  all  traces  of  erudition  and  of  sci¬ 
ence,  all  traces  both  of  the  elegant  and  of  the  useful  arts,  may  have 
been  effaced,  and  the  human  race,  springing  from  a  few  who  had  esca¬ 
ped  the  common  ruin,  may  have  emerged,  anew,  out  of  barbarity'  and 
ignorance.  This  hypothesis  does  but  substitute  one  miracle  in  the 
place  of  another.  Such  general  disorder  is  entirely  unconformable  to 
our  experience  of  the  course  of  nature.  Accordingly  the  destruction 
*jf  the  world  by  a  deluge,  the  author  has  numbered  among  those 
prodigies,  or  miracles,  which  render  the  Pentateuch  perfectly  incred¬ 
ible. 

“If,  on  the  contrary7-*  we  admit  that  the  world  had  a  beginning,  (and 
will  not  every  thinking  person  acknowledge  that  this  position  is  much 
more  probable  than  the  contrary?)  the  production  of  the  world  must 
be  ascribed  either  to  chance ,  or  to  intelligence. 

“Shall  we  derive  all  things,  spiritual  and  corporeal,  from  a  principle 
so  insignificant  as  blind  chance?  Shall  we  say7,  with  Epicurus,  that 
the  fortuitous  course  of  rambling  atoms  has  reared  this  beautiful  and 
stupendous  fabric?  In  that  case,  perhaps,  we  should  give  an  account 
of  the  origin  of  things,  which,  most  people  will  think,  could  not  proper¬ 
ly  be  styled  miraculous.  But  is  it,  because  the  formation  of  a  grand 
and  regular  system  in  this  way,  is  conformable  to  the  experienced  or¬ 
der  of  nature?  Quite  the  reverse.  Nothing  can  be  more  repugnant  to 
universal  experience,  than  that  the  least  organic  body,  not  to  mention 
the  glorious  frame  of  nature,  should  be  produced  by  such  a  casual 
jumble,  It  has,  therefore,  in  the  highest  degree  possible,  that  particu¬ 
lar  quality  of  miracles,  from  which,  according  to  the  author’s  theory7, 
their  incredibility  results;  and  may  doubtless,  in  this  loose  acceptation 
of  the  word,  be  termed  miraculous.  But  should  we  affirm  that,  to  ac 
count  thus  for  the  origin  of  the  universe,  is  to  recount  for  it  by  miracle ; 
we  should  be  thought,  I  am  afraid,  to  speak  both  weakly  and  impre- 


APPENDIX. 


2£3 

pferly.  There  is  something  here,  if  I  may  so  express  myself,  which 
«is  far  beyond  the  miraculous;  something,  for  which  I  know  not  whe- 
ther  any  language  can  afford  a  proper  appellation,  unless  it  be  the  gen- 
eral  appellations  of  absurdity  and  nonsense. 

“Shall  we  then  at  last  recur  to  the  common  doctrine,  that  the  world 
was  produced  by  an  intelligent  cause?  On  this  supposition  also, 
though  incomparably  the  most  rational,  it  is  evident,  that,  in  the  cre¬ 
ation,  formation,  or  first  production  of  things,  call  it  by  what  name 
you  please,  a  power  must  have  been  exerted,  which,  in  respect  of  the 
present  course  of  nature,  may  be  styled  miraculous.  I  intend  not  to 
dispute  about  a  word,  nor  inquire,  whether  that  term  can,  in  strict  pro¬ 
priety,  be  used  of  any  exertions  before  the  establishment  of  the  laws 
of  nature.  I  use  the  word  in  the  same  latitude  in  which  the  author 
commonly  uses  it  in  his  reasoning,  for  every  event  that  is  not  con¬ 
formable  to  that  course  of  nature  with  which  we  are  acquainted  by 
experience. 

“Whether,  therefore,  the  world  had,  or  had  not  a  beginning;  whe¬ 
ther,  on  the  first  supposition,  the  production  of  things  be  ascribed  to 
chance  or  to  design;  whether,  on  the  second ,  in  order  to  solve  the 
numberless  objections  that  arise,  we  do ,  or  do  not ,  recur  to  universal 
catastrophes;  there  is  no  possibility  of  accounting  for  the  phenomena 
that  presently  come  under  our  notice,  without  having  at  last  recourse 
to  miracles  ;  that  is,  to  events  altogether  unconformable,  or,  if  you 
will,  contrary  to  the  present  course  of  nature  known  to  us  by  expe¬ 
rience.  I  cannot  conceive  an  hypothesis,  which  is  not  reducible  to 
one  or  other  of  those  above  mentioned.  Whoever  imagines  that  ano¬ 
ther  might  be  framed,  which  is  not  comprehended  in  any  of  those, 
and  which  has  not  as  yet  been  devised  by  any  system-builder;  let  hipn 
make  the  experiment,  and  I  will  venture  to  prognosticate,  that  he  will 
still  find  himself  clogged  with  the  same  difficulty.  The  conclusjop 
therefore  above  deduced,  may  be  justly  deemed,  till  the  contrary  is 
shown,  to  be  not  only  the  result  of  one,  but  alike  of  every  hypothesis, 
of  which  the  subject  is  susceptible.  / 

“Thus  it  has  been  evinced,  as  wras  proposed,  that  abstracting  from 
the  evidence  for  particular  facts,  we  have  irrefragable  evidence  that 
there  have  been,  that  there  must  have  been,  miracles  in  former  times, 
or  such  events,  as  when,  compared  with  the  present  constitution  of 
the  world ,  would  by  Mr.  Hume  be  denominated  miraculous/’ 

And  here  we  bid  Mr.  Owen  farewel.  He  is,  I  believe,  entitled  to  the 
honor  of  having  originated  the  first  infant  school.  He  is  as  zealous  as 
those  who  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  a  proselyte ;  and  whether  his 
proselytes  are  likely  to  be  as  useful  in  this  world,  and  as  happy  in  the 
next,  as  those  of  the  old  Sadducees,  we  shall  all  know  long  before  his 
visionary  and  Utopian  projects  are  realized. 


•  5  '  ",  r  '  ,  .  1 ' 


■  its 


■  ■  .  ,5 

■ 


,  -  ,,  ,,  .  ,~.v 


■  ‘  ■  •  ‘.v.  '  .<■ 

' 

. 

' 


■ 


'(Hr 


rV.it  ' 


‘4 


* 

* 

I 

s 

' 


. 

. 

.....  '  '  '  '  '•  ”  •<-.  ■'  / 

■  -  '.y  ; 


4 


■1  i 


JMW  -  • 

*?..  ■  •.$  v  i'  . 

T-  Z'y’.  ;  ,  ■  ,  ■  ■ 


,  1  ,  .  (fa  '4w  • 

. 

"  & 

^  \  ^'KpV  {V* 

!•*'  ■  r'*j 

r<  &  * 

.  V'  '  ;•«{  • 

;•  'M ijii  i 

. 

• 

. 

*  • 

0!  \ 

“A  l.;W! 

. 

» 

. 

' 

jV«^  »$} 

i  i+iil  H.  '--;  *v&6i 

' 

*  '✓  V. 

i  i:*'v 

tf  ' 


i 

1  't'X."  i*?  l  ;i 

r  :  fv>  ,.i  i  i-  ■  ■  ' 

, '  ■.  ,iv 


*■••#  ■  'i:iU 

i.  $}’*£$  ' 

.  ;■  .  \  >/  *  ■  •  ,v  j  ••  ■■ 

.*  »vv 

r  •  ■  ' 

'4 


. 

jr.  jfe  ■ 

i' 


I 


V' ' 


■  wm  r  ,c 


■*v. 


X- 


?¥ 


»♦ 


. . .:  ,  ■•"  v> vf '*  "  ■ 


'  j  j 


ADDENDA. 


FACTS  AND  DOCUMENTS, 

In  corroboration  of  the  arguments  exhibited  in  the  foregoing  work,  in 
defence  of  the  Divine  Origin  of  Christianity. 

HAVING  a  few  evenings  ago  the  pleasure  of  holding  a  conversation 
in  writing,  with  George  W.  Stcenrod,  of  Ohio  county,  Va.  a  young 
man  deaf  and  dumb,  who  has  been  a  student  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Institution  for  the  deaf  and  dumb;  I  proposed  to  him  among  others, 
the  following  questions.  These  questions  were  proposed  in  writing, 
with  a  view  of  corroborating  my  argument  deduced  from  the  impos¬ 
sibility  of  originating  the  idea  of  God,  of  any  spiritual  existence,  or 
a  future  state  independent  of  revelation.  He  is  a  young  man  of  an 
acute  understanding  and  a  very  retentive  memory,  now  in  his  seven¬ 
teenth  year.  Iie  gave  me  the  following  written  answers: — 

Query  1. — Before  you  went  to  the  Pennsylvania  institution  for  the 
deaf  and  dumb,  had  you  any  idea  of  God,  of  the  creation,  or  of  the 
beginning  of  all  things? 

Answer. — “As  I  was  not  acquainted  with  religion  before  I  went  to 
that  school,  I  had  not  any  idea  of  God.  I  was  there  taught  that  there 
was  a  God,  I  knew  nothing  of  the  creation  or  beginning  of  things. 

I  thought  that  the  soil  and  the  sun  produced  every  thing;  1  thought 
the  sun  created  all  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  storms. 

Query  2. — Did  you  think  any  thing  about  the  spirits  of  men,  or 
had  you  an  idea  that  men  possessed  spirits? 

Answer. — I  do  not  recollect  of  ever  having  thought  any  thing  about 
men’s  spirits.  I  saw  that  men  were  superior  to  other  animals,  and 
also  that  they  were  superior  to  one  another,  but  how  they  became  so 
I  had  no  thought;  I  saw  that  other  creatures  could  not  read  nor  wrifb, 
and  I  could  not  read  nor  write  more  than  they.  From  this  I  saw 
that  some  men  were  superior  to  some  animals  and  to  some  men ;  but 
even  yet  I  know  but  little  about  men’s  spirits. 

Query  3. — What  did  you  think  became  of  men  after  death? 

Answer. — I  had  not  any  thought  nor  idea  of  what  became  of  men 
after  death.  Some  persons  by  signs  taught  me  that  there  was  a  devil 
in  hell,  who  lived  with  wicked  people;  but  of  that  I  was  always 
doubtful. 

Query  4.— What  did  you  think  of  the  sun,  and  moon,  and  stars  ? 

Answer. — I  thought  the  sun  was  our  most  powerful  king,  who 
governed  over  all  things;  all  the  creatures,  and  all  mankind,  I 
thought  the  moon  was  his  wife,  and  the  stars  their  children;  that  they 
ruled  in  alternate  service;  that  the  moon  took  care  and  governed  by 
night,  and  the  sun  by  day.  I  thought  the  sun  looked  tyrannical  and 
was  sometimes  oppressive,  in  the  heat  of  summer  and  in  the  cold  of 
winter.  Sometimes  he  appeared  unkind  and  would  not  give  us  pro¬ 
duce  for  our  labor,  or  allow  us  to  preserve  for  our  comfort  what  we 
VOL.  lie  23 


ADDENDA. 


2m 

had  gathered.  He  seemed  to  announce  the  coming  of  the  storms, 
and  to  order  us  to  take  shelter  from  them.  But  if  we  did  not  take 
shelter  he  would  kindle  into  rage  and  threaten  to  kill  us  by  strokes  of 
lightning.  I  am  thankful  that  ever  I  was  taught  to  read  and  write, 
especially  that  I  can  read  the  Bible.  It  was  naturally  surprizing  for 
me  to  think  about  the  things  which  it  made  me  acquainted  with,  all 
of  which  were  strange  and  wonderful  to  me. 

These  questions  were  proposed  tome  on  the  30th  of  August.  1829, 
by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Campbell. 

G.  W.  STEENROD 

* 

COMPARISON  BETWEEN  CHRIST  AND  MAIIOMET. 

By  Bishop  Porteus,  page  72 — 92. 

“There  is  a  religion  in  the  world,  called  the  Mahometan,  which  is 
professed  in  one  part  of  Europe,  and  most  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa. 

The  founder  of  this  religion,  Mahomet,  pretended  to  be  a  prophet  sent 
from  God;  but  it  is  universally  allowed,  by  all  who  are  not  Mahomet¬ 
ans,  and  who  have  searched  very  carefully  into  the  pretensions  of  this 
teacher,  that  lie  was  an  enthusiast  and  an  impostor,  and  that  his  re¬ 
ligion  was  a  contrivance  of  his  own.  Even  those  who  reject  Christi¬ 
anity,  do  not  think  Mahometanism  to  be  true;  nor  do  we  ever  hear  of 
a  deist  embracing  it  from  conviction. 

“Here,  then,  we  have  two  religions  co-existing  together  in  the  world, 
and  both  pretending  to  be  revelations  from  Heaven;  one  of  these  we 
know  to  be.  a  fraud,  the  other  we  affirm  and  believe  to  be  true.  If  this 
be  so,  upon  comparing  them  and  their  authors  together,  we  may  ex¬ 
pect  to  find  a  most  marked  and  essential  difference  between  them, 
such  difference  as  may  naturally  be  supposed  to  exist  between  an 
impostor  and  a  divine  teacher,  between  truth  and  falsehood.  And  this, 

I  apprehend,  will  appear  to  be  actually  the  case  with  respect  to  Christ 
and  Mahomet,  and  their  respective  religions. 

“Mahomet  was  a  man  of  considerable  rank  in  his  own  country;  he 
was  the  grandson  of  a  man  of  the  most  powerful  and  honorable  family 
in  Mecca,  and  though  not  born  to  a  great  fortune,  he  soon  acquired 
one  by  marriage.  These  circumstances  would  of  themselves,  without 
any  supernatural  assistance,  greatly  contribute  to  the  success  of  his 
religion.  A  person  considerable  by  his  wealth,  of  high  descent,  and 
nearly  allied  to  the  chiefs  of  his  country,  taking  upon  himself  the 
character  of  a  religious  teacher,  in  an  age  of  ignorance  and  barbarism, 
could  not  fail  of  attracting  attention  and  followers. 

“Christ  did  not  possess  these  advantages  of  rank  and  wealth,  and 
powerful  connexions.  He  was  born  of  parents  in  a  very  mean  con¬ 
dition  of  life,  liis  relations  and  friends  were  all  in  the  same  humble 
situation ;  he  was  bred  up  in  poverty  and  continued  in  it  all  his  life, 
having  frequently  no  place  where  he  could  lay  his  head.  A  man  so 
circumstanced  was  not  likely,  by  his  own  personal  influence,  to  force 
anew  religion,  much  less  a  false  one,  upon  the  world. 

“Mahomet  indulged  himself  in  the  grossest  pleasures,  He  perpetu¬ 
ally  transgressed  eveq  those  licentious  rules  which  he  had  prescribed 


ADDENDA. 


267 


*o  himself.  He  made  use  of  the  power  which  he  had  acquired,  to  grat  ify 
his  passions  without  control,  and  laid  claim  to  a  special  permission 
from  heaven  to  riot  in  the  most  unlimited  sensuality. 

‘•Jesus,  on  the  contrary,  preserved  through  life  the  most  unblemish¬ 
ed  purity  and  sanctity  of  manners.  lie  did  no  sin,  but  was  perfectly 
holy  and  undefiled.  Not  the  least  stain  was  ever  thrown  on  his  moral 

character  bv  his  bitterest  enemies. 

•/ 

“Mahomet  was  violent,  impetuous,  and  sanguinary. 

“Christ  was  meek,  gentle,  benevolent,  and  merciful. 

“Mahomet  pretended  to  have  secret  communications  with  Cod,  and 
with  the  angel  Gabriel,  which  no  other  person  ever  saw  or  heard. 

“Jesus  was  repeatedly  declared  to  be  the  Son  ofGodTay  voices  from 
heaven,  which  were  plainly  and  distinctly  heard  and  recorded  by 
others. 

*  “The  appearance  of  Mahomet  was  not  foretold  by  ancient  prophe¬ 
cies,  nor  was  there  at  the  time  any  expectation  of  such  a  person  in  that 
part  of  the  world. 

“The  appearance  of  Christ  upon  earth  was  clearly  and  repeatedly 
•predicted  by  several  ancient  prophecies,  which  most  evidently  appli¬ 
ed  to  him  and  to  no  other;  and  which  were  in  the  keeping  of  those 
who  were  professed  enemies  to  him  and  his  religion.  And  there  was 
at  the  time  of  his  birth  a  general  expectation  over  all  the  east,  that 
some  great  and  extraordinary  personage  would  then  manifest  himself 
to  the  world. 

“Mahomet  never  presumed  to  foretel  any  future  events,  for  this 
plain  reason, because  he  could  not  foresee  them;  and  had  he  foretold 
any  thing  which  did  not  come  to  pass,  it  must  have  entirely  ruined  his 
credit  with  his  followers. 

“Christ  foretold  many  things  which  did  actually  come  to  pass,  par¬ 
ticularly  his  own  death  and  resurrection,  and  the  destruction  of  Jeru¬ 
salem. 

“Mahomet  never  pretended  to  work  miracles;  on  the  contrary,  he 
expressly  disclaimed  any  such  power,  and  makes  several  labored  and 
awkward  apologies  for  not  possessing  it. 

“Jesus,  we  all  know,  worked  a  great  number  of  most  astonishing 
miracles  in  the  open  face  of  day,  and  in  the  sight  of  great  multitudes 
of  people.  He  made  the  deaf  to  hear,  the  dumb  to  speak,  the  lame  to 
walk,  the  blind  to  see,  and  even  the  dead  to  rise  from  the  grave. 

“Mahomet,  during  the  first  twelve  years  of  his  mission,  made  use 
only  of  argument  and  persuasion,  and  in  consequence  of  that  gained 
very  few  converts.  In  three  years  he  made  only  fourteen  proselytes, 
and  in  seven  only  eighty-three  men  and  eighteen  women. 

“In  the  same  space  of  time  our  Saviour  and  his  apostles  converted 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  and  spread  the  Christian  religion  over 
a  great  part  of  Asia. 

“Mahomet  told  the  Jews,  the  Christians,  and  the  Arabs,  that  he 
taught  no  other  religion  than  that  which  was  originally  taught  to  their 
forefathers,  by  Abraham,  Ishmael,  Moses,  and  Jesus.  This  would 
-naturally  prejudice  them  in  favor  of  his  religion. 


ADDENDA. 


“Christ  preached  a  religion  which  directly  opposed  the  most  favor 
ite  opinions  and  prejudices  of  the  Jews,  and  subverted,  from  the  foun¬ 
dation,  the  whole  system  of  Pagan  superstition. 

“Mahomet  paid  court  to  the  peculiar  weaknesses  and  propensities  of 
his  disciples.  In  that  warm  climate,  where  all  the  passions  are  ardent 
and  violent,  he  allowed  them  a  liberal  indulgence  in  sensual  gratifica¬ 
tions;  no  less  than  four  wives  to  each  of  his  followers,  with  liberty  of 
divorcing  them  thrice. 

“In  the  same  climate,  and  among  nlen  of  the  same  strong  passions, 
Jesus  most  peremptorily  restrained  all  his  followers  from  adultery, 
fornication,  every  kind  of  impurity.  He  confined  them  to  one  wife, 
and  forbade  divorce,  except  for  adultery  only.  Bat  what  was  stfU 
more,  he  required  them  to  govern  their  eyes  and  their  thoughts,  and 
to  check  the  very  first  rising  of  criminal  desire  in  the  soul.  He  told 
mem,  that  whoever  looked  upon  a  woman,  to  lust  after  her,  had  com¬ 
mitted  adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart;  and  he  assured  them 
that  none  but  the  pure  in  heart  should  see  God.  He  declared  open 
war,  in  short,  against  all  the  criminal  passions,  and  evil  inclinations  of 
mankind,  and  expressly  required  all  his  followers  to  renounce  those 
favorite  sins  that  did  most  easily  beset  them ;  nay,  even  to  leave  father, 
mother,  brethren,  sisters,  houses,  lands,  and  every  thing  that  was  most 
dear  to  them,  and  take  up  their  cross  and  follow  him. 

“With  the  same  view  above  mentioned,  of  bribing  men  to  embrace 
his  religion,  Mahomet  promised  to  reward  his  followers  with  the  de¬ 
lights  of  a  most  voluptuous  paradise,  where  the  objects  of  their  affection 
were  to  be  almost  innumerable,  and  all  of  them  gifted  with  transcend- 
ant  beauty  a  nd  eternal  youth. 

“Christ  entirely  precluded  his  disciples  from  all  hopes  of  sensual 
indulgences  hereafter,  assuring  them  that  in  heaven  they  should 
neither  marry  nor  be  given  in  marriage,  and  promising  them  nothing 
hut  pure  celestial  spiritual  joys,  such  as  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  nor  the  heart  of  man  conceived. 

“Besides  the  powerful  attractions  of  sensual  delights,  Mahomet  had 
.mother  still  more  efficacious  mode  of  producing  conviction,  and  gain¬ 
ing  proselytes;  and  that  was  force,  violence,  and  arms.  He  propa¬ 
gated  his  religion  by  the  sword;  and,  till  lie  made  use  of  that  instru¬ 
ment  of  conversion,  the  number  of  his  proselytes  was  a  mere  nothing. 
He  was  at  once  a  prophet,  a  warrior,  a  general,  and  a  conqueror.  It 
was  at  the  head  of  bis  armies  that  he  preached  the  Koran.  His  re¬ 
ligion  and  his  conquests  went  on  together;  and  the  former  never 
advanced  one  step  without  the  latter.  He  commanded  in  person  in 
eight  general  engagements,  and  undertook,  by  himself  and  his  lieu¬ 
tenants,  fifty  military  enterprises.  Death  or  conversion  was  the  only 
choice  offered  to  idolaters,  and  tribute  or  conversion  to  Jews  and 
Christians. 

“Jesus  employed  no  other  means  of  converting  men  to  his  religion, 
but  persuasion,  argument,  exhortation,  miracles,  and  prophecies. 
He  made  use  of  no  other  force  but  the  force  of  truth ;  no  other  sword 
but  the  sword  of  the  Spirit;  that  is,  the  word  of  God,  He  had  no 


ADDENDA. 


2G9 


arms,  no  legions  to  fight  his  cause.  He  was  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and 
preached  peace  to  all  the  world.  Without  power,  without  support, 
without  any  followers  but  twelve  poor  humble  men,  without  one  cir¬ 
cumstance  of  attraction,  influence,  or  compulsion,  he  triumphed  over 
the  prejudices,  the  learning,  the  religion  of  his  country;  over  the 
ancient  rites,  idolatry  and  superstition,  over  the  philosophy,  wisdom, 
and  authority  of  the  whole  Roman  empire. 

“The  great  object  of  Mahomet  was  to  make  bis  followers  soldiers, 
and  to  inspire  them  with  a  passion  for  violence,  bloodshed,  vengeance, 
and  persecution.  He  was  continually  exhorting  them  to  fight  for  the 
religion  of  God;  and,  to  encourage  them  to  do  so,  he  promised  them 
the  highest  honors,  and  the  richest  rewards,  in  paradise:  ‘They  who 
have  suffered  for  my  sake,  and  have  been  slain  in  battle,  verily  I  will 
expiate  their  evil  deeds  from  them,  and  I  will  surely  bring  them  into  a 
garden,  watered  by  rivers,  a  reward  from  God,  and  with  God  is  most 
excellent  reward1 — Koran,  chap.  3,  p.  91,  and  chap.  9,  p.  242.  This 
duty  of  warring  against  infidels  is  frequently  inculcated  in  the  Koran, 
and  highly  magnified  by  the  Mahometan  divines,  who  call  the  sword 
the  key  of  heaven  and  hell,  and  persuade  their  people  that  the  least 
drop  of  blood  spilt  in  the  way  of  God,  as  it  is  called,  is  most  acceptable 
unto  him;  and  that  the  defending  the  territories  of  the  Moslems  for 
one  night,  is  of  more  avail  than  a  fast  of  two  months.  It  is  easy  to  see 
to  what  degree  of  fierceness  this  must  raise  all  the  furious  vindictive 
passions  of  the  soul,  and  what  a  horde  of  savages  and  barbarians  it 
must  let  loose  upon  mankind. 

“The  directions  of  Christ  to  his  disciples  were  of  a  different  tem¬ 
per.  He  positively  forbade  them  the  use  of  any  violence  whatever. 
The  sword  that  was  drawn  by  one  of  them  in  his  defence,  he  ordered 
to  be  sheathed:  ‘Put  up  thy  sword  within  the  sheath;  they  that  use 
the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword1 — Mat.  xxvi.  52.  He  would  not 
consent  to  bring  down  fire  from  heaven  on  the  Samaritans,  who  had 
refused  to  receive  him:  ‘The  Son  of  Man,1  he  told  them,  ‘came  not  to 
destroy  men’s  lives  but  to  save  them.  Peace  I  leave  with  with  you ; 
mv  peace  I  give  unto  yau.  Do  violence  to  no  man;  resist  not  evil. 
Be  ye  merciful,  even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  merciful.  Blessed 
are  the  merciful  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy1 — Luke,  ix.  55;  John, 
xiv.  27 ;  Luke,  iii.  14;  Mat.  v.  39;  Luke  vi.  35;  Mat.  v.  7. 

“The  consequence  was,  that  the  first  followers  of  Mahomet  were 
men  of  cruelty  and  violence,  living  by  rapine,  murder,  and  plunder. 

“The  first  followers  of  Jesus  were  men  of  meek,  quiet,  inoffensive, 
peaceable  manners,  and  in  their  morals  irreproachable  and  exemplary. 

“If  now,  after  comparing  together  the  authors  of  the  two  religions  we 
have  been  considering,  we  take  a  short  view  of  the  sacred  books  of 
those  religions,  the  Koran  and  the  Gospel,  we  shall  find  a  difference 
no  less  striking  between  them;  no  less  strongly  marking  the  truth  of 
one,  and  the  falsehood  of  the  other. 

“'Piie  Koran  is  highly  applauded,  both  by  Mahomet  himself  and  his 
followers,  for  the  exquisite  beauty,  purity,  and  elegance  of  the  language 
YOL.  it.  23* 


ADDENDA. 


<*/ 


70 


which  they  represent  as  a  standing  miracle,  greater  than  even  th$t  of 
raising  the  dead.  But  admitting  its  excellence,  (which  yet  has  been 
questioned  by  several  learned  men,)  ifbeauty  of  style  and  composition 
is  to  be  considered  as  a  proof  of  divine  inspiration,  the  writings  of 
Plato  and  Xenophon,  of  Cicero,  and  Cesar,  and  a  multitude  of  other 
inimitable  writers  in  various  languages,  will  have  as  just  a  claim  to  a 
miraculous  origin  as  the  Koran.  But  in  truth,  these  graces  of  diction, 
so  far  from  being  a  circumstance  favorable  to  the  Koran,  create 
a  strong  suspicion  of  its  being  a  human  fabrication,  calculated  to  charm 
and  captivate  men  by  the  arts  of  rhetoric  and  the  fascination  of  words, 
and  thus  draw  off  their  attention  from  the  futility  of  its  matter,  and  the 
weakness  of  its  pretensions.  These  are  the  artifices  of  fraud  and 
falsehood.  The  gospel  wants  it  not.  It  disdains  the  aid  of  human 
eloquence,  and  depends  solely  on  the  force  of  truth  and  the  power  of 
God  for  its  success.  ‘I  came  not,’  as  St.  Paul  sublimely  expresses 
himself,  ‘with  excellency  of  speech,  nor  with  the  enticing  words  of 
man’s  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  power,  that  your 
faith  might  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  wisdom  of  God.’ 
—1  Cor.  ii.  1, 4,  5. 

“But,  whatever  may  be  the  purity  of  the  language,  the  matter  and 
substance  of  the  Koran  cannot  bear  a  moment’s  comparison  with  that 
of  the  Gospel.  The  narrative  is  dull,  heavy,  monotonous,  uninterest¬ 
ing;  loaded  with  endless  repetitions,  witn  senseless  and  preposterous 
fables,  with  trivial  disgusting,  and  even  immoral  precepts.  Add  to 
this,  that  is  has  very  little  novelty  or  originality  to  recommend  it,  the 
most  material  parts  of  it  being  borrowed  from  the  Old  Testament  or 
the  New;  and  even  these  are  so  disguised  or  deformed  by  passing 
through  the  hands  of  the  impostor,  (who  vitiates  and  debases  every 
thing  he  touches)  that  you  can  hardly  kuow  them  to  be  the  same  inci¬ 
dents  or  transactions  that  you  read  with  so  much  delight  in  the  Bible. 

“The  gospel  on  the  contrary,  is  every  where  concise,  simple,  origi¬ 
nal,  animated,  interesting,  dignified ;  its  prcceptsdmportant,  its  moral¬ 
ly  perfect,  its  sentiments  sublime,  its  views  noble  and  comprehensive, 
its  sanctions  awful. 


“In  the  Koran,  Mahomet  is  perpetually  boasting  of  his  own  merits 
and  achievements,  and  the  supreme  excellence  of  his  book.  In  the 
Gospel^  no  encomiums  are  bestowed  by  the  evangelists,  either  on  them¬ 
selves,  or  their  writings.  Even  the  virtues  of  their  divine  Master  are 
not  distinctly  specified,  or  brought  forward  into  a  conspicuous  point 
of  view.  It  is  from  his  actions  only,  and  his  discourses,  not  from  the 
observations  of  his  historians,  that  we  can  collect  the  various  trans- 
eendant  excellencies  of  his  character.  Here  we  plainly  see  the  so¬ 
ber  modest  v  of  truth  opposed  to  the  ostentatious  va  nity  of  imposture, 
“In  the  description  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  the  Koran 
is  minute,  circumstantial,  ahd extravagant,  both  in  painting  the  hor¬ 
rors  of  the  one  and  the  delights  of  the  other.  It  describes  things  which 
•  cannot  and  ought  nor  to  he  described,  and  enters  into  details  too  lior* 
r; hie.  or  too  licentious  to  be  presented  to  the  Iranian  mind. 


ADDENDA. 


271 


•<*Jn  the  Gospel,  the  pains  and  the  pleasures  of  a  future  life  are  re¬ 
presented  concisely,  in  strong,  but  general  and  indefinite  terms,  suffi¬ 
cient  to  give  them  a  powerful  but  not  an  overwhelming  influence  on 
the  mine. 

“There  is  still  another,  and  a  very  material  mark  of  discrimination 
between  the  Koran  and  the  Gospel.  Mahomet  shows  throughout 
the  utmost  anxiety  to  guard  against  objections,  to  account  for  his 
working  no  miracles,  and  to  defend  his  conduct,  in  several  instances, 
against  the  charges  which  he  suspects  may  be  brought  against  him, 
This  is  always  the  case  with  imposture.  It  is  always  suspicious, 
afraid  of  being  detected,  alive  to  every  appearance  of  hostility,  soli- 
citous  to  anticipate  and  eager  to  repel  the  accusations  of  enemies. 

“Truth  has  no  occasion  for  such  precautions,  and  therefore  never 
uses  them.  We  see  nothing  of  this  sort  in  the  Gospel.  The  saerfed 
historians  show  not  the  smallest  solicitude,  nor  take  the  least  nains  to 

_  '  4 

obviate  cavils  or  remove  difficulties.  They  relate  plainly  and  simply 
what  they  know  to  be  true.  They  entertain  no  doubt  of  it  themselves* 
and  seem  to  have  no  suspicion  that  any  one  else  can  doubt  it;  they 
therefore  leave  the  facts  to  speak  f  jr  themselves,  and  send  them  unpro¬ 
tected  into  the  world,  to  make  their  way  (as  they  have  done)  by  their 
own  native  force  and  incontrovertible  truth. 

“Such  are  the  leading  features  of  Mahomet  and  his  religion  on/  the 
one  hand,  and  of  Christ  and  his  religion  on  the  other;  and  never  was 
there  a  stronger  or  more  striking  contrast  seen  than  in  this  instance. 
They  are,  in  short,  in  every  essential  article,  the  direct  opposites  of 
each  other.  And  as  it  is  on  all  hands  acknowledged  that  ho  was  an 
impostor,  it  is  fair  to  conclude  that  Christ,  who  was  the  very  reverse 
of  Mahomet,  was  the  reverso  of  an  impostor,  that  is,  a  real  messenger 
from  heaven.  In  Mahomet  we  see  every  distinctive  mark  of  fraud; 
in  Jesus,  not  one  of  these  is  to  be  found;  but,  on  the  contrary,  every 
possible  indication  and  character  of  truth/’ 

ON  THE  SUN’S  STANDING  STILL. 

“You  make  jmurself  merry  with  what  you  call  the  tale  of  the  sun 
standing  still  upon  mount  Gibeon,  and  the  moon  in  the  valley  of  Aja  - 
ion;  and  you  say  that  “the  story  detects  itself,  because  there  is  not  a 
nation  in  the  world  that  knows  any  thing  about  if.”  How  can  you 
expect  that  there  should,  when  there  is  not  a  nation  in  the  world  whose 
annals  reach  this  era  by  many  hundred  years?  It  happens,  however, 
that  you  are  probably  mistaken  as  to  the  fact:  a  confused  tradition 
concerning  this  miracle,  and  a  similar  one  in/the  time  of  Ahaz,  when 
the  sun  went  hack  ten  degrees,  has  been  preserved  among  one  of  the 
most  ancient  nations,  as  we  are  informed  by  one  of  the  most  ancient 
historians.  Herodotus,  in  his  Euterpe/  speaking  of  the  Egyptian 
priests,  says, — “They  told  me  that  the  sun  had  four  times  deviated 
from  his  course,  having  twice  risen  where  he  uniformly  goes  down, 
and  twice  gone  down  where  he  uniformly  rises.  This  however  hod 
produced  no  alteration  in  the  climate  of  Egypt;  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
and  the  phenomena  of  the  Nile  had  Always  been  the  same.  (Beloc's 


272 


ADDENDA. 


Transl.)  The  last  part  of  this  observation  confirms  the  conjecture, 
that  this  account  of  the  Egyptian  priests  had  a  reference  to  the  two 
miracles  respecting  the  sun  mentioned  in  scripture;  for  they  were 
not  of  that  kind,  which  could  introduce  any  change  in  climate  or  sea¬ 
sons.  You  would  have  been  contented  to  admit  the  account  of  this 
miracle  as  a  fine  piece  of  poetical  imagery;  you  may  have  seen 
some  Jewish  doctors,  and  some  Christian  commentators,  who  consider 
it  as  such;  but  improperly,  in  my  opinion.  I  think  it  idle,  at  least, 
if  not  impious,  to  undertake  to  explain  how  the  miracle  was  perform¬ 
ed;  but  one  who  is  not  able  to  explain  the  mode  of  doing  a  thing, 
argues  ill  if  he  thence  infers  that  the  thing  was  not  done.  We  are 
perfectly  ignorant  how  the  sun  was  formed,  how  the  plar\ets  were 
projected  at  the  creation,  how  they  are  still  retained  in  their  orbits 
by  the  power  of  gravity ;  but  we  admit,  notwithstanding,  that  the  sun 
was  formed,  that  the  planets  were  then  projected,  and  that  they  are 
still  retained  in  their  orbits.  The  machine  of  the  universe  is  in  the 
hand  of  God ;  he  can  stop  the  motion  of  any  part,  or  of  the  whole  of 
it,  with  less  trouble  and  less  danger  of  injuring  it,  than  you  can  stop 
your  watch.  In  testimony  of  the  reality  of  the  miracle,  the  author 
of  the  book  says — “Is  not  this  written  in  the  book  of  Jasher? — “No 
author  in  his  senses  would  have  appealed,  in  proof  of  his  veracity, 
to  a  book  which  did  not  exist,  or  in  attestation  of  a  fact  which,  though 
it  did  exist,  was  not  recorded  in  .it;  we  may  safely  therefore  conclude, 
that,  at  the  time  the  book  of  Joshua  was  written,  there  was  such  a 
book  as  the  book  of  Jasher,  and  that  the  miracle  of  the  sun’s  standing 
still  wras  recorded  in  the  book.  But  this  observation,  you  will  say, 
docs  not  prove  the  fact  of  the  sun’s  having  stood  still :  I  have  not 
produced  it  as  a  proof  of  the  fact;  but  it  proves  that  the  author  of  the 
book  of  Joshua  believed  the  fact,  that  the  people  of  Israel  admitted 
the  authority  of  the  book  of  Jasher.  An  appeal  to  a  fabulous  book 
would  have  been  as  senseless  an  insult  upon  their  understanding,  as 
it  would  have  been  to  our’s,  had  Rip  in  appealed  to  the  Arabian 
Night’s  Entertainments,  as  a  proof  of  the  battle  of  Hastings.” 

Watson's  Apology . 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  GIBBON, 

In  favor  of  the  Independents  on  the  subject  of  Toleration,  and  there¬ 
by  in  favor  of  the  Christian  religion. 

“In  the  History  of  England,  in  narrating  the  events  of  1644,  arid 
speaking  of  the  Independents  of  that  country,  Mr.  Hume  says,  “Of 
all  the  Christian  sects,  this  was  the  first  which,  during  its  prosperity 
as  wTeil  as  its  adversity,  always  adopted  the  principle  of  toleration. 
A  nd  it  is  remarkable ,  that  so  reasonable  a  doctrine  owed  its  origin ,  not 
to  reasoning ,  but  to  the  height  of  extravagance  and  fanaticism  ” — ■ 
Here,  notwithstanding  all  he  has  said  in  his  Essays  on  the  tolerating 
principle  cf  Polytheists,  exalting,  in  this  respect,  Paganism  at  the 
expense  of  the  Christian  religion,  he  now  informs  ns,  that  more  than 
a  thousand  years  after  Faganism  had  ceased  to  exist ,  the  doctrine  of 


ADDENDA, 


273 


toleration  owed  Us  origin ,  not  to  the  reasoning  of  philosophers  or  to 
Polytheists,  bat  to  a  sect  of  Christians.  Fanaticism  and  the  Christian 
religion  are,  with  this  writer,  synonymus  terms. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  those  Christians  to  whom  Mr.  Hume 
ascribes  the  origin  of  toleration,  had  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
meaning  of  regeneration ,  that  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Christian, 
religion.  Of  their  practical  regard  and  adherence  to  that  doctrine, 
as  well  as  of  their  sentiments  on  toleration..” — Haldane’s  Evidences, 


TESTIMONY  OF  PRINCIPAL  BAILEY, 

In  favor  of  the  Independents.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  them, 

“Mr.  Bailey,  who  was  Principal  of  the  college  of  Glasgow,  and 
who  attended  the  Assembly  of  Westminster  in  1643,  writes,  in  one 
of  his  letters  to  Scotland,  as  follows —“They  will  admit  of  none  to 
be  members  of  their  congregation,  of  whose  true  grace  and  regene¬ 
ration  they  have  no  good  evidence.  By  this  means  they  would' keep 
out  of  all  the  Christian  churches  forty  for  one  of  the  members  of  the 
best  reformed  churches.” — “Many  of  them  preach,  and  some  print 
a  liberty  of  conscience,  at  least  the  great  equity  of  a  toleration  of 
all  religions;  that  every  man  should  be  permitted  without  any  fear* 
so  much  as  of  discountenance  from  the  magistrate,  to  profess  public¬ 
ly  his  conscience,  were  he  never  so  erroneous,  and  also  live  accord¬ 
ing  thereunto,  if  he  trouble  not  the  public  peace  by  any  seditious  ox 
wicked  practice.” — Haldane's  Evidences. 


TESTIMONY  OF  GIBBON, 

Concerning  the  early  spread  of  Christianity. 

“Let  us  take  the  account  of  the  extent  of  the  triumph  of  Christi¬ 
anity  in  the  world,  from  the  pen  of  an  opponent,  wfeo  will  not  be 
suspected  of  exaggeration  upon  this  point.  “While  (says  Mr.  Gib¬ 
bon)  that  great  body”  (the  Roman  Empire)  “was  involved  by  open 
violence,  or  undermined  by  slow  decay,  a  pure  and  humble  religion 
gently  insinuated  itself  into  the  minds  of  men;  grew  up  in  silence 
and  obscurity ;  derived  new  vigor  from  opposition ;  and  finally  erected 
the  triumphant  banner  of  the  cross  on  the  ruins  of  the  Capitol.  Nor 
was  the  influence  of  Christianity  confined  to  the  period  or  limits  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  After  a  revolution  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  cen¬ 
turies,  that  religion  is  still  professed  by  the  nations  of  Europe,  the 
most  distinguished  portion  of  human  kind  in  arts  and  learning,  as 
well  as  in  arms.  By  the  industry  and  zeal  of  the  Europeans,  it  has 
been  widely  diPvsed  to  the  rr.es i  distant  shores  of  Asia  and  Africa ; 

V  J 


and  by  the  means 
Canada  to  Chili,  in 


their  colonies,  has  been  firmly  established  from 
world  unknown  to  the  ancients.”' — Haldane’s 


Evidences. 


GIBBON’S  CAUSES  CF  THE  SUCCESS  OF  TIIE  GOSPEL. 
“In  assigning  the  causes  of  the  success  of  the  Gospel,  Mr.  Gibbon 
presents  us  with  what  follows ; — “Our  curiosity  is  naturally  prompted 


274- 


ADDENDA, 


to  inquire,  by  what  means  the  Christian  faith  obtained  so  remarkable 
a  victory  over  the  established  religions  of  the  earth?  To  this  inquiry, 
an  obvious  but  satisfactory  answer  may  be  returned,  that  it  was  ow¬ 
ing  to  the  convincing  evidence  of  the  doctrine  itself,  and  to  the 
ruling  providence  of  its  great  Author.  But  as  truth  and  reason 
.seldom  find  so  favorable  a  reception  in  the  world,  and  as  the  wisdom 
of  Providence  frequently  condescends  to  use  the  passions  of  the  hu¬ 
man  heart,  and  the  general  circumstances  of  mankind,  as  instruments 
to  execute  its  purposes,  we  may  still  be  permitted,  though  with  becom¬ 
ing  submission,  to  ask,  not  indeed  what  were  the  first,  but  what  were 
the  secondary  causes  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian  Church? 
It  will  perhaps  appear,  that  it  was  most  effectually  forwarded  and 
assisted  by  the  five  following  causes :  1 .  The  inflexible,  and  if  we 

may  use  the  expression,  the  intolerant  zeal  of  the  Christians,  derived, 
it  is  true,  from  the  Jewish  religion,  but  purified  from  the  narrow  and 
unsocial  spirit,  which,  instead  of  inviting,  had  deterred  the  Gentiles 
from  embracing  the  law  of  Moses.  2.  The  doctrine  of  a  future  life, 
improved  by  every  additional  circumstance  which  could  give  weight 
and  efficacy  to  that  important  truth.  3.  The  miraculous  powers 
ascribed  to  the  primitive  church.  4.  The  pure  and  austere  mor¬ 
als  of  the  Christians.  5.  The  union  and  discipline  of  the  Christian 
republic,  which  gradually  formed  an  independent  and  increasing 
state  in  the  heart  of  the  Roman  Empire/’ — Haldane's  Evidences. 

GENERAL  EXPECTATION  OF  THE  MESSIAH. 

I  had  collected  many  more  documents  than  were  adduced  during  the 
discussion.  During  the  discussion,  Dr.  William  Smith,  of  Cincinnati, 
handed  me  a  work  of  which  I  had  never  before  heard,  on  the  Evi¬ 
dences  of  Christianity,  written  by  Robert  Haldane,  Esq.  of  Scotland. 
I  found  in  glancing  over  Us  contents,  on  the  third  or  fourth  day  of  the 
discusion,  many  of  the  documents  1  had  gleaned,  and  some  I  had  not 
been  able  to  collect  were  well  arranged  and  interspersed  with  excel¬ 
lent  remarks.  Instead  of  reading  my  own  extracts  from  various 
authors,  I  read  them,  with  Mr.  Haldane’s  remarks,  interspersed. — 
Of  all  the  works  I  have  read  on  this  subject,  I  think  this  work,  taking 
it  all  in  all,  is  the  best  adapted  to  the  great  mass  of  readers  to  afford 
imformation  and  to  produce  conviction.  The  following  article,  in 
addition  to  what  has  been  before  adduced  in  the  debate,  will  show 
how  general  the  expectation  of  the  Messiah,  with  some  of  the 
reasons  why  it  was  so. 

“About  a  century  before  the  Christian  era,  the  first  Sibylline  books 
were  destroyed  by  a  fire  which  broke  out  in  the  capitol,  and  consum¬ 
ed  the  temple  where  these  writings  were  deposited.  The  Roman 
senate  thought  it  of  so  much  importance  to  repair  the  loss,  that  they 
sent  some  of  their  number  to  make  a  new  collection  of  them  in  dif¬ 
ferent  parts  of  Asia,  in  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago,  in  Africa,  and 
in  Sicily.  The  deputies  after  some  time  returned,  with  about  one 
thousand  verses  in  the  Greek  language,  which  thev  had  collected 
from  different  individuals.  These  verses,  when  brought  to  JKomc^ 


ADDENDA. 


275 


could  not  be  entirely  concealed  as  the  ancient  Sibylline  books  had 
been,  but  were  in  the  hands  of  many  private  individuals.  The  use 
which  the  senate  proposed  to  make  of  them  as  a  state  engine,  as  of 
the  former  books,  being  thus  in  a  good  measure  defeated,  a  law  was 
enacted  that  whoever  had  copies  of  these  prophecies,  should  deliver 
them  to  thePrce  or  of  the  city;  and  all  were  prohibited,  under  pain 
of  death,  to  retain  them.  Transcripts,  however,  continued  to  be 
privately  Kept,  owing  to  which  their  contents  were  well  known.  At 
length  Augustus  on  taking  upon  himself  the  high-priesthood  of 
Rome,  revived  the  law,  when  many  volumes  were  brought  in.  That 
this  new  collection  of  Sibylline  verses  contained  a  prediction  of  the 
appearance  of  a  great  King,  we  have  sufficient  evidence  from  the 
following-  circumstances. 

“When  Julius  Caesar  had  attained  the  height  of  his  power,  he  was 
very  ambitious  of  having  the  title  of  King.  In  order  to  gain  the 
consent  of  the  senate,  one  of  his  adherents  produced  a  prophecy  from 
the  Sibylline  books,  of  a  king  who  was  to  arise  at  this  time,  whose 
monarchy  was  to  be  universal,  and  whose  government  would  be  ne¬ 
cessary  and  essential  to  the  happiness  of  the  world.  Cicero,  and  the 
party  to  which  he  belonged,  did  all  in  their  power  in  opposition  to 
this  plea.  But  in  opposing  it,  Cicer#  brought  no  charge  of  falsifica¬ 
tion  against  those  who  produced  this  prophecy.  He  granted  that  it 
was  fairly  ailed ged,  from  the  Sibylline  books ,  to  which,  from  his 
office,  he  had  free  access.  But  he  affirmed  Tint  these  oracles  were 
no  prophecies;  fbr  that  no  marks  were  to  be  found  in  them  of  frenzy 
and  disorder,  (which  Heathens  conceived  to  be  the  necessary  state  of 
every  prophet’s  mind  while  he  prophesied.)  “Let  us  then’,  says 
Cicero,  “adhere  to  the  prudent  practice  of  our  ancestors ;  let  us  keep 
the  Sibyl  in  religious  privacy;  these  writings  are  indeed  rather  cal¬ 
culated  to  extinguish  than  to  propagate  superstition 

“Besides  those  predictions,  which  had  been  brought  to  Rome  from 
the  East  by  the  deputies  from  the  senate,  the  contents  of  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  were  no  secret  at  Rome.  An  intimate  alliance  had  leng 
subsisted  between  the  Romans  and  the  Jews,  and  the  numbers  of  the 
latter  resident  at  Rome  were  very  considerable.  From  ffie  accounts 
preserved  so  long  after  by  Tacitus  and  Floras,  of  what  Pompey  saw 
in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  the  particulars  of  the  Jewish  religion, 
which  is  referred  to  by  Cicero  in  writing  to  Leelius,  must  have  been 
well  known  at  Rome.  Under  the  patronage  of  Julius  Caesar,  the 
free  exercise  of  their  religious  rites,  with  all  the  privileges  of  their 
priesthood,  was  not  only  confirmed  to  them  by  the  decrees  of  the 
senate,  but  they  were  exempted  also  from  taxes  on  their  Sabbatical 
year.  Hence,  and  from  the  public  recital  in  their  synagogues,  every 
Sabbath  day,  of  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  the  translation  of 
them  into  a  language  universally  read,  their  sacred  books  must  have 
been  known  both  in  the  provinces  and  capital  of  the  empire.  The 
singularities  in  their  ritual,  customs  and  history,  with  which  their 

*See  Horsley’s  Dissertation,  Henley's  Observations,  and  Prideaux’s  Con¬ 
nexion.  ml.  •  v;>:- '  '  '  •  V  , 


278 


ADDENDA, 


prophecies  were  inseparably,  blended,  could  not  la.il  to  attract  some 
attention;  while  their  origin,  and  even  existence  as  a  distinct  people, 
all  looked  forward  to  one  great  object  of  communication, — the  com¬ 
ing  of  their  predicted  sovereign,  under  whom,  notwithstanding  their 
present  misfortunes,  they  expected  a  restoration,  and  the  acquisition 
of  unbounded  and  eternal  dominion. 

“All  this  fully  explains  the  cause  of  that  general  expectation  which 
now  existed  at  Rome  of  the  appearance  of  a  great  King  who  should 
establish  universal  empire,  and  which  according  to  Tacitus,  was  be¬ 
lieved  to  have  its  origin  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  Bv  pretended 
prodigies,  and  in  various  ways,  much  use  was  made  of  this  expecta¬ 
tion,  and  different  applications  of  it  appeared,  according  to  the  interest 
or  wishes  of  those  who  made  them.-’ — Haldane's  Evidences. 

HISTORY  OF  SOME  OF  THE  PRIMITIVE  MARTYRS  TO 
THE  TRUTH  OF  'CHRISTIANITY. 

“The  following  accounts  of  the  death  of  Polycarp  at  Smyrna,  end 
of  the  persecution  of  the  churches  at  Lyons  and  Vienna  in  France, 
will  afford  a  specimen  of  what  Christians,  in  the  next  age,  had  to 
encounter  in  adhering  to  their  religion.  Polycarp,  it  will  be  re  ol- 
ieeted,  was  one  of  the  Christian  writers  who  were  contemporaries 
with  the  Apostles,  who  was  himself  acquainted  with  the  Apostle  John, 
and  had  conversed  with  many  who  had  seen  Christ.  He  suffered 
death  for  the  Christian  religion  in  the  year  167  or  168,  in  the  reign 
of  the  Emperor  Marcus  Antoninus,  the  philosopher,  in  what  is  called 
the  fourth  persecution. 

“Some  time  after  the  death  of  Polycarp,  the  Christians  at  Smyrna 
sent  an  account  of  it  in  a  letter,  from  which  the  following  is  an  ex¬ 
tract,  to  the  Christians  at  Philadelphia,  Philomelium,  and  other  places, 
who  had  expressed  a  desire  to  have  it  from  eye-witnesses.  “The 
church  of  God  which  is  at  Smyrna,  to  the  church  at  Philomelium, 
and  to  all  the  congregations  of  the  holy  universal  church  in  every 
place,  the  mercy,  and  peace,  and  love  of  God  the  Father,  and  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  multiplied.  We  have  written  to  you,  brethren, 
concerning  those  who  have  suffered  martyrdom,  and  particularly 
concerning  the  blessed  Polycarp,  who,  by  his  martyrdom,  as  it  were, 
sealed  up,  and  put  an  end  to  the  prosecution.”  After  which,  says 
Eusebius,  “before  they  speak  of  Polycarp,  they  relate  the  sufferings 
of  the  other  martyrs,  describing  their  constancy  under  the  torments 
which  they  endured *  and  how  all  who  stood  round  them  were  aston¬ 
ished,  seeing  them  scourged  till  their  veins  and  arteries  were  laid 
bare,  and  even  their  entrails  became  visible ;  after  which  they  were 
laid  upon  the  shells  of  sea  fish,  and  upon  sharp  spikes,  fixed  in  the 
ground,  with  many  other  kinds  of  tortures :  In  the  end,  they  were 
cast  to  wild  beasts,  to  be  devoured  by  them.  They  are  particular 
in  the  account  of  the  generous  Germanicus,  who  being  corroborated 
by  the  divine  grace,  overcame  the  fear  of  death  implanted  in  the 
nature  of  men.  For  when  the  proconsul  advised  him  to  think  of  his 
youth,  and  to  spare  himself*  and  not  throw  away  his  life  in  his 


ADDENDA. 


977 

flourishing  age;  he  was  not  at  all  moved  thereby,  but,  as  they  say, 
he  enticed  and  stimulated  the  wild  beasts  to  approach  him,  that  he 
might  be  the  sooner  dismissed  from  this  evil  world.  Presently  after 
that  glorious  exit,  the  whole  multitude  cried  out,  “Away  with  the 
impi6us,  let  Polycarp  be  sought  for.”  There  followed  then  a  great 
noise  and  tumult,  and  having  in  view  the  wild  beasts,  and  other 
tortures,  Quintus,  a  Phrygian,  was  intimidated  and  gave  way,  as  did 
also  some  others  with  him,  who,  without  a  truly  religious  tear,  had 
rashly  presented  themselves  before  the  tribunal. 

“When  the  admirable  Polycarp  heard  of  the  demand  made  for 
him,  he  was  not  at  all  disturbed,  but  continued  to  be  in  a  firm  and 
composed  temper  of  mind;  and  he  resolved  to  stay  in  the  city. — • 
Nevertheless,  at  length,  he  so  far  complied  with  the  request  of  huf 
friends,  as  to  retire  to  a  country  house  not  far  off,  where  he  abode 

t  '  *■  s 

with  a  small  company,  spending  the  time,  night  and  day,  in  continual 
prayer  to  God,  offering  up  supplications  for  the  peace  of  the  churches 
throughout  the  world,  which,  indeed,  was  his  constant  usage. — In  a 
short  time,  his  pursuers,  by  information  given  them,  were  led  to  the 
place  where  Polycarp  was.  Coming  thither  in  the  evening,  they 
found  him  resting  in  an  upper  room,  whence  it  was  not  difficult  for 
him  to  remove  to  another  house;  but  he  would  not,  saying  “the  will 
of  the  Lord  be  done.”  He  then  went  down  to  the  men,  and  talked 
to  them  in  a  free  and  cheerful  manner,  and  ordered  meat  to  be  set 
before  them,  begging  that  they  would  allow  him  the  space  of  one 
hour,  in  which  he  might  pray  without  disturbance.  Prayer  being 
ended,  they  set  him  upon  an  ass,  to  carry  him  into  the  city.  As  they 
were  going,  he  was  met  by  Herod  the  Irenarch,  and  his  father  Nice¬ 
tas,  who  took  him  up  into  their  chariot.  As  they  sat  together,  they 
endeavored  to  persuade  him,  saying,  “What  harm  is  it  to  say  Lord 
Ca3sar,  and  to  sacrifice,  and  so  to  be  safe?”  At  first,  he  made  no  an¬ 
swer,  but  when  they  were  importunate,  he  said,  “I  will  never  do  what 
you  advise.”  They  then  began  to  reproach  him,  and  they  thrust 
him  out  of  the  chariot  so  hastily,  that,  in  getting  dowrn,  his  leg  was 
bruised;  but  he  got  up,  and  went  on  cheerfully,  as  if  he  had  suffered 
no  harm,  till  he  came  to  the  stadium. 

“When  he  was  brought  before  the  tribunal,  there  was  a  great  shout 
of  the  multitude.  As  he  came  near,  the  proconsul  asked  him  if  he 
was  Polycarp.  Upon  his  confessing  that  he  was,  he  endeavored  to 
persuade  him  to  deny  Christ;  and  saying,  “Reverence  thy  age,”  and 
other  like  things  customary  with  them;  “Swear  by  the  fortune  of 
Caesar — repent — sav,  Away  with  the  impious.”  The  governor  still 
urging  him,  and  saying,  “Swear,  and  I  will  dismiss  thee;  reproach 
Christ.”  Polycarp  then  answered :  “Fourscore  and  six  years  have 
f  served  him,  and  he  has  never  done  me  any  injury.  How  can  I 
blaspheme  my  King  and  my  Saviour?”  The  governor  was  still  urg¬ 
ent,  saying,  “Swear  by  the  fortunes  of  Cassar.”  Whereupon  Polycarp 
answered,  “How  can  you  desire  this  of  me,  as  if  you  did  not  know 
who  I  am.  Here  me  then  openly  professing  I  am  a  Christian.  And 
if  you  have  a  mind  to  know  the  doctrine  of  Christianity,  appoint  me 
VOL*  IT.  24 


278 


ADDENDA. 


a  day  and  I  will  inform  you.”  The  proconsul  said,  I  have  wild  beasts 
and  I  will  cast  you  to  them,  unless  you  change  your  mind.”  But  he 
answered,  Call  for  them,  there  can  be  no  alteration  from  good  to  bad, 
but  it  is  good  to  change  from  vice  to  virtue.”  He  said  again  to  him, 
“Since  you  do  not  mind  the  beasts,  I  will  order  you  to  be  consumed 
by  fire  unless  you  repent.”  Polycarp  said,  “You  threaten  me  with 
tire  which  burns  for  an  hour,  and  then  is  extinguished;  but  you  are 
ignorant  of  the  fire  of  the  future  judgment  and  everlasting  punishment 
reserved  for  the  wicked.  But  why  do  you  delay?  Appoint  which 
you  please.” 

“The  proconsul  then  sent  the  crier  to  make  proclamation  thrice  in 
the  midst  of  the  stadium,  “Polycarp  has  confessed  himself  to  be  a 
Christian.”  That  proclamation  having  been  made  by  the  crier,  the 
whole  multitude  of  the  Gentiles  and  Jews  inhabiting  Smyrna,  with 
furious  rage,  and  in  a  loud  voice  cried  out,  “This  is  the  teacher  of 
Asia,  the  father  of  the  Christians,  the  destroyer  of  our  gods,  who 
teacheth  all  men  not  to  sacrifice  nor  to  worship  them.”  Having 
uttered  these  words,  they  cried  out  and  requested  Philip  the  Asiarch 
to  let  the  lion  upon  Polycarp.  He  said  he  could  not  do  that,  because 
the  amphitheatrical  shows  of  wild  beasts  were  over.  They  then 
cried  out,  with  one  consent,  that  Polycarp  should  be  burnt  alive; 
which  was  no  sooner  said  than  done;  all  immediately  joining  togeth¬ 
er  in  bringing  wood,  and  dried  branches  of  trees,  from  the  shops  and 
the  baths.  The  Jews,  also,  according  to  their  custom,  assisting  with 
the  greatest  forwardness. 

“Now  all  things  being  prepared  and  put  in  order  for  the  pile,  when 
they  were  about  to  nail  him  to  the  stake,  he  said,  “Let  me  be  as  I  am. 
He  that  enables  me  to  bear  the  fire,  will  enable  me  also  to  remain 
unmoved  within  the  pile,  without  your  fastening  me  with  nails  ” — 
They  therefore  did  not  nail  him,  but  only  bound  him.  He  then  offered 
up  a  prayer  to  God,  which  he  concluded,  saying  aloud,  Amen.  Then 
the  officers  who  had  the  charge  of  it  kindled  the  fire.  But  Polycarp’s 
body  not  being  so  soon  consumed  as  expected,  the  people  desired  that 
the  emfector  should  be  called  for,  and  run  him  through  with  a  sword. 
The  faithful  were  now  very  desirous  to  have  his  body  delivered  to 
them ;  but  some  there  were  who  moved  Nicetas,  father  to  Herod,  to  go 
to  the  governor  to  prevent  his  giving  the  body  to  the  believers,  lest,  as 
they  said,  they  should  leave  him  that  was  crucified  to  worship  this 
man.  This  they  said  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Jews,  who  also  dili¬ 
gently  watched  us  that  we  might  not  carry  oft' the  body;  little  con¬ 
sidering  that  we  can  never  forsake  Christ,  who  has  suffered  for  the 
sake  of  all  men.  Him  we  worship  as  the  Son  of  God.  The  martyrs 
we  love  as  the  disciples  and  imitators  of  the  Lord.  The  centurion, 
therefore,  perceiving  the  perverseness  of  the  Jews,  caused* the  body 
to  be  brought  forth,  and  burnt  it.  We  then  gathered  up  his  bones, 
and  deposited  them  in  a  proper  place.”  5 

“The  persecution  of  the  churches  at  Lyons  and  Vienna  took  place 
also  under  Marcus  Antoninus  in  the  vear  177.  “It  was  the  seven- 


ADDENDA, 


2X9 


tee  nth  year,”  says  Eusebius,  aof  the  Emperor  Antoninus,  in  which 
time  the  persecution  against  us  raged  with  great  violence  in  several 
parts  of  the  world,  through  the  enmity  of  the  people  in  the  cities. — 
What  vast  multitudes  of  martyrs  there  were  throughout  the  whole 
empire,  may  be  concluded  from  what  happened  in  one  nation,  which 
also  have  been  committed  to  writing,  that  they  ntay  be  delivered  to 
others,  and  may  he  always  remembered.  The  whole  history  of  these 
things  has  been  inserted  in  our  work  of  the  collection  of  martyrs,  of 
which  I  here  select  a  part, 

“The  country  in  which  these  things  happened,  of  which  lam  now 
speaking,  is  Gaul,  in  which  are  two  great  and  famous  cities,  Lyons 
and  Vienna,  both  washed  by  the  river  Rhine,  which  traverseth  that 
country  with  a  rapid  stream.  These  famous  churches  sent  in  writing 
an  account  of  their  martyrs  to  the  churches  in  Asia  and  Phrygia. — 
I  shall  insert  their  own  words :  “Tire  servants  of  Jesus  Christ  dwelling 
in  Vienna  and  Lyons,  to  the  brethren  in  Asia  and  Phrygia,  who  have 
the  same  faith  and  hope  of  redemption  with  us,  peace  and  grace,  and 
glory  from  God  the  Father,  and  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.”  After  a 
few  things  said  in  the  way  of  preface,  they  begin  the  narrative  in 
these  words:  “The  greatness  of  the  affliction  in  these  places,  and 
the  excessive  rage  of  the  people  against  the  saints,  and  what  the 
blessed  martyrs  have  endured,  we  are  not  able  to  describe  in  words, 
nor  put  down  in  writing;  for  the  enemy  at  the  very  first  invaded  us 
with  the  greatest  violence,  showing  from  the  beginning  what  sore 
evils  we  were  to  expect.  Every  thing  was  done  to  exercise  his  min¬ 
isters,  and  to  train  them  to  the  practice  of  the  utmost  cruelty  against 
the  servants  of  God.  We  were  not  only  excluded  from  houses,  (of 
friends,  as  it  seerfts,)  “and  from  the  baths  and  markets,  but  we  were 
forbidden  to  appear  in  any  place  whatever.  However,  the  grace  of 
God  fought  for  us  against  the  enemy;  delivering  such  as  were  weak, 
and  setting  up  the  pillars,  which  were  firm  and  stable,  and  able,  by 
their  patience  and  fortitude,  to  withstand  all  the  force  of  the  enemy.— 
They  therefore  came  to  a  near  combat  with  him,  undergoing  all  man¬ 
ner  of  reproach  and  suffering.  Accounting  the  greatest  afflictions  to 
be  small,  they  hastened  to  Christ;  thus  showing,  in  fact,  that  the 
sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the 
glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  us,  Rom.  viii.  18.  First  then,  they 
courageously  endured  the  insults  of  the  multitude  gathered  together 
about  them  in  crowds,  their  shouts  and  blows,  and  draggings  about, 
pillaging  their  goods,  throwing  of  stones,  confinement  to  their  dwel¬ 
lings,  and  all  such  things  as  an  enraged  multitude  is  wont  to  practise 
against  adversaries  and  enemies.  Then,  being  brought  into  the 
market  by  the  tribune  and  the  chief  magistrates  of  the  city,  they 
were  examined  before  all  the  people;  and,  having  ma.de  their  con¬ 
fession,  they  were  shut  up  in  prison  till  the  arrival  of  the  president. 

“Afterwards,  when  they  were  brought  before  the  president,  who 
exercised  all  manner  of  cruelty  against  us,  Vetius  Epagathus,  one  of 
the  brethren,  full  of  love  towards  God  and  his  neighbour,  whose 
course  of  life  also  was  so  perfect,  that,  though  a  young  man,  he  might 


ADDENDA, 


2$0 

Reserve  the  character  of  old  Zacharias,  Luke  i.  6,  that  he  walked  iu 
all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord  blameless,  and 
was  unwearied  in  the  performance  of  all  good  offices  to  his  neighbor, 
being  full  of  zeal  for  God,  and  fervent  in  spirit,  Rom.  xii.  xi;  he  being 
such  an  one,  was  not  able  to  bear  these  so  unjustly  proceedings 
against  us;  but  being  moved  with  indignation,  requested  that  he 
might  4)e  allowed  to  make  a  defence  in  behalf  of  the  brethren,  and 
show  that  nothing  impious  and  irreligious  was  done  by  us.  But  they 
who  were  near  the  tribunal  cried  out  against  him,  (for  he  was  a  per¬ 
son  well  known.)  and  the  president  refused  to  grant  his  request, 
though  so  reasonable,  and  asked  him  whether  he  was  a  Christian. — 
He,  answering  with  a  loud  voice  that  he  was  a  Christian,  was  put  into 
the  number  of  the  martyrs,  and  was  called  the  advocate  of  the  Chris¬ 
tians.  And  indeed  he  had  within  him  the  Advocate,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
in  a  greater  measure  than  Zacharias,  Luke  i.  67,  which  he  also 
showed  by  the  abundance  of  his  love,  being  whiling  to  lay  down  his 
own  life  in  defence  of  the  brethren,  1  John  iii.  16.  For  he  was  and 
is  a 'genuine  disciple  of  Christ,  following  the  Larnb  whithersoever  he 
goeth.  Rev.  xiv.  4. 

“After  this,  others  w7ere  chosen  out,  and  they  proved  to  be  illustri¬ 
ous  and  well-prepared  proto-martyrs,  who,  with  all  alacrity  of  mind, 
accomplished  the  solemn  confession  of  martyrdom.  They  also  were 
■manifest  who  were  unprepared,  and  unexercised,  and  still  weak,  and 
not  able  to  bear  the  shock  of  so  great  a  combat,  of  whom  about  ten 
in  number  fell  away,  causing  in  us  great  grief,  and  unreasonable 
concern,  and  damping  the  alaciity  uf  those  who  were  not  yet  appre¬ 
hended  ;  of  whom,  however,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  they  kept 
company  with  the  martyrs,  and  did  not  forsake  them,  though  they 
suffered  considerably  in  so  doing.  At  that  time  we  were  all  in  great 
consternation,  being  uncertain  about  the  event  of  this  confession;  not 
dreading  the  torments  that  might  be  indicted  upon  us,  but  apprehen¬ 
sive  of  the  issue,  and  that  some  might  fall  in  the  trial.  However, 
from  day  to  day,  such  were  taken  up  as  were  worthy  to  supply  the 
number  of  sfTch  as  had  gone  off,  so  that  the  most  eminent  men  of  the 
two  churches,  and  by  whom  good  order  had  been  settled  among  us, 
were  picked  up  and  brought  together.  Moreover,  some  Gentile  serv¬ 
ants  of  our  people  were  apprehended.  For  the  governor  had  given 
public  orders  for  making  strict  inquiries  after  us.  They,  at  the 
instigation  of  Satan,  and  dreading  the  torments  which  they  saw  the 
saints  suffer,  the  soldiers  also  exciting  them  to  it,  falsely  charged  us, 
with  having  the  suppers  of  Thyestes,  and  the  incestuous  mixtures  of 
Oedipus,  and  other  such  like  things,  which  it  is  not  lawful  for  us  to 
mention  nor  to  think  of,  nor  to  believe  that  they  wrere  ever  done 
among  men.  These  stories  being  spreaded) road,  all  men  were  in¬ 
censed  against  us;  insomuch  that  if  any  there  were  who  before  had 
been  civil  to  us  upon  account  of  affinity  or  friendship,  they  were  then 
much  offended,  and  exclaimed  against  us.  And  then  was  fulfilled 
what  the  Lord  had  said,  John  xvi.  2,  “That  the  time  would  come 
when  every  one  i^io  killeth  you  will  think  that  i*e  doth  God  service.’ 


ADDENDA, 


“ After  that  the  holy  martyrs  underwent  such  torments  as  are  above 
all  description,  Satan  doing  his  utmost  to  make  them  also  to  say  such 
impious  things,”  (or  to  confess  what  had  been  declared  by  the  heathen 
servants),  “but  the  utmost  excess  of  rage  of  the  multitude,  and  of  the 
president,  and  of  the  soldiers,  fell  upon  Sanctus,  deacon  at  Vienna; 
and  upon  Manturus,  newly  baptized  indeed,  yet  a  most  valiant  cham¬ 
pion;  and  upon  Attains,  a  native  of  Pergainos,  who  always  was  a 
pillar  and  supporter  of  tire  churches  here;  and  upon  Blandina,  by 
whom  Christ  showed  that  those  things  which  among  men  seemed 
mean,  base,  and  contemptible,  are  by  God  acccounted  worthy  of 
great  honor  for  their  love  toward  him,  which  is  evidently  manifested 
in  great  power,  and  not  in  appearance  only  boasted  of.” — It  was  a 
refreshment  and  ease  to  her,  and  an  abatement  of  the  torments  in¬ 
flicted  upon  her,  to  say,  “I  am  a  Christian,  nor  is  there  any  wicked¬ 
ness  practised  among  us.” 

“Pothinus,  who  was  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  the 
episcopal  office  at  Lyons,  being  more  than  ninety  years  of  age,  and 
very  weak  in  body,  and  scarcely  breathing  by  reason  of  his  bodily 
infirmity,  but  strengthened  in  mind  with  a  desire  of  the  martyrdom 
now  in  view,  even  he  also  was  dragged  to  the  tribunal.  His  body 
was  worn  out  by  age  and  distemper,  but  his  soul  yet  remained  in 
him,  that  by  it  Christ  might  triumph.  He  being  brought  before  the 
tribunal  by  the  soldiers,  the  city  magistrate  also  attending,  and  the 
multitude  hooting  him  along  with  loud  shouts,  as  if  he  had  been 
Christ  himself,  exhibiting  a  good  testimony.  Being  asked  by  the 
president,  “Who  was  the  God  of  the  Christians?  he  answered,  “If 
you  are  worthy,  you  shall  know.”  After  that  he  was  dragged  about 
in  an  inhuman  manner,  and  received  many  blows,  they  who  were 
near  striking  him  with  their  hands  and  their  feet,  without  any  re¬ 
spect  to  his  age;  they  who  stood  farther  off  threw  at  him  whatever 
came  to  hand,  every  one  thinking  himself  guilty  of  an  offence  a  gainst 
religion  if  they  did  not  offer  him  some  abuse,  for  hereby  they  thought 
they  should  avenge  their  gods.  And  when  there  was  scarcely  any 
breath  left  in  him,  he  was  cast  into  prison,  where  after  two  days  he 
expired. 

“Maturus,  then,  and  Tanctus,  and  Blandina,  and  Attalus,  were 
brought  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the  amphitheatre,  to  be  a  public  specta¬ 
cle  to  the  inhumanity  of  the  Gentiles;  a  day  for  combat  of  wild 
beasts  having  been  purposely  granted  upon  our  account.  And  Ma¬ 
turus  and  Sanctus  did  again  undergo  all  sorts  of  torments  in  the 
amphitheatre,  as  if  they  had  before  suffered  nothing  at  all.  Or 
rather  having  already  overcome  the  adversary  in  many  encounters, 
and  being  now  to  contend  for  the  crown  itself,  they  again  endured 
in  the  way  to  it  the  accustomsd  blows  of  the  place,  and  the  tearings 
of  the  w  ild  beasts,  and  whatever  else  the  mad  multitude  from  all 
sides  called  for  and  demanded;  and,  after  all  these  things,  the  iron 
chair  upon  which  when  their  bodies  were  broiled,  they  yielded  the 
offensive  smell  of  burnt  flesh.  Nor  were  they  yet  satisfied,  but  were 
still  more  enraged,  being  earnestly  desirous  to  overcome  the  patience 

vgl.  ii.  .24* 


ADDENDA. 


OiTi 

Do* 

of  the  sufferers.  However,  they  could  get  nothing  from  Sanctus  more 
Rian  the  confession  which  he  had  made  at  the  first.  These  two,  there¬ 
fore,  (Marturus  and  Sanctus)  having  undergone  a  severe  combat, 
their  life  having  continued  a  long  while,  they  were  at  last  slain,  hav¬ 
ing  been  made  throughout  that  day  a  spectacle  to  the  world,  instead 
of  all  that  variety  which  is  usually  exhibit©*!  in  tho  combats  of  gla-1 
diators,  (1  Cor.  iv.  9.)  But  Blandina,  after  she  had  been  scourged, 
after  she  had  been  exposed  to  wild  beasts,  and  after  the  iron  chair, 
she  was  enclosed  in  a  net,  and  thrown  to  a  bull;  having  been  tossed 
by  the  beast,  she  also  was  run  through  with  a  sword. 

“Now  Attains  was  earnestly  called  for  by  the  multitude,  for  indeed 
he  was  an  eminent  person,  and,  by  reason  of  the  clearness  of  his 
conscience,  came  forth  as  a  champion  prepared  for  the  combat;  for 
he  was  well  exercised  in  the  Christian  discipline,  and  was  always  a 
witness  of  the  truth  among  us.  He  was  led  round  this  amphitheatre, 
with  a  board  carried  before  him,  upon  which  was  inscribed  in  the; 
Roman  tongue,  “This  is  Attalus  the  Christian,”  the  people  all  the 
while  expressing  great  indignation  against  him.  The  president,  un¬ 
derstanding  that  he  was  a  Roman,  commanded  him  to  be  taken  away, 
and  to  be  carried  to  the  rest  who  Were  in  prison,  concerning  whom 
he  had  sent  to  Cesar,  and  was  in  expectation  of  an  answer.  The 
rescript  of  Cesar  was,  that  they  who  confessed  Christ  should  be  put 
to  death ;  but  that,  if  any  denied  themselves  to  be  Christians,  they 
might  be  set  at  liberty. 

“The  public  assembly  of  this  place  being  now  begun,  at  which 
there  is  a  vast  concourse  of  people  from  all  parts,  the  president  order¬ 
ed  the  blessed  martyrs  to  be  brought  before  the  tribunnl  exposing* 
them  as  a  public  show  to  the  multitude.  Having  again  interrogated 
them,  as  many  as  he  found  to  be  Roman  citizens,  he  ordered  to  eb 
beheaded;  the  rest  to  be  sent  to  the  wild  beasts.  Rut  Christ  was 
greatly  glorified  in  those  who  before  had  denied  the  faith,  but  now, 
contrary  to  the  expectation  of  the  Gentiles,  confessed  themselves  to 
be  Christians.  They  were  interrogated  apart,  as  being  now  to  be 
dismissed,  and  set  at  liberty;  but  making  confession,  they  were  added 
to  the  number  of  the  martyrs.  Attalus,  when  he  was  set  in  the  iron 
chair,  and  was  scorched  all  over,  and  an  offensive  smell  of  burnt  flesh 
proceeded  from  his  body,  spoke  to  the  multitude  in  the  Roman  tongue. 
“This,”  says  he,  “is  to  devour  men,  which  is  your  practice.  As 
for  us,  we  neither  devour  men,  nor  do  we  commit  any  other  wicked¬ 
ness  whatever.”  Being  asked  what  is  the  name  of  God?  he  answered* 
“God  has  not  a  name  as  men  have.” 

“Those  who  had  been  suffocated  in  prison,  they  cast  to  the  dogs, 
carefully  watching  them  day  and  night,  lest  any  of  us  should  inter 
them.  Then  they  laid  out  the  remainder  of  the  bodies  left  uncon¬ 
sumed  by  the  fire,  partly  torn,  and  partly  burnt,  and  the  heads  of  the 
rest,  with  the  trunks  of  their  bodies;  all  these  they  kept  unburied, 
with  a  guard  of  soldiers  for  many  days.  Some  were  filled  with  in¬ 
dignation,  and  gnashed  with  their  teeth  at  the  dead,  as  if  desirous 
to  be  farther  revenged  upon  them.  Some  insulted  over  them,  and 


ADDENDA. 


283 

derided  them,  at  the  same  time  extolling  their  idols,  and  attributing 
to  them  the  punishment  that  had  been  inflicted  on  the  martyrs. — - 
Some  who  were  more  mild,  and  seemed  in  some  measure  to  sympa¬ 
thise  with  us,  nevertheless  upbraided  us,  saying,  “Where  is  their 
God,  and  of  what  benefit  has  their  religion  been  to  them,  which  they 
have  preferred  above  their  lives  ?”  In  the  mean  time,  we  were  greatly 
concerned  that  we  could  not  bury  tWhudies  in  the  earth,  for  neither 
did  the  darkness  of  the  night  afford  us  any  assistance,  nor  would 
money  persuade,  nor  entreaties  prevail ;  but  they  continued  to  watch 
the  bodies  very  carefully,  as  if  some  great  matter  were  to  be  gained 
by  their  not  being  buried.  The  bodies,  therefore,  of  the  martyrs 
having  undergone  all  manner  of  ignominy,  and  having  lain  exposed  to 
the  air  six  days.,  were  burnt,  and  having  been  reduced  to  ashes  by 
these  impious  men,  were  by  them  thrown  into  the  river  Rhone,  which 
runs  hard  by,  that  no  remains  of  them  might  be  any  longer  visible  on 
this  earth.  Thus  they  acted  as  if  they  could  be  too  hard  for  God,  and 
prevent  their  reviviscence,  or,  as  themselves  said,  that  they  might  have 
no  hope  of  a  resurrection,  trusting  to  which  they  have  brought  in  among 
us  a  strange  and  new  religion,  and  despising  the  heaviest  sufferings, 
are  ready  to  meet  death  with  cheerfulness.  Let  us  now  see  whether 
they  will  rise  again,  and  whether  their  God  is  able  to  help  them,  and 
to  deliver  them  out  of  our  hands.” 

“The  above  persecutions,  it  will  be  observed,  happened  under 
Marcus  Antoninus  the  philosopher,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the 
Roman  emperors.  His  rescript  was,  that  they  who  confessed  Christ 
should  he  put  to  death ,  but  that  if  any  denied  themselves  to  be  Chris¬ 
tians,  they  might  be  set  at  liberty.  By  the  edict  of  Trajan,  such  Chris¬ 
tians  as  were  brought  before  a  governor’s  tribunal,  and  were  convicted, 
'were  to  be  put  to  death ;  but  they  were  not  to  be  sought  for.  But  the 
President  at  Lyons  issued  public  orders  that  strict  searches  should  be 
made  for  them.  Attalus  was  a  Roman  citizen,  and  should  have  been 
beheaded ;  but,  being  a  Christian,  this  privilege  was  not  allowed.  The 
multitude  demanded  that  he  should  be  tortured,  and  thrown  to  wild 
beasts;  and  the  President  granted  their  request,  relying  undoubtedly 
upon  impunity,  though  he  acted  contrary  to  law.  Such  was  the  con¬ 
dition  of  Christians  at  that  time. 

“We  have  here  a  melancholy  exhibition  of  “the  persecuting  spirit 
of  Pagans,”  and  are  reminded  of  Mr.  Gibbon’s  declaration,  that, 
“during  the  whole  course  of  his  reign,  Marcus  despised  the  Christians 
as  a  philosopher,  and  punished  them  as  a  sovereign.”  And  we  are 
again  brought  to  recollect  Mr.  Hume’s  assertions  respecting  persecu¬ 
tion,  which,  in  connexion  with  the  above  facts,  may  prove  a  useful 
warning  to  those  who  read  his  Essays,  and  convince  them  that  no 
dependence  is  fo  be  placed  on  his  most  confident  assertions  \yhen  the 
Christian  religion  is  concerned.  “The  intolerance,”  he  says,  “of 
almost  all  religions  which  have  maintained  the  unity  of  God,  is  as 
remarkable  as  the  contrary  principle  of  Polytheists .”  And  again, 
“The  tolerating  spirit  of  idolaters,  both  in  ancient  and  modern  times, 


284  ADDENDA, 

is  very  obvious  to  any  one  who  is  the  least  conversant  in  the  writings 
of  historians  or  travellers,” 

“The  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel  by  these  sufferers,  in  that 
early  age,  is  very  valuable.  Ireneus,  now  an  eider  in  the  church  at 
Lyons,  was  in  his  younger  days  acquainted  with  Polycarp,  the  dis¬ 
ciple  of  John  the  Apostle;  and  Pothinus,  Bishop  at  Lyons,  was  older 
than  Ireneus.  We  have  here,  too,  a  proof  of  the  great  progress  of  the 
<riixiatiau  religion  in  a.  eiroi t  time.  I  iie  number  ot  Christians  at 
Lyons  and  Vienna  must  have  been  very  considerable.  There  were 
among  them  men  of  distinction  for  knowledge  and  understanding. 
Attains,  and  several  others,  were  Roman  citizens. 

“The  testimony  of  the  first  Christians  is  the  more  valuable,  as  it  is 
given  by  men  of  all  ranks  in  society,  and  of  all  the  different  countries 
through  which  they  were  settled.  It  is  the  testimony  of  men  who 
were  not  guided  by  any  civil  authority  or  worldly  consideration  in  the 
religion  they  embraced,  but  by  the  force  of  truth  and  conviction  alone; 
and  of  men  who  had  the  deepest  concern  not  to  be  deceived.  It  is 
the  testimony  of  competent  judges  of  the  evidence  by  which  the}^  were 
convinced,  presented  to  them  in  facts  of  which  they  were  eye¬ 
witnesses,  and  in  which  they  could  not  be  mistaken,  [t  is  testimony 
transmitted  to  us  from  the  most  enlightened  period  of  the  Roman  em¬ 
pire, — from  a  multitude  of  men  whose  integrity  is  acknowledged  by 
their  enemies,  and  from  among  whom  individuals  may  be  selected, 
equally  enlightened  with  any  of  their  cotemporaries.” 

Haldane's  Evidences. 

ANTIQUITY  OF  THE  WORLD,  CONFORMABLE  TO  THE 

MOSAIC  ACCOUNT. 

“To  prove  that  the  world  was  formed  at  a  much  earlier  period  than 
Moses  assigns  for  its  creation,  the  bowels  of  the  earth  have  been  ran¬ 
sacked,  and  all  the  aids  that  can  be  derived  from  modern  discoveries 
resorted  to,  but  in  vain.  One  absurd  theory  has  been  exploded  after 
another,  and  no  progress  whatever  has  been  made  towards  the  detec¬ 
tion  of  any  mistake,  on  this  point,  in  the  sacred  writers. 

“In  the  Preface  to  an  “Essay  on  the  Theory  of  the  Earth,”  dated 
1815,  by  M.  Cuvier  of  Paris,  who  is  styled  one  of  the  first  philosophers 
of  the  age,  the  publisher  says,  “Although  the  Mosaic  account  of  the 
creation  of  the  world  is  an  inspired  writing,  and  consequently  rests  on 
evidence  totally  independent  of  human  observation  and  experience, 
still  it  is  interesting,  and  in  many  respects  important,  to  know  that  it 
coincides  with  the  various  phenomena  observable  in  the  mineral 
kingdom.  The  structure  of  the  earth,  and  the  mode  of  distribution 
of  extraneous  fossils  or  petrifactions,  are  so  many  direct  evidences 
of  the  truth  of  the  scripture  account  of  the  formation  of  the  earth; 
ahd  they  might  be  used  as  proofs  of  its  author  having  been  inspired; 
because  the  mineralogical  facts  discovered  by  modern  naturalists 
were  unknown  to  the  sacred  historian.  Even  the  periods  of  time, 
the  six  days  of  the  Mosaic  description,  ara  not  inconsistent  with  our 
theories  of  the  earth.” — “The  deluge,  one  of  the  grandest  natural 


ADDENDA. 


events  described  in  the  Bible,  is  equally  confirmed,  with  regard  to 
its  extent  and  the  period  of  its  occurrence,  by  a  c  a  refit  1  study  of  the 
various  phenomena  observed  on  and  near  the  earth’s  surface.  The 
age  of  the  human  race,  also,  a  most  important  inquiry,  is  satisfacto¬ 
rily  determined  by  an  appeal  to  natural  appearances;  and  the  pre¬ 
tended  great  antiquity  of  some  nations,  So  much  insisted  on  by  certain 
philosophers,  is  thereby  shown  to  be  entirely  unfounded.” 

“On  the  other  hand,  how  little  progress  has  yet  been  made  towards 
bringing  any  irroof  against  the  authenticity  of  the  writings  of  Moses, 
from  the  various  theories  of  the  earth  that  have  been  produced,  may 
be  learned  from  the  following  declaration  of  M.  Cuvier  himself.  “The 
present  period,  with  respect  to  the  theory  of  the  earth,  hears  som<£ 
resemblance,”  he  observes,  “to  that  in  which  some  philosophers 
thought  that  the  heavens  were  formed  of  polished  stone,  and  that  the 
moon  was  no  larger  than  the  Peloponnesus.”  From  this  representa¬ 
tion,  we  may  learn  how  to  estimate  the  opinions  of  those,  who,  from 
their  partial  observations  and  fanciful  theories,  have  concluded  that,- 
as  the  world  has  no  appearance  of  having  had  a  beginning,  so  there 
is  no  probability  that  it  will  have  an  end. 

“The  following  is  an  extract  respecting  the  age  of  the  world,  from 
Watson’s  Letters  to  Gibbon,  addressed,  he  says,  “to  a  set  of  men  who 
have  picked  up  in  their  travels,  or  the  writings  of  the  Deists,  a  few 
flimsy  objections  against  Christianity.” — “I  cannot  help,”  he  pro¬ 
ceeds,  “taking  notice  of  an  argument  by  which  some  philosophers 
have  of  late  endeavored  to  overturn  the  whole  system  of  revelation ; 
and  it  is  the  more  necessary  to  give  an  answer  to  their  objection,  as  it 
is  become  a  common  subject  of  philosophical  conversation,  especially 
among  those  whehave  visited  the  continent.  The  objection  tends  to 
invalidate,  as  is  supposed,  the  authority  of  Moses,  by  showing  that  the 
earth  is  much  olier  than  it  can  be  proved  to  be  from  his  account  of 
the  creation,  and  the  scripture  chronology.  We  contend  that  six 
thousand  years  have  not  elapsed  since  the  creation.  And  these  phi¬ 
losophers  contend  that  they  have  indubitable  proof  of  the  earth’s 
being  at  the  least  fourteen  thousand  years  old;  and  they  complain 
that  Moses  hangs  as  a  dead  weight  upon  them,  and  blunts  all  their 
'zeal  for  inquiry. 

“The  Canonico  Recupero,  who,  it  seems,  is  engaged  in  writing 
the  history  of  Mount  Etna,  has  discovered  a  stratum  of  lava  which 
flowed  from  that  mountain,  according  to  his  opinion,  in  the  time  of 
the  second  Punic  War,  or  about  two  thousand  years  ago;  this  stratum 
is  not  yet  covered  with  soil  sufficient  for  the  production  of  either 
corn  or  vines;  it  requires,  then,  says  the  Canon,  two  thousand  years 
at  least,  to  convert  a  stratum  of  lava  into  a  fertile  field.  In  sinking  a 
pit  near  Jaci,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Etna,  they  have  discovered 
evident  marks  of  seven  distinct  lavas,  one  under  the  other;  the  sur¬ 
faces  of  which  are  parallel,  and  most  of  them  covered  with  a  thick 
bed  of  rich  earth;  now,  the  eruption  which  formed  the  lowest  of 
these  lavas,  (if  we  may  be  allowed  to  reason,  says  the  Canon,  from 
analogy,)  flowed  from  the  mountain  at  least  fourteen  thousand  years 


286 


ADDENDA. 


ft  go.”  To  this  it  is  replied:  “In  the  first  place,  the  Canon  has  not 
satisfactorily  established  his  main  fact,  that  the  lava  in  question  is 
the  identical  lava  which  Diodorus  Siculus  mentions  to  have  flowed 
from  Etna  in  the  second  Carthaginian  war;  and,  in  the  second  place, 
it  may  he  observed,  that  the  time  necessary  for  converting  lavas  into 
fertile  fields,  must  be  very  different,  according  to  the  different  con¬ 
sistencies  of  the  lavas,  and  their  different  situations,  with  respect  to 
elevation  or  depression,  to  their  being  exposed  to  winds,  rains,  and 
to  other  circumstances;  just  as  the  time  in  which  the  heaps  of  iron 
slag,  (which  resembles  lava.)  are  covered  with  verdure,  is  different 
at  different  furnaces,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  slag,  and  situation 
of  the  furnace;  and  something  of  this  kind  is  deducible  from  the  ac¬ 
count  of  the  Canon  himself;  since  the  crevices  of  this  famous  stratum 
are  really  full  of  rich  good  soil,  and  have  pretty  large  trees  growing 
in  them. 

“But  if  all  this  should  be  thought  not  sufficient  to  remove  the 
objection,  I  will  produce  the  Canon  an  analog}-  in  opposition  to  his 
analogy,  and  which  is  grounded  on  more  certain  facts.  Etna  and 
Vesuvius  resemble  each  other  in  the  causes  which  produce  their 
eruptions,  and  in  the  nature  of  their  lavas,  arid  in  the  time  necessary 
to  mellow  them  into  soil  fit  for  vegetation;  or  if  there  be  any  slight 
difference  in  this  respect,  it  is  probably  not  greater  than  what  sub¬ 
sists  between  different  lavas  of  the  same  mountain.  This  bein'* 

ij 

admitted,  which  no  philosopher  will  deny,  the  Canon’s  analogy  wiil 
prove  just  nothing  at  all,  if  we  can  produce  an  instance  of  seven 
different  lavas,  (with  interjacent  strata  of  vegetable  earth,)  which 
flowed  from  Mount  Vesuvius  within  the  space,  not  of  fourteen  thou¬ 
sand,  but  of  somewhat  less  than  seventeen  hundred  years:  for  then 
according  to  our  analogy,  a  stratum  of  lava  may  be  covered  with, 
vegetable  soil  in  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  instead  of  re¬ 
quiring  two  thousand  for  the  purpose.  The  eruption  of  Vesuvius, 
which  destroyed  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii,  is  rendered  still  more 
famous  by  the  death  of  Piinv,  recorded  by  his  nephew  in  his  letter 
to  Tacitus;  this  event  happened  in  the  year  79;  it  is  not  yet  then 
quite  seventeen  hundred  years  since  Herculaneum  was  swallowed  up : 
but  we  are  informed,  by  unquestionable  authority,  that  “the  matter 
which  covers  the  ancient  town  of  Herculaneum  is  not  the  produce  of 
one  eruption  only;  for  there  are  evident  marks  that  the  matter  of  six 
eruptions  has  taken  its  course  over  that  which  lies  immediately  above 
the  town,  and  was  the  cause  of  its  destruction.  These  strata  are 
cither  lava  or  burnt  matter,  with  veins  of  good  soil  between  them .”  I 
will  not  add  another  word  on  this  subject,  except  that  the  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  was  not  much  out  in  his  advice  to  Canonico  Recupero,  to 
take  care  not  to  make  his  mountain  older  than  Moses;  though  it  would 
have  been  full  as  well  to  have  shut  his  mouth  with  a  reason,  as  to  have 
stopped  it  with  the  dread  of  an  ecclesiastical  censure.” 

“In  order  to  invalidate  the  truth  of  revelation,  it  has  been  earnestly 
contended  that  the  human  race  is  not  descended  fnm  one  pair.  This, 
if  it  could  be  proved,  would  contradict  the  Mosaic  account  of  the* 


I 


< 


ADDENDA. 


2S7 


creation  of  man,  amkofthe  peopling  of  the  earth,  and  the  declaration 
of  the  Apostle,  that  “God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men.” 
It  also  strikes  at  the  root  of  the  whole  account  of  the  entrance  of  sin 
and  death  through  the  first  progenitor  of  mankind,  and  would  equally 
invalidate  the  universality  of  the  commission  of  the  Apostles  to  pro¬ 
claim  the  way  of  recovery  of  all  nations  through  the  righteousness 
of  the  second  Adam.  This  attempt,  however,  like  the  other  respect¬ 
ing  the  age  of  the  world,  has  proved  abortive.  Nothing  that  has  been 
observed  or  advanced  on  the  subject,  goes  at  all  to  establish  such  an 
opinion. 

“The  arguments  used  against  the  unity  of  the  human  race  have  all 
been  shown  to  be  unfounded,  and  many  of  them  ridiculous.  The  first 
and  chief  cause  of  its  variety  is  proved  by  an  appeal  to  facts  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  to  be  climate;  by  which  is  meant,  not  so  much  the 
latitude  of  a  country  from  the  equator,  as  the  degree  of  heat  or  cold, 
that  depends  on  many  connected  circumstances.  The  next  is  the 
state  of  society,  which  greatly  augments  or  corrects  the  influence  of 
climate,  and  is  itself  the  independent  cause  of  many  conspicuous  dis¬ 
tinctions  among  mankind.  These  causes,  it  has  been  shown,  may 
be  infinitely  varied  in  their  degree,  and  in  their  combinations  with 
other  principles ;  and,  in  the  innumerable  migrations  of  mankind,  they 
are  modified  by  their  own  previous  effects  in  a  prior  climate,  and  a 
prior  state  of  society.  [See  Dr.  Smith’s  Essay  on  the  Causes  o£  th^ 
Variety  of  Complexion  and  Figure  in  the  Human  Species.] 

“There  is  a  colony  of  Jews  at  Cochin,  upon  the  coast  of  Malabar, 
who  are  now  as  black  as  the  other  Malabarians,  who  are  hardly  a 
shade  lighter  than  the  people  of  Guinea,  Benin,  or  Angola. 

“In  opposition  to  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation,  and  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  earth  was  peopled,  both  at  the  beginning,  and 
after  the  flood,  it  is  often  argued,  and,  by  writers  of  a  certain  class', 
generally  taken  for  granted,  that  “in  the  earliest  periods  of  time, 
mankind,  in  every  part  of  the  globe,  were  in  a  state  of  absolute 
savageism.” 

“This  opinion  forms  the  basis  of  a  well  known  work,  called 
“Sketches  of  the  History  of  Man.”  To  what  is  there  advanced  on 
the  above  subject,  an  answer,  soon  after  its  publication,  appeared  in 
“Two  Letters  on  the  Savage  State,”  to  which  no  reply  was  made. — . 
In  the  course  of  these  letters,  the  following  propositions  are  illustrated 
by  a  great  number  of  particulars  collected  fl’om  ancient  and  modern 
history. 

“The  more  populous  and  extensive  kingdoms  and  societies  were 
civilized  at  a  period  prior  to  the  records  of  history:  the  presumption 
therefore,  is,  that  these  were  civilized  from  the  beginning. 

“No  people  who  were  once  in  a  cultivated  state,  and,  in  process  of 
time,  degenerated  into  the  savage  or  barbarous  state,  have  ever  reco¬ 
vered  their  pristine  condition,  without  foreign  aid.  This  furnishes  a 
presumptive  argument  that  man,  once  a  savage,  would  Lever  have 
raised  himself  from  that  hopeless  state. 


288 


ADDENDA. 


“None  of  the  nations  which  were  savages  or  barbarians  at  the 
period  of  their  first  appearance  in  histoiv,  have  ever  been  known  to 
move  one  step  forward  towards  a  civilized  state,  till  impelled  by  some 
external  circumstance,*  a  phenomenon  which  does  not  seem  to  favor 
the  progressive  motion  of  the  human  species  towards  a  state  of  civili¬ 
zation. 

“There  appears  in  savages  a  natural  and  rooted  aversion  to  a  civil¬ 
ized  state.  This  furnishes  a  strong  presumption,  that,  by  the  efforts 
of  their  natural  genius  alone,  they  never  would  have  raised  themselves 
above  their  original  character. 

“The  most  judicious  and  the  most  enlightened  sages  of  antiquity 
entertained  the  most  exalted  notions  of  the  piety,  virtue,  wisdom,  and 
justice  of  the  primitive  men.  If  we  can  depend  upon  their  opinion, 
there  must  always  have  existed,  in  some  region  of  the  globe,  a  society 
of  civilized  people. 

“The  idea  of  a  state  of  universal  savageism  seems  to  have  sprung 
from  the  chimerical  cosmogonies  of  Mochus,  Democritus,  Epicurus. 
&x.  These  cosmogonies,  nor  the  consequences  of  them,  were  ever 
admitted  by  the  wise  and  sober  sects  of  philosophers. 

“The  notion  of  a  golden  age ,  which  at  one  time  universally  prevail¬ 
ed,  is  inconsistent  with  the  universal  extent  of  the  empire  of  savage¬ 
ism.  „ 

“There  seems  to  be  in  human  nature  an  innate  propensity  towards 
degeneracy,  even  in  a  state  of  the  highest  improvement.  The  conse¬ 
quence  is  obvious, 

“Civilization  and  improvements  of  every  kind  have  always  been 
carried  to  the  highest  pitch  of  perfection  in  large  and  populous  socie¬ 
ties.  In  savages,  the  social  appetite  never  reaches  beyond  their  own 
sept  or  horde,  and  consequently  is  too  weak  and  too  confined  to  dis¬ 
pose  them  to  unite  into  large  communities ;  and,  of  course,  had  all 
mankind  been  once  in  the  savage  state,  they  never  could  have  arrived 
at  any  considerable  degree  of  civilization. 

“In  the  earliest  ages,  all  over  the  globe,  we  meet  with  names  of 
persons,  places,  offices,  dignities,  alluding  to,  or  formed  from,  names, 
epithets,  attributes  of  the  Deity,  or,  at  least,  from  the  objects  of  religi¬ 
ous  worship.  This  appearance  indicates  a  devout  turn  of  mind,  and 
consequently  a  state  of  things  greatly  superior  to  that  which  is  con¬ 
tended  for  by  the  gentlemen  of  your  Lordship’s  party.” 

“At  the  end  of  the  first  letter,  the  following  challenge  is  given  on 
the  subject:  “Upon  the  whole,  I  am  persuaded  your  Lordship  would 
oblige  not  a  few  of  your  unlearned  readers,  as  well  as  myself,  would 
you  be  condescending  enough  to  point  out  some  one  state ,  nation ,  or 
society ,  which  was  once  confessedly  composed  of  savages,  and  did 
actually,  without  foreign  assistance  of  any  kind,  by  the  gradual  ex¬ 
ertion  of  its  internal  powers,  after  passing  successively  through  all 
the  steps  and  stages  specified  in  your  Sketches,  at  length  arrive  at  a 
•state  of  complete  humanity  and  civilization.” 

Haldane’s  Evidences, 


ADDENDA. 


2m 


in  addition  to  the  argument  from  prophecy,  we  present  the  three 
following  prophecies,  yet  fulfilling: — 

NOAH’S  PROPHECY. 

“We  have  already  considered  the  prophecy  of  Noah,  as  it  refeis  to 
the  Messiah  ;  we  shall  now  observe  that  part  of  it  which  relates  to  the 
sentence  pronounced  on  'Canaan.  On  account  of  the  sin  of  which 
Ham,  his  second  son,  had  been  guilty,  Noah,  not  in  order  to  gratify 
any  feeling  of  resentment,  but  under  a  divine  impulse,  delivered  the 
following  prediction,  which  denounced  a  curse  upon  Canaan,  one  of 
the  sons  of  Ham,  and  a  blessing  on, Sherri  and  Japheth. 

“And  he  said, 

“Cursed  be  Canaan; 

“A  servant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren. 

“And  he  said, 

“Blessed  be  Jehovah,  God  of  Shem; 

“And  Canaan  shall  be  their  servant. 

“God  shall  enlarge  Japheth; 

“And  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem ; 

‘‘And  Canaan  shall  be  their  servant.” 

“Although  the  above  curse  was  not  pronounced  on  Ham  who  had 
been  personally,  the  transgressor,  yet  it  was  a  heavy  punishment  on 
]iim  to  hear  of  the  evil  that  was  to  fall  on  his  posterity.  In  this  part 
of  the  punishment,  Noah  also,  perhaps  on  account  of  his  own  improper 
conduct,  was  in  a  measure  involved,  in  being  employed  to  pronounce 
this  malediction  on  a  large  portion  of  his  own  descendants. 

“The  curse  was  directed  particularly  against  the  line  of  Canaan, 
which  must  have  tended  greatly  to  encourage  the  Israelites,  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  Shem,  when  sent  to  take  possession  of  that  land  which 
the  posterity  of  Canaan  inhabited ;  of  whom  those  that  were  not  de¬ 
stroyed,  were  brought  into  bondage,  as  the  Gibeonites,  who  became 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water.  At  the  same  time,  this  pun¬ 
ishment  was  to  be  inflicted  in  perfect  conformity  with  justice.  The 
descendants  of  Canaan  were  to  suffer,  for  their  own  sins,  by  which 
they  recognized  the  guilt  of  their  progenitor.  The  Israelites  were 
not  permitted  to  go  against  them  till  their  “iniquity  was  full,”  and 
till,  on  account  of  their  wickedness,  the  land,  in  the  emphatic  lan¬ 
guage  of  scripture,  “spewed  them  out;”  after  which  they  were  over¬ 
come  by  the  descendants  of  Shem.  The  posterity  of  Canaan  in  Tyre 
and  Carthage,  were  subdued  by  the  descendants  of  Japheth. 

“The  accomplishment  of  this  prophecy  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
confined  to  the  line  of  Canaan,  but  to  have  extended  to  the  other  chil¬ 
dren  of  Ham.  The  whole  continent  of  Africa  was  peopled  principally 
by  the  children  of  Ham,  and  for  many  ages  the  better  pacts  oi  tk  t 
country  lay  under  the  dominion  of  the  Romans,  then  of  the  Saracens, 
and  then  of  the  Turks,  Egypt  is  often  called  in  scripture  the  lend  of 
Ham,  and  for  many  years  it  was  a  grea.t  and  flourishing  kingdom. 
But  it  was  subdued  by  the  Persians,  who  descended  from  J aphe/' 
arid  from  that  time  to  this  it  has  constantly  been  in  subjection  to  por 
or  other  of  the  posterity  of  Shem  or  Japheth.  The  inha  A  tan  ts  e, 

vol.  n,  ■’  25 


290 


ADDENDA, 


Africa  have  been  bought  and  sold  for  slaves  from  the  earliest  periods 
of  history,  even  to  the  present  time.  Thus,  in  the  above  words  of 
Noah,  we  have  a  remarkable  prediction,  uttered  at  the  distance  of 
above  4000  years,  which  has  been  literally  fulfilling  from  that  time  to 
the  present  hour.”  Haldane's  Evidences. 

ISHMAEL. 

‘■Another  remarkable  prophecy  is  that  concerning  Ishmael  and  his 
descendants.  When  Hagar,  the  servant  of  Abraham,  fled  from  the  face 
of  her  mistress,  “the  angel  of  the  Lord  found  her  in  the  wilderness-, 
and  said  unto  her,  Return  unto  thy  mistress,  and  submit  thyself  unto 
herhands.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  her,  I  will  muitiply 
thy  seed  exceedingly,  that  it  shall  not  be  numbered  for  multitude. 
Ahd  the  angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  her,  Behold  thou  art  with  child, 
and  shalt  bear  a  son,  and  shall  call  his  name  Ishmael,  because  the 
Lord  has  heard  thy  affliction.  And  he  will  be  a  wild  man;  his  hand 
will  be  against  every  man,  and  every  man’s  hand  against  him,  and  he 
shall  dwell  in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethern.” — “Behold  I  have  bles¬ 
sed  him, and  will  make  him  fruitful,  and  will  multiply  him  exceeding- 
lv;  twelve  princes  shall  he  beget, and  I  will  make  him  a  great  nation.” 
All  these  prophecies  respecting  the  posterity  of  Ishmael  have  been 
remarkably  verified.  Strabo  frequently  mentions  the  Arabian  Phy- 
larchs,  or  rulers  of  tribes;  and  Meio,  quoted  by  Eusebius,  from  Alex¬ 
ander  Polyhlstor,  a  heathen  historian,  relates  that  twelve  sons  of 
Abraham  departing  into  Arabia,  divided  the  region  between  them, 
and  were  the  first  kings  of  the  inhabitants;  “whence,”  says  he,  “even 
to  our  days,  the  Arabians  have  twelve  kings  of  the  same  names  as  the 
first.”  Ever  since,  the  people  have  been  governed  by  Phylarchs,  and 
have  lived  in  tribes. 

“And  “I  will  make  him  a  great  nation.”  This  is  again  and  again 
repeated.  The  Saracens,  his  descendants,  made  rapid  and  extensive 
conquests,  and  erected  one  of  the  largest  empires  that  ever  was  in 
the  world.  “And  he  will  be  a  wild  man.”  It  is  said  of  Ishmael^ 
^Genesis  xxi.  20,  that  “he  dwelt  in  the  wilderness;”  and  his  sons  stili 
inhabit  the  same  wilderness,  and  many  of  them  neither  sow  nor  plant. 
“And  he  became  an  archer.”  Such  the  Arabs  have  been,  and  con¬ 
tinue  to  this  day.  “His  hand  will  be  against  every  man,  and  every 
man’s  hand  against  him.”  Ishmael  lived  by  prey  and  rapine  in  the 
wilderness;  and  his  posterity  have  all  along  infested  Arabia  and  the 
neighboring  countries  with  their  robberies  and  incursions.  They 
five  in  a  state  of  continual  war  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  are  both 
robbers  by  land,  and  pirates  by  sea.  They  have  been  enemies  to 
mankind,  and  the  rest  of  mankind  have  been  enemies  to  them,  and 
several  unsuccessful  attempts  have  been  made  to  extirpate  them. 
Even  nowr,  as  well  as  formerly,  travellers  are  forced  to  go  with  arms, 
and  in  caravans,  or  large  companies,  and  to  keep  watch,  and  to  de¬ 
fend  themselves  from  their  assaults,  as  they  go  about  in  troops,  and 
rob  and  plunder  all  whom  they  can  by  any  means  subdue.  These 
robberies  they  also  justify,  “by  alleging  the  hard  usage  of  their  father 


ADDENDA. 


2U 

fehmae],  who  being  turned  out  of  doors  by  Abraham,  had  the  open 
plains  and  deserts  given  him  by  God  for  his  patrimony,  with  permis¬ 
sion  to  take  whatever  he  could  find  there.  And,  on  this  account,  they 
think  they  may  indemnify  themselves  as  well  as  they  can,  not  only 
on  the  posterity  of  Isaac,  but  also  on  all  besides.” 

“Add  he  shall  dwell”  (tabernacle,  or  dwell  in  tents)  “in  the  presence 
ef  all  his  brethren.”  It  appears  that  they  dwelt  in  tents  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  so  long  ago  as  in  Isaiah’s  and  Jerpmiah’s  time;  and  they  do  the 
same  at  this  day.  Their  hand  is  against  every  man,  and  every  man’s 
hand  against  them;  and  yet  they  are  able  to  dwell  in  the  presence  of 
all  their  brethren.  This  has  been  fulfilled  both  in  the  person  of  Ish- 
mael,  and  in  his  posterity.  As  for  Tshmae!  himself,  the  sacred  histo¬ 
rian  afterwards  relates,  (Gen.  xxv.  47,  48.)  that  “the  years  of  thd  life 
of  Ishmael  were  a  hundred  and  thirty  and  seven  years,,  and  he  died 
in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethren.  His  posterity  dwelt  likewise  in 
the  presence  of  all  their  brethren;  Abraham’s  sons  by  Keturah;  the 
Moabites  and  Ammonites,  descendants  of  Lot;  the  Israelites,  descend¬ 
ants  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Esau.  And  they  still  subsist  a  distinct 
people,  and  inhabit  the  country  of  their  progenitors,  notwithstanding 
the  perpetual  enmity  between  them  and  the  rest  of  mankind.  They 
have  from  first  to  last  maintained  their  independence;  and,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  most  powerful  efforts  for  their  destruction,  they  still 
dwell  in  the  presence  of  all  their  brethren. 

“They  were  never  subjected  by  their  powerful  neighbors  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  or  Assyrians,  nor  by  Cyrus  and  the  Persians,  the  next  great 
conquerors  of  the  East.  Neither  he  nor  his  successors  ever  reduced, 
the  whole  body  of  the  Arabs  to  subjection.  They  conquered  some  of 
the  exterior,  but  never  reached  the  interior  parts  of  the  country.—- 
Herodotus,  who  lived  nearest  to  these  times,  says  expressly,  that  the 
Arabs  were  never  reduced  by  the  Persians  to  the  condition  of  subjects, 
but  were  considered  by  them  as  friends,  and  opened  to  them  a  passage 
into  Egypt,  which,  without  the  assistance  and  permission  of  the  Arabs, 
would  have  been  utterly  impracticable.  In  another  place,  he  says, 
that  while  Phoenicia,  Palestine,  Syria,  and  the  neighboring  countries, 
were  taxed,  the  Arabian  territories  continued  free  from  paying  any 
tribute. 

“Alexander  the  Great  then  overturned  the  Persian  empire,  and 
conquered  Asia.  He  was  preparing  an  expedition  against  the  Arabs, 
when  an  inflammatory  fever  cut  him  off  in  the  flower  of  his  age. 
Alexander’s  successors  attempted  to  subdue  them,  hut  failed.  Diodo¬ 
rus  says,  that  “neither  the  Assyrians  formerly,  nor  the  kings  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  nor  yet  of  the  Macedonians,  were  able  to  subdue 
them;  nav,  though  they  led  many  and  great  forces  against  them,  yet 
they  could  not  accomplish  their  attempts.” 

“The  Romans  then  invaded  the  East,  and  subdued  the  countries  ad¬ 
joining;  but  were  never  able  to  reduce  Arabia  into  the  form  of  a 
Roman  province.  Pompey,  though  he  triumphed  over  three  parts  of 
the  world,  could  not  conquer  Arabia.  Elius  Gallus,  in  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  penetrated  far  into  the  country;  but  at  last  escaped  with  a 


ADDENDA, 


» J.-y 

small  remainder  of  his  forces.  Trajan  reduced  some  part©  of  Arabia^ 
but  could  never  reduce  it  entirely.  When  he  besieged  the  city  of  the 
Hagarenes,  lie  was  constantly  repulsed,  and  at  length  was  forced  to' 
Fuise  the  siege,  and  retired  with  disgrace  into  his  own  dominions. 
About  eighty  years  afterwards,  the  Emperor  Severue  twice  besieged 
the  same  city  with  a  numerous  army,  and  a  train  of  military  engines; 
but  he  had  no  better  success  than  Trajan;  neither  did  any  of  the 
following  emperors  prevail  against  them.  The  Arabs  continued  their 
incursions  and  depredations  in  Syria,  and  other  Roman  provinces, 
Tilth  equal  license  and  impunity. 

“Sach  was  the  state  and  condition  of  the  Arabs  to  the  time  of  Ma¬ 
homet,  who  laid  the  foundations  of  a  mighty  empire;  and  then,  for 
sHvera!  centuries,  they  were  better  known  among  the  European  nations 
by  the  name  of  Saracens, — the  Araceni  of  Pliny,  and  the  Hagarenes 
of  Scripture.  Their  conquests  were  amazingly  rapid.  In  a  few 
years  the  Saracens  overran  more  countries,  and  subdued  more  people, 
than  the  Romans  did  in  several  centuries.  They  were  then  not  only 
independent  themselves,  but  masters  of  the  most,  considerable  parts  of 
the  world.  After  their  empire  was  dissolved,  and  they  were  reduced 
within  the  limits  of  their  native  country,  .they  still  maintained  their 
liberty  against  the  Tartars,  Mamalucs,  Turks, and  all  foreign  enemies 
whatever.  Whoever  conquered  Asia,  they  were  still  unconquered, 
and  still  continued  their  incursions,  and  preyed  on  all.  The  Turks 
have  now,  for  several  centuries,  been  masters  of  the  adjacent  coun- 
T.ries:  but  they  have  been  so  little  able  to  restrain  the  depredations  of 
toe  Arabs,  that  they  have  been  obliged'  to  pay  them  a  sort  of  annual 
tribute. 

“Thus  has  this  single  nation  stood  out  against  the  enmity  of  the 
w  hole  world  for  near  4000  years  together.  The  great  empires  around 
them  have  all  in  their  turns  fallen  to  ruin,  while  they  have  continued 
the  same  from  the  beginning.  This,  in  the  common  course  of  human 
a  flairs,  was  in  the  highest  degree  improbable.  These  are  the  only 
people,  besides  the  Jews,  who  have  subsisted  as  a  distinct  peoplo 
from  the  beginning.  They,  as  well  as  the  Jews,  hoastof  their  descent 
from  Abraham,  from  whom  also  they  profess  to  have  derived  circum¬ 
cision/’ 


THE  JEWS. 

“The  kingdom  of  Israel  vras  separated  from  all  other  nations,  in 
order  that,  through  it,  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which  was  to  be  uni¬ 
versal,  might  be  introduced.  Inconsequence  of  this  separation,  the 
Jews  enjoyed  uncommon  privileges:  but,  as  they  abused  these  privi¬ 
leges,  their  punishment  has  been  as  signal  as  their  exaltation.  Through- 
O', it  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament  scriptures,  from  the  time  when 
ihev  were  separated  as  a  notion,  there  is  a  remarkable  series  of  pro¬ 
phecies  concerning  them,  to  which  an  important  addition  was  after¬ 
wards  made  by  the  Lord  Jesus  himself.  To  some  of  these  prophecies 
we  shall  now  advert,  especially  such  as  were  delivered  by  Moses. 


ADDENDA. 


203 


“In  the  30th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  Moses  says  to  Israel,  ‘If  thine 
heart  turn  away  so  that  thou  wilt  not  hear,  but  shalt  be  drawn  away, 
and  worship  other  gods  and  serve  them,  I  denounce  unto  you  this  day 
that  you  shall  surely  perish,  and  that  you  shall  not  prolong  your  days 
upon  the  land  whither  thou  passest  over  Jordan  to  possess  it.’  In  the 
28th  chapter  of  the  same  book,  a  full  detail  is  given  of  the  calamities 
that  would  overtake  them  if  they  should  be  disobedient.  These  pre¬ 
dictions  were  all  fulfilled,  though  not  at  once.  Different  enemies  were 
brought  against  them,  and  they  sustained  several  sieges,  all  pointed 
out  in  various  predictions,  which  weie  ultimately  and  fully  accom¬ 
plished  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans,  when  ‘wrath 
came  upon  them  to  the  uttermost,’  and  in  their  final  and  grand  disper¬ 
sion. 

“We  find  it  foretold,  that  an  enemy  was  to  be  brought  against 
them  for  their  punishment.  Dent,  xxxviii.  49.  “The  Lord  shall 
bring  a  nation  against  thee  from  far,  from  the  end  of  the  earth,  as 
the  eagle  flieth;  a  nation  whose  tongue  thou  shalt  not  understand.” 
Again,  “Lo  I  will  bring  a  nation  upon  you  from  far,  O  house  of  Is¬ 
rael,  saith  the  Lord.  It  is  a  mighty  nation;  it  is  an  ancient  nation; 
a  nation  whose  language  thou  knowest  not,  neither  understandest 
what  they  say.” — A  nation  of  fierce  countenance,  which  shall  not 
regard  the  person  of  the  old,  nor  show  favor  to  the  young.” — And 
lie  shall  besiege  thee  in  tiiy  gates,  until  thy  high  and  fenced  walls 
come  down,  wherein  thou  trustedst,  throughout  all  the  land.”  Thus 
the  Romans,  whose  significant  standard  was  an  eagle  were  brought 
against  them. 

“In  the  siege,  they  were  to  suffer  much,  especially  from  famine. 
The  man’s  “eye  shall  be  evil  toward  his  his  brother,  and  toward  the 
wife  of  his  bosom,  and  toward  his  children;  because  he  hath  nothing 
left  him  in  the  siege,  and  in  the  straitness  wherewith  thine  enemies 
shall  distress  thee  in  thy  gates;  and  in  like  manner,  the  woman’s 
“eye  shall  be  evil  towards  the  husband  of  her  bosom,  and  toward 
her  son,  and  toward  her  daughter.” 

“It  was  expressly  foretold,  that  not  on!  v  the  men,  but  even  the  wo¬ 
men,  should  eat  their  own  children.  “Ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of  your 
sons,  and  the  flesh  ofvour  daughters  shall  ve  eat.” — “And  thou  shalt 
eat  the  fruit  of  thine  own  body,  the  flesh  of  thy  sons  and  thy  daugh¬ 
ters.”  And  more  particularly,  “The  tender  and  delicate  woman  among 
you,  who  would  not  adventure  to  set  the  sole  of  her  foot  upon  the 
ground,  for  delicateness  and  tenderness, — she  shall  eat  her  children, 
for  want  of  all  things,  secretly  in  the  siege  and  straitness  wherewith 
thine  enemies  shall  distress  thee  in  thy  gates.”  This  was  fulfilled 
about  six  hundred  years  after  the  time  of  Moses  among  the  Israelites, 
when  Samaria  was  besieged  by  the  King  of  Syria,  and  two  women 
agreed  together,  the  one  to  give  up  her  son  to  be  boiled  and  eaten  to¬ 
day,  and  the  other  to  deliver  up  her  son  to  be  dressed  and  eaten  to¬ 
morrow;  and  one  of  them  was  eaten  accordingly.  It  was  fulfilled 
again,  about  nine  hundred  years  after  the  time  of  Moses  among  the 
Jews,  in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  before  the  Babylonish  captivity.— 
VOL.  if.  25* 


ADDENDA. 


m 


Jeremiah  bewails  this  in  his  Lamentations :  “The  hands  of  the  pitiful 
women  have  sodden  their  own  children;  they  were  their  meat  in  the 
destruction  of  the  daughter  of  my  people.”  And  again  it  was  ful¬ 
filled,  about  fifteen  hundred  years  after  the  time  of  Moses,  in  the  last 
siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus.  And  we  read  in  Josephus,  particularly, 
of  a  noblewoman,  illustrious  for  her  family  and  riches,  killing  and 
eating  her  own  sucking  child.  Thus  exactly  were  fulfilled  the  words 
of  Moses,  concerning  “the  tender  and  delicate  woman,  who  would 
not  adventure  to  set  the  sole  of  her  foot  upon  the  ground,  for  delicate- 
ness  and  tenderness.” 

“Great  numbers  of  the  Jews  were  to  be  destroyed.  “And  ve  shall 
be  left  fewr  in  number,  whereas  ye  were  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for 
multitude.”  Josephus  computes,  that,  during  the  whole  siege,  the- 
number  of  those  who  were  destroyed  by  it  and  by  the  war,  amounted 
to  eleven  hundred  thousand,  the  people  being  assembled  from  all 
parts  to  celebrate  the  passover. 

“They  were  to  be  carried  into  Egypt,  and  sold  for  a  very  low  price. 
“And  the  Lord  shall  bring  thee  into  Egypt  again  with  ships, and  there 
ye  shall  be  sold  unto  your  enemies  for  bondmen  and  bondwomen, 
and  no  man  shall  buy  you.”  This  was  literally  fulfilled.  The  mark¬ 
ets  were  quite  overstocked  with  them;  and  Josephus  says,  they  were 
sold  with  their  wives  and  children  at  the  lowest  price. 

“They  were  to  be  rooted  out  of  their  own  land.  “And  ve  shall  be 
plucked  from  off  the  land  whither  thou  goest  to  possess  it.” 

“They  were  also  to  be  dispersed  into  all  nations.  “And  thou 
shalt  be  removed  into  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.”  And  again, 
“The  Lord  shall  scatter  thee  among  all  people,  from  one  end  of  the 
earth  even  unto  the  other.” — “I  will  scatter  you  among  the  Heathen, 
and  will  draw  out  a  sword  after  you,  and  your  land  shall  be  desolate, 
and  your  cities  waste.”  All  this  has  been  literally  fulfilled. 

“They  shall  suffer  much  in  their  dispersion.  “And  among  those 
nations  shalt  thou  find  no  ease,  neither  shall  the  sole  of  thy  feet  have 
rest.”  They  have  been  banished  from  city  to  city,  from  country  to 
country.  In  many  places  they  have  been  banished,  and  recalled, 
and  banished  again.  In  the  latter  end  of  the  13th  century,  they  were 
banished  from  England :  in  the  latter  pnd  of  the  14th  century,  they 
were  banished  from  France  for  the  seventh  time:  in  the  latter  end  of 
the  15th  century,  they  were  banished  from  Spain.  Most  of  them 
paid  dearly  for  a  refuge  in  Portugal ;  but;  within  a  few  years,  they 
were  expelled  from  thence  also. 

“They  should  be  “oppressed  and  spoiled  evermore;”  and  their 
“houses”  and  “vineyards,”  their  “oxen”  and  “asses,”  should  be  taken 
from  them,  and  “they  should  be  only  oppressed  and  crushed  alway.” 
Frequent  seizures  have  been  made  of  their  effects,  and  they  have  been 
fined  and  plundered  in  almost  all  countries;  and  in  innumerable  in¬ 
stances, they  have  been  forced  to  redeem  their  lives  with  their  treasure. 

“Thy  sons  and  thy  daughters  shall  he  given  unto  another  people.” 
!n  several  countries,  in  Spain  and  Portugal  particularly,  their  ohiL 


ADDENDA 


295 


chen  have  been  taken  from  them  by  order  of  the  government,  to  bn 
educated  in  the  Popish  religion.  When  they  were  banished  front 
Portugal,  the  King  ordered  all  their  children  under  fourteen  to  be 
taken  from  them  and  baptized. 

“Thou  shalt  be  mad  for  the  sight  of  thine  eyes  which  thou  shall 
see.”  By  cruel  usage,  extortions,  and  oppressions,  which  they  have 
undergone,  they  have  often  been  driven  to  madness  and  desperation; 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  reign  of  Richard  the  First,  when  the  people 
were  in  arms  to  make  a  general  massacre  of  them,  fifteen  hundred  of 
them  seized  on  the  citv  of  York  to  defend  themselves;  but,  bein';  be- 
sieged,  they  offered  to  capitulate,  and  to  ransom  their  lives  with 
money.  The  offer  being  refused,  one  of  them  cried  in  despair,  that 
it  was  better  to  die  courageously  for  the  law,  than  to  Fa II  into  the  hands 
of  the  Christians.  Every  one  immediately  stabbed  his  wife  and 
children.  The  men  afterwards  retired  into  the  King’s  palace,  which 
they  set  on  fire,  in  which  they  consumed  themselves  with  the  palace 
and  furniture. 

“And  thou  shalt  become  an  astonishment, a  proverb,  and  a  by-word 
among  all  nations  whither  the  Lord  shall  lead  thee.”  This  prophecy 
we  see  and  hear  fulfilled  almost  every  day.  The  word  Jew  is  con¬ 
tinually  used  as  a  proverb.  They  are  generally  hated.  Mahome- 
tans,  heathens,  and  nominal  Christians,  however  they  may  disagree 
in  other  points,  yet  agree  in  vilifying,  abusing,  and  persecuting  the 
Jews. 

“And  the  Lord  will  make  thy  plagues  wonderful,  and  the  plagues 
of  thy  seed,  even  great  plagues,  and  o  £  long  continuance  ^  Such  are 
the  awful  denunciations  of  prophecy  against  the  Jews,  which  have 
overtaken  them  on  account  of  their  many  and  aggravated  transgres¬ 
sions;  but  above  all  on  account  of  the  rejection  of  the  Messiah.  It 
was  then  that  the  measure  of  their  iniquity  was  filled  up.  1  Thess. 
ii.  15,  “They  both  killed  the  Lord  Jesus  and  their  own  prophets, 
and  have  persecuted  us,  and  they  please  not  God,  and  are  contrary 
to  all  men.  Forbidding  us  to  speak  to  the  Gentiles,  that  they  might 
be  saved,  to  fill  up  their  sins  always,  for  the  wrath  has  come  upon 
them  to  the  uttermost.”  Thus  their  own  imprecation  has  been 
remarkably  and  awfully  fulfilled,  “His  blood  be  upon  us  and  our 
children.” 

“The  foregoing  prophecies  were  all  delivered  by  Moses  more  than 
300  years  ago ,  and  many  others,  to  the  like  effect,  are  scattered 
through  the  writings  of  all  the  subsequent  prophets. 

“The  Lord  Jesus  himself  has  added  a  most  minute  and  remarkable 
prediction  concerning  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple, 
uttered  nearly  forty  years  before  that  event.  A  full  and  most  striking 
illustration  of  this  prophecy,  in  a  detail  of  all  the  circumstances 
which  took  place,  is  given  by  Josephus,  who  was  an  eye  witness  on 
the  spot.  The  temple  was  burnt  on  the  10th  day  of  the  month  of 
August,  of  the  year  70,  the  same  day  on  which  it  had  been  burnt  by 
the  king  of  Babylon.  Tacitus,  the  Roman  historian,  confirms,  by 
his  account  of  the  siege,  the  testimony  of  Josephus. 


ADDENDA. 


296 

“The  destruction  of  the  temple  and  city  of  Jerusalem  is  an  event  of 
great  importance.  It  accomplished  a  great  number  of  prophecies. 
And  by  putting  a  visible  and  necessary  end  to  the  Jewish  economy, 
it  made  w'av  for  the  dispensation  of  the  Messiah. 

“Titus,  who  commanded  the  Roman  army,  was  exceedingly  desirous 
of  saving  the  temple.  But,  contrary  to  his  most  earnest  wish,  cir¬ 
cumstances  led  to  its  being  set  on  fire.  A  dreadful  massacre  ensued, 
in  which  thousands  perished,  and  the  whole  city,  with  its  fortifica¬ 
tions,  palaces,  towers,  and  walls,  were  levelled  to  the  ground. — » 
Before  the  temple  was  consumed,  Titus  entered  into  the  sanctuary 
and  most  holy  place,  and  was  struck  with  its  remaining  grandeur 
Out  of  the  former  he  saved  the  golden  candlestick,  the  table  of  the 
siirw  bread,  the  altar  of  incense,  all  of  pure  gold,  and  the  book  of  the 
law  wrapped  up  in  a  rich  golden  tissue.  After  Vespasian’s  triumph 
at  Rome, he  built  a  Temple  of  Peace,  in  which  he  laid  up  these  golden 
vessels  and  instruments;  but  the  law,  and  the  purple  veils  of  the 
holy  place,  he  ordered  to  be  deposited  in  this  place.  These  spoils 
were  carried  off  by  Genseric,  four  hundred  years  afterwards,  when 
he  pillaged  Rome.  On  the  triumphal  arch  of  Titus,  erected  at  Rome, 
which  remains  a  noble  monument  of  antiquity,  and  which  the  writer 
of  this  has  seen,  the  representation  of  the  table  and  candlestick  is 
still  visible.  There  is  a  small  passage  at  one  side  for  the  Jews,  as 
they  cannot  be  prevailed  on  to  go  under  the  arch. 

“To  his  prophecy  concerning  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  Jesus 
added  another  strikingly  descriptive  of  its  condition  since  that  event 
to  the  present  hour,  which  also  contains  an  intimation  that  the  Jews 
shall  at  last  be  restored.  “And  they  shall  fall  by  the  ed^e  of  the 
sword,  and  shall  be  led  away  captive  into  all  nations,  and  Jerusalem 
shall  he  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  till  the  times  o  f  the  Gentiles  shall 
he  fulfilled ,”  or,  as  Paul  expressed  it,  “till  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles 
be  come  in. 

“The  present  internal  condition  of  the  Jews  is  remarkably  declar¬ 
ed,  in  connexion  with  their  future  restoration,  in  the  words  of  the 
Prophet  Ilosea.  “The  chifdren  of  Israel  shall  abide  many  days 
without  a  king,  and  without  a  prince,  and  without  a  sacrifice,  and 
without  an  image,  (or  altar,)  and  without  an  ephod,  (or  priest  to  wear 
an  ephod,)  and  without  taraphim,  (or  Divine  manifestations.)  After¬ 
wards  shall  the  children  of  Israel  return,  and  seek  the  Lord  their  God, 
and  David  their  king,  and  shall  fear  the  Lord  and  his  goodness  in  the 
latter  days.”  According  to  the  law  of  Moses,  their  solemn  feasts  and 
sacrifices  are  limited  to  one  certain  place,  and  that  has  been  now  for 
many  ages  in  the  hands  of  strangers  and  aliens,  who  will  not  suffer 
them  to  go  thither.  Thus,  in  the  most  complete  manner  has  the 
prediction  of  Daniel,  when  speaking  of  the  coming  of  the  Messiah, 
been  fulfilled.  He  shall  “make  an  end  of  sin  offering;”  and  again,  “he 
shall  cause  the  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  to  cease.''  The  Emperor 
Julian,  in  order  to  falsify  these  predictions,  and  because  the  Lord  had 
said,  Jerusalem  “shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,”  attempted 


ADDENDA. 


to  rebuild  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and  promised  to  restore  the  Jews 
to  their  habitations.  Ilis  purpose,  however,  was  frustrated,  and  his 
death,  on  his  Persian  expedition,  put  an  end  to  their  hopes  from  that 
quarter. 

“The  preservation  of  the  Jews  as  a  separate  people,  and  their  re¬ 
storation  at  last,  are  as  distinctly  announced  as  their  various  calami¬ 
ties  and  dispersions. 

“Moses  says,  “The  land  also  shall  be  left  of  them,  and  shall  enjoy 
her  Sabbaths,  while  she  lieth  desolate  without  them;  and  they  shall 
accept  of  the  punishment  of  their  iniquity,  because,  even  because 
they  despise  my  judgments,  and  because  their  soul  abhorred  my 
statutes.  And  yet  for  all  that,  when  they  be  in  the  land  of  their  en¬ 
emies,  I  will  not  cast  them  away,  neither  will  I  abhor  them,  to  destrcPr 
them  utterly,  and  to  break  my  covenant  with  them ;  for  1  am  the 
Lord  their  God.  Put  I  will,  for  their  sakes,  remember  the  covenant 
of  their  ancestors,  whom  I  brought  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  in 
the  sight  of  the  Heathen,  that  I  might  be  their  God:  I  am  the  Lord.” 
Jeremiah  says,  “Fear  thou  not,  O  Jacob,  my  servant,  saith  the  Lord, 
for  I  am  with  thee;  for  I  will  make  a  full  end  of  all  the  nations  whither 
I  have  driven  thee;  but  I  will  not  make  a  full  end  of  thee.”  And 
again  the  prophet  Amos,  “For,  lo,  1  will  command^  and  I  will  sift  the 
house  of  Israel  among  all  nations,  like  as  corn  is  sifted  in  a  sieve,  yet 
fhail  not  the  least  grain  fall  upon  the  earth.”  Accordingly  although 
the  Jews  are  dispersed  among  all  nations,  they  still  continue  a  dis¬ 
tinct  people,  and  yet  they  no  where  live  according  to  their  own  laws, 
^o  where  elect  their  own  magistrates,  and  no  where  can  enjoy  the 
full  exercise  of  their  religion. 

“No  people  have  continued  unmixed  so  long  as  they  have  done, 
not  only  of  those  who  have  sent  forth  colonies  into  foreign  countries, 
but  even  of  those  who  have  remained  in  their  own  country.  The 
northern  nations  have  come  in  swarips  into  the  more  southern  parts 
of  Europe;  but  where  are  they  now  to  be  discerned  and  distinguished? 
The  Gauls  went  forth  in  great  bodies  to  seek  their  fortune  in  foreign 
parts;  but  what  traces  or  footsteps  of  them  are  now  remaining  any 
where?  In  France,  who  can  separate  the  race  of  the  ancient  Gauls 
from  the  various  people  who  from  time  to  time  have  set  tled  there?  In 
Spain,  who  can  distinguish  exactly  between  the  first  possessors  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  Goths,  and  the  Moors,  who  conquered  and  kept 
possession  of  the  country  for  some  ages?  In  England,  who  can  pre¬ 
tend  to  say  with  certainty  which  families  are  derived  from  the  anci¬ 
ent  Britons,  and  which  from  the  Romans,  or  Saxons,  or  Danes,  ox* 
Normans  ? 

“The  most  ancient  and  honorable  pedigrees,  can  be  traced  up  only 
to  a  certain  period;  arid,  beyond  that,  there  is  nothing  but  conjecture 
and  uncertainty,  obscurity,  and  ignorance.  But  tire  Jews  can  go  up 
higher  than  any  nation;  they  can  even  deduce  their  pedigree  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world.  They  may  not  know  from  what  particu¬ 
lar  tribe  or  family  they  are  descended;  but  they  know  certainly  that 
they  ail  sprung  from  the  stock  of  Abraham.  And  yet,  the  contempt 


298 


ADDENDA, 


with  which  they  have  been  treated,  and  the  hardships  they  have  tm* 
-tlergone,  in  almost  all  countries,  should,  it  might  be  supposed,  have 
made  them  desirous  to  forget  or  renounce  their  original ;  but  they 
profess  it,  they  glory  in  it;  and  after  so  many  wars,  massacres,  and 
persecutions,  they  still  subsist,  they  still  are  very  numerous.  We 
see  them  excluded  from  the  only  country  to  which  they  had  any 
attachment,  vagabonds  on  the  earth,  and  dispersed  indifferently 
through  every  quarter  of  it,  the  scorn  and  outcasts  of  all  other  nations. 
On  the  other  hand,  although  every  where  spurned,  reviled,  and  op¬ 
pressed,  we  see  them  yet  continuing  to  hoM  fast  their  offensive  pro¬ 
fession,  and  not  worn  out  by  this  usage,  nor  induced  by  it  to  renounce 
that'  profession,  and  take  refuge  in  the  mass  of  the  people  among 
*w!iom  they  live.  But  they  still  subsist,  a  numerous,  a  distinct,  and 
wretched  people^  All  this  has  something  in  it  which  the  common 
principles  of  human  nature  will  not  explain. 

“The  predictions  concerning  the  restoration  of  the  Jews,  are  also 
express.  “Behold  I  will  take  the  children  of  Israel  from  among  the 
heathen,  whither  they  be  gone,  and  will  gather  them  on  every  side, 
and  bring  them  into  their  own  land;  And  they  shall  dwell  in  the  land 
that  I  have  given  unto  Jacob  my  servant,  even  they  and  their  chil¬ 
dren,  and  their  children’s  children  for  ever;  and  my  servant  David 
shall  be  their  prince  for  ever.”  “Then  shall  they  know  that  I  am 
the  Lord  their  God,  who  caused  them  to  be  led  into  captivity  among 
the  heathen;  but  I  have  gathered  them  into  their  own  land,  and  have 
left  none  of  them  any  more  there.  Neither  will  I  hide  my  face  any 
more  from  them;  for  I  have  poured  out  my  spirit  upon  the  house  of 
Israel,  saith  the  Lord  God.”  These  promises  have  already  had  a 
subordinate  and  typical  fulfilment;  but  their  ultimate  accomplishment, 
after  which  the  Lord  will  not  hide  his  face  any  more  from  them,  is 
still  future. 

“In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  Apostle  Paul  ascribes  the  future 
restoration  of  Israel  to  the  favor  of  God.  After  informing  his  breth¬ 
ren  that  the  Jewish  nation  was  broken  off  because  of  unbelief,  and 
warning  them  to  be  on  their  guard  lest  they  too,  as  branches  grafted 
in,  should  be  broken  off  on  the  same  account,  he  says,  “For  I  would 
not,  brethren,  that  you  should  be  ignorant  of  this  mystery,  (lest  you 
should  be  wise  in  your  own  conceits,)  that  blindness  in  part  has 
happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in:  and 
so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved,” 

“The  present  situation  of  the  Jews,  and  what  it  has  been,  especially 
for  the  last  1700  years,  is  such,  that  when  compared  with  the  fore¬ 
going  prophecies,  it  is  sufficient  to  strike  infidelity  dumb.  Many 
object  to  the  miracles  of  the  first  ages  of  Christianity;  and,  in  order 
to  discredit  them,  bring  forward  all  the  counterfeit  miracles  that  can 
be  raked  together.  They  insist,  in  like  manner,  that  the  prophecies 
of  Scripture  are  either  so  obscure  that  they  cannot  be  understood, 
and  that  they  may  mean  any  thing;  or,  that  they  were  written  after 
the  events  which  they  are  said  to  predict.  Here  then  is  a  series  of 
prophecies  concerning  facts  obvious  to  their  senses,  of  which  it  cannot 


ADDENDA. 


299 


be  even  alleged  that  it  is  either  forged  or  obscure.  M>r,  although 
they  were  to  collect  all  the  conjectures  that  ever  camejto  pass,  which 
have  been  dignined  with  the  name  of  prophecies,  can  they  pretend 
to  show  any  thing  like  these  combined  pre-intimations  of  a  great, 
extensive,  and  complex  historical  fact? 

“If,  admitting  that  there  is  something  remarkable  in  these  predic¬ 
tions,  they  should  assert  that  the  event  .itself  may  be  accounted  for 
from  natural  causes;  let  them,  in  all  the  history  of  the  world,  point 
out  any  thing  similar  to  it.  It  is  sometimes  said,  that  the  Jews  be¬ 
lieved  themselves  the  favorites  of  heaven;  and  it  is  natural  to  cling 
to  such  a  flattering  idea.  If  they  believe  themselves  to  be  so,  what 
was  it  which,  notwithstanding  all  the  calamities  they  had  suffered, 
has  indelibly  impressed  on  them  this  belief?  When  men,  in  oppos¬ 
ing  evident  truth,  attempt  to  get  rid  of  one  difficulty,  they  only  mil 
into  another  Let  all  be  upon  their  guard,  lest  the  declaration  applied 
to  the  Jews  by 'Paul,  be  in  them  also  verified.  “Behold  ye  dcspiscrs 
and  wonder  and  perish ,  for  I  work  a  work  in  YOUR  days ,  a  work 
which  ye  shall  in  no  wise  believe ,  though  a  man  declare  it  unto  you .” 

SECOND  PSALM. 

“WHY  did  nations  rage?  And  tribes  meditate  vain  things?  The 
kings  of  the  earth  combined ;  and  the  chiefs  assembled  together, 
against  the  Lord  and  against  his  Christ,  [saying] 

“  ‘Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder  and  throw  off  from  us  their 
yoke.’ 

“He  who  dwells  in  heaven  will  laugh  them  to  scorn — the  Lord  will 
treat  them  with  derision.  Then  will  lie  speak  to  them  in  his  wrath 
and  trouble  them  with  his  sore  displeasure.  But  as  for  me,  by  him  I 
am  appointed  king  on  Sion,  his  holy  mountain.  I  proclaim  the  decree 
of  the  Lord;  to  me  the  Lord  said, 

“  ‘Thou  art  my  Son,  this  clay  I  have  begotten  thee,  Ask  of  me,  and 
I  will  give  thee  nations  for  thine  inheritance,  and  the  utmost  parts  of 
the  earth  for  thy  possession.  Thou  shalt  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron. 
Thou  shalt  break  them  to  pieces  like  a  potter''#  vessel  ’ 

“Now  therefore,  O  kings,  be  wise :  Be  instructed,  all  you,  who  judge 
the  earth. 

“Serve  the  Lord  with  fear;  and  rejoice  for  him  with  trembling. 
Keep  fast  hold  of  instruction ;  the  Lord  may  be  angry  and  you  may 
perish  out  of  the  right  way.  When  his  anger  suddenly  blazes  forth, 
happy  are  all  they  who  have  trusted  in  him.” — Thomson's  version. 

CONCLUSION. 

IN  the  preceding  pages  there  is  not  to  he  found  that  argument  which 
is,  to  millions^  the  most  convincing  of  all.  1  purposely  omitted  it 
till  now.  I  am  aware  that  it  is  only  in  one  way,  addressed  to  all 
mankind.  All  may  test  it,  but  all  do  not.  It  is  an  argument  which 
produces  assurance.  Nay,  it  is  itself  assurance.  It  is  no  more  to  be 
resisted  than  consciousness  or  animal  feeling.  It  is,  indeed,  the  same 
with  experience.  Every  Christian  knows,  from  his  own  experience* 


ADDENDA. 


200 

Christianity  is  divine.  Aavell  taught  and  a  well  practised  Christian— 
un  intelligent  and  obedient  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ, can  no  more  doubt 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  or  the  pretensions  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
holy  Apostles,  than  he  can  doubt  his  own  consciousness,  or  his  own 
feelings.  The  Christian  first  believes ,  and  then  knows  Christianity  to 
be  divine.  But  this  can  be  no  proof  to  a  sceptic,  nor  to  an  opponent. 
Why  then  urge  it?  True — I. cannot  prove  that  I  have  the  tooth-ache; 
nor  that  I  fear  or  love  any  person,  by  a  mere  declaration.  To  those 
only  who  believe  my  testimony  this  will  be  proof.  But  I  cannot  prove 
my  assertion,  if  it  can  only  be  done  by  giving  them  my  consciousness 
or  my  feelings.  They  may  say,  after  believing  my  testimony  con¬ 
cerning  the  tooth-ache,  that  I  am  deceived  and  mistaken,  though  they 
win  compliment  my  veracity.  So  they  may  say,  when  I  tell  them  I 
knoiv  Christianity  to  be  divine,  that,  no  doubt,  I  think  so,  but  they  think 
that  I  am  mistaken.  There  is  one  advantage,  however,  which  the 
Christian  can  have,  and  does  possess,  above  the  sceptfb  in  this  matter : 
The  sceptic  never  can  disprove,  even  to  his  own  satisfaction,  much 
less  to  any  other  person’s,  that  my  experience,  or  any  other  person’s, 
isjiot  what  it  purports  to  be.  He  can  never  say,  with  any  regard  to 
the  meaning  of  words,  that  he  has  experienced  Christianity  to  be  false. 
The  Christian  is  in  this,  as  well  as  in  every  other  respect,  greatly  ex¬ 
alted  above  him.  He  has  proved  that  Christianity  is  true  by  his  own 
experience;  and  the  sceptic  can  never,  by  his  experience,  prove  it  to 
be  false. 

But  still  it  will  be  asked,  Why  urge  this  argument,  when  it  cannot 
be  a  proof  to  sceptics  ?  This  is  only  in  part  true ;  for  Christianity  sub  - 
mits  itself  to  the  test;  it  challenges  every  man  to  prove  it  true  from 
his  own  experience.  This  can  be  better  illustrated  by  a  refer¬ 
ence  to  a  single  passage  in  the  Nsw  Testament  than  by  any  other 
means.  For  example:  Jesus  once  spoke,  saying — “Come  to  me  all 
you  that  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke 
upon  you,  and  learn  efme;  for  I  am  meek  and  condescending,  and 
you  shall  find  rest  to  your  souls;  for  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden 
is  light  ” 

Now,  if  a  physician  should  say  to  his  patient,  after  he  had  failed  to 
convince  him  by  argument,  Take  this  medicine,  sir,  and  you  will  as  ¬ 
suredly  find  ease  to  your  pain,  and  relief  to  your  disease.— Does  he  not 
submit  all  his  pretensions  to  the  test  of  experiment,  or  his  veracity  to 
the  experience  of  his  patient?  He  puts  it  in  the  power  of  his  patient  to 
prove,  from  his  own  experience,  that  all  his  pretensions  are  well  or  ill 
founded.  Thus  the  Saviour  of  the  world  submits  his  pretensions  to  all. 
Some  take  his  medicine  and  are  cured ;  others  ridicule  his  pretensions, 
reject  his  medicine,  and  die.  But  the  experience  of  one  cured  person, 
who  has  submitted  himself  to  his  guidance,  cannot  be  set  aside  by  all 
the  objections,  reasons,  and  arguments  of  all  the  sceptics  and  sophists 
on  earth. 

Tims  the  true  Christian  can  say,  I  know  and  am  assured  that  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  true  and  divine.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  millions  .who 
can  barely  read  the  holy  scriptures,,  who  cannot  debate  or  argue 


ADDENDA. 


301 


with  the  sceptic,  are, nevertheless,  unshaken  in  their  confidence,  when 
the  sceptic  has  shot  the  last  arrow  in  his  quiver  at  them.  I  believe,  I 
know,  and  am  sure,  says  the  genuine  Christian,  that  Jesus  is  the  Messi¬ 
ah,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,  the  Saviour  of  men.  Let  the  sceptics 
know,  then,  that  Jesus,  the  Lord,  has  put  in  their  power  to  prove,  by 
experience,  the  truth  of  all  that  he  taught  and  all  that  he  promised . 

We,  then,  who  submit  to  the  government  and  guidance  of  Jesus 
Christ,  have  all  these  advantages  over  the  sceptics:  We  have  reason, 
true  philosophy,  and  experience,  all  on  our  side.  We  enjoy  this  pres¬ 
ent  life  much  better  than  they  can  enjoy  it — for,  as  Paul  said,  “Godli¬ 
ness  is  profitable  for  all  things,  having  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is, 
and  of  the  life  which  is  to  come.”  Rich  or  poor,  noble  or  ignoble,  in 
the  world’s  reckoning,  we  can  always  eat  our  food  with  gladness,  sleep 
sweetly,  and  contemplate  nature  with  adoration.  The  consciousness 
that  we  have  the  eye  of  God  always  upon  us  and  his  arms  encircling 
us,  is  worth  infinitely  more  than  all  the  promises  of  all  the  atheists, 
deists,  sceptics,  and  free  thinkers  upon  earth.  On  their  philosophy, 
too,  we  have  nothing  to  fear.  We  are  happier  while  we  live — if  Chris¬ 
tians,  incomparably  happier — and  on  their  principles,  cannot  fail  to 
be  as  happy  as  they  after  death.  But,  on  our  principles  they  can  pro¬ 
mise  themselves  only  the  happiness  of  a  stall-fed  ox  here,  and  everlast¬ 
ing  destruction  hereafter.  This  is  a  fair  contrast  of  the  systems.  We 
have  the  present  and  the  future.  They  have  the  present  only  in  part, 
and  nothing  in  future,  but  utter  darkness  and  everlasting  night.  If 
immortality  be  worth  any  thing  it  is  worth  every  thing  which  imagi¬ 
nation  can  grasp.  This  is  the  boot  between  the  two  systems.  Animal 
gratifications  and  death.  Jesus  Christ  and  immortality.  The  mate¬ 
rialist  will  choose  the  former.  But  the  rational  philosopher  and  the 
man  of  common  sense  will  choose  the  latter. 

END  OF  VOL.  II. 


ERRATA - VOL.  I. 

Title  page,  line  17,  for  ‘ Charles  II  Sims ,  Stenographer,*  read  Charles  II. 
Simms ,  Esquire;  lie  being,  by  profession,  Barrister — not  Stenographer.  Page 
26,  line  35,  for  “this,’  read  thus.  Page  47,  line  14,  for  ‘ego,’  read  ergo.. 
P.54,  1.  35,  for  ‘ man  is,’  read  men  are.  P.  64,  1.  34,  for  ‘oldest,’  read  ablest. 
Page  81,  line  18,  for  ‘or,*  read  nor.  P.  83,  1.  27,  for  ‘their  ’  read  its.  P.  93, 
line  20,  for  ‘far  as  to’  read  far  to.  P.  106,  line  34,  before  ‘fad,’  supply  first. 
P.  115,  line  1,  for  ‘this  -war,’  read  thus  tear.  Page  139,  line  31,  for  ‘shape,* 
read  odor.  P.  147, 1.  5  before  ‘to  hide,*  supply  not.  P.  200,  1.  40,  for  ‘believes,* 
read  believers.  Page  220,  last  line,  for  ‘ objecting ,’  read  referring.  P.  230,  1.  44, 
after  ‘feeling,’  read,  or  rational  and  ennobling  sentiment;  leaving  out  the  rest  of 
the  sentence,  as  an  unmeaning  interpolation  of  Mr.  Simms*  autograph. 

ERRATA - VOL  II. 

Page  17,  line  1,  for  ‘infant,’  read  infants.  Page  40,  line  10,  for  ‘at’  read  if. 
Page  45,  line  7,  for  ‘Jews,’  read  Jesus.  Page  100,  line  39,  for  ‘he,’  read  the . 
Page  171,  line  41,  for  ‘influenced,’  read  influence.  Page  101,  line  45; 
for  ‘ arguments ,*  read  agreements.  Page  113,  line  35,  for  ‘enjoyed,’  read 
enjoined.  Page  132.  line  4,  for  ‘become,*  read  became.  Page  146,  line  6,  fpr 
‘laid,’  read  lain.  Page  171,  line  4,  for  ‘they,’  read  he.  Ditto,  line  47,  for 
‘will  not  be  *  read  will  be.  Page  181,  line  5,  for  ‘laid,’  read  lain.  Page  201, 
for  ‘C.  H.  Symmes,*  read  Charles  Howard  Simms.  Page  270,  line  18,  for 
‘  wisdom  of  God,’  read  power  of  God. 

vol,  ii f  26 


PROPOSALS, 

BT 

ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL, 

FOR  PUBLISHING  BY  SUBSCRIPTION.  fl 

A  MONTHLY  PAPER, 


TO  BE  DENOMINATED 


PROSPECTUS. 

THIS  work  shall  be  devoted  to  the  destruction  of  sectarianism,  infidelity, 
and  antichristian  doctrine  and  practice.  It  shall  have  for  its  object  the  develope- 
ment  and  introduction  of  that  political  and  religious  order  of  society  called  the 
millennium,  which  will  be  the  consummation  of  that  amelioration  of  society 
proposed  in  the  Christian  scriptures. 

Subservient  to  this  most  comprehensive  object,  the  following  subjects  shall 
be  attended  to: — 

1.  The  incompatibility  of  any  sectarian  establishment,  now  known  on  earth, 
with  the  genius  of  the  glorious  age  to  come. 

2.  The  inadequacy  of  all  the  present  systems  of  education,  literary  and  moral, 
to  deveiope  the  powers  of  the  human  mind,  and  to  prepare  man  for  rational 
and  social  happiness. 

3.  The  disentanglement  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  from  the  perplexities  of  the 
commentators  and  system-makers  of  the  dark  ages.  This  will  call  for  the 
analysis  of  several  books  in  the  New  Testament,  and  many  disquisitions  upon 
the  appropriated  sense  of  the  leading  terms  and  phrases  in  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  in  religious  systems. 

4.  The  injustice  which  yet  remains  in  many  of  the  political  regulations  under 
the  best  political  governments,  when  contrasted  with  the  justice  which  Christiani¬ 
ty  proposes,  and  which  the  millennial  order  of  society  promises. 

5.  Disquisitions  upon  the  treatment  of  African  slaves,  as  preparatory  to  their 
emancipation,  and  exaltation  from  their  present  degraded  condition. 

6.  General  religious  news,  or  regular  details  of  the  movements  of  the  religious 
combinations,  acting  under  the  influence  of  the  proselyting  spirit  of  the  age. 

7.  Occasional  notices  of  religious  publications,  including  reviews  of  new 
works,  bearing  upon  any  of  the  topics  within  our  precincts. 

8.  Answers  to  interesting  queries  of  general  utility,  and  notices  of  all  things 
of  universal  interest  to  all  engaged  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Ancient  Gospel, 
and  the  Restoration  of  the  Ancient  Order  of  Things. 

9.  Miscellanea,  or  religious,  moral,  and  literary  varieties. 

Much  of  the  useful  learning  which  has  been  sanctified  to  the  elucidation  of 
those  interesting  and  sublime  topics  of  Christian  expectation,  will,  we  intend,  be 
gleaned  from  the  Christian  labors  of  those  distinguished  men  of  liberal  minds, 
who  are  ranked  among  the  most  renowned  fathers  of  Christian  literature;  and 
much  aid  is  expected  from  a  few  of  the  more  enlightened  brethren  of  our  own 
time,  who  are  fellow-laborers  and  pioneers  in  hastening  this  wished-for  period. 
Xt  is  intended  to  give  every  family  into  which  this  work  shall  come,  so  much  of 
the  religious  nows  of  the  day,  and  such  a  variety  of  information  on  all  the  topics 
submitted,  as  to  make  it  a  work  of  much  interest  to  the  young  and  inquisitive. 


The  indulgence  and  patronage  which  have  been  extended  to  me  as  editor  of 
the  Christian  Baptist ,  embolden  me  to  attempt  a  work  of  still  greater  magnitude, 
expecting  that  if  that  work,  written,  as  the  greater  part  of  it  was,  under  very- 
disadvantageous  circumstances,  and  while  my  attention  was  divided  between 
other  works  and  a  multiplicity  of  other  business,  obtained  so  general  a  circula¬ 
tion,  and  was  so  well  received — a  work  to  which  a  much  larger  portion  of  my 
energies  shall  be  devoted,  will  not  fail  of  obtaining,  at  least,  an  equal  patronage, 
and  of  proving  proportionably  more  useful,  as  the  range  will  be  so  much  greater, 
and  the  object  one  in  which  all  Christians,  of  every  name,  must  feel  interested; 
and,  especially,  as  there  is  not  perhaps,  in  the  Christian  world,  any  work  publish¬ 
ed  with  the  same  design,  and  embracing  the  same  outlines. 


CONDITIONS 


^Having  purchased  a  large  fount  of  beautiful  new  type,  of  a  good  medium  size, 
and  a  first-rate  new  printing  press,  we  may  promise  a  beautiful  impression,  on 
good  paper. 

1.  Each  number  shall  contain  48  pages  large  duodecimo,  equal  to  a  medium 
octavo,  or  equal  in  superficies  to  more  than  63  pages  of  the  Christian  Baptist. 
Being  printed  on  super-royal  paper,  it  will  cost  to  the  subscribers  only  twice  as 
much  postage  as  the  Christian  Baptist,  though  containing  more  than  twice  and  a 
half  times  as  much  matter.  With  a  good  index,  it  will  make  a  volume  of  600 
pages  per  annum. 

2.  It  shall  be  published  on  the  first  Monday  of  every  month — the  first  number 
to  be  issued  on  the  first  Monday  of  January,  1830.  Each  number  shall  be  stitch¬ 
ed  in  a  good  cover;  and  all  numbers  failing  to  reach  their  destination  shall  be 
made  good  at  the  expense  of  the  editor. 

3.  It  shall  cost,  exclusive  of  postage.  Two  Dollars  and  Fifty  Cents  per  annum, 
to  all  who  do  not  pay  until  the  close  of  the  year,  but  to  those  who  pay  in  ad¬ 
vance,  or  within  six  months  after  subscribing.  Two  Dollars  will  be  accepted. 

4.  Postmasters,  who  act  as  agents,  shall  have  ten  per  cent,  for  obtaining 
subscribers,  and  for  collecting,  and  remitting  the  amouut  of  their  subscriptions. 

5.  All  other  persons,  who  obtain  and  pay  for  five  subscribers,  within  six 
months  from  subscribing,  shall  have  one  copy  gratis.  But  to  those  who  do  not 
guarantee  and  pay  within  that  period,  ten  per  cent,  on  all  the  subscribers,  for 
whom  the}'-  make  payment,  shall  be  allowed. 

6.  Persons  who  subscribe  at  any  time  within  the  year,  will  be  furnished  with 
the  volume  from  the  commencement.  And  no  person,  unless  at  the  discretion 
of  the  editor,  shall  be  permitted  to  withdraw  until  arrearages  are  paid. 

7.  All  who  do  not  notify  their  discontinuance  to  our  agents  in  such  time  that 
we  may  be  informed  a  month  before  the  close  of  each  volume,  will  be  consider¬ 
ed  as  subscribers  for  the  next  volume. 

N.  B.  Let  all  subscribers  be  careful  to  name  the  post-office  to  which  they 
wish  their  papers  sent. 

Bethant,  Brooke  county,  Va.  1829. 


Date  Due 
— 


3 


(00)0  I  1 


HX 

(cU 
,0  ? 
/Ml 


Boston  College  Library 

Chestnut  Hill  67,  Mass. 

Books  may  be  kept  for  two  weeks  unless  a 
shorter  period  is  specified. 

If  you  cannot  find  what  you  want,  inquire  at 
the  circulation  desk  for  assistance. 


